Anna and the King
1999
Despite loving another man, a young woman is talked into marrying a wealthy and boorish prince in order to help her financially-strapped father.
Walter Lang
Tony Gage
Annie Holt
Jerome Cedric
Bill Holt
Dick
Grandma Holt
8/7/2025
7/10
“Annie” (Carole Lombard) is the spoilt gal used to delaying ocean liners and swapping her baubles at dinner. It’s on that very boat, that she encounters “Tony” (Lyle Talbot) who proves completely impervious to her charms and that just makes her even more determined to get her man. Meantime, she gets home to her family where, unbeknownst to her, her banker father (Walter Connolly) is in a bit of a bind. The family wealth comes from her grandfather (Sir C. Aubrey Smith) and he will only help out if she agrees to marry an European prince. She loves her man, she loves her father, her grandad only loves himself and his dynastic plans. What will she do? I like Lombard. She always managed to exude a strength of character, usually disguised amidst some ditziness and flamboyance and here’s there quite a bit of defiance too. Talbot does fine as her onboard foil, Connolly likewise as her out-of-his-depth dad and there are also a punchy series of contributions from Louise Closser Hale as the cocktail-loving grandmother. The ending is really quite fitting, but not in the way you might expect and with some really quite lively writing throughout, it’s a good watch.
1999
1958
1968
1990
2006
1988
2006
2001
1955
1980
1998
1982
1962
1930
1974
2001
1932
2001
2001
1930
