Russian-born American actor Yul Brynner (1920-1985) may have mostly (in my mind) done a lot of westerns, but he’s been in some key frock flicks: The King and I! Anastasia! The Ten Commandments! Being mixed race (Swiss-German, Russian, and Buryat [Mongol]), he was also often cast in the “ethnic Other” role — sometimes well, sometimes cringey. Let’s take a look!
King Mongkut of Siam in The King and I (1956)
The pivotal role for me and probably many! He played King Mongkut of Siam (1804-68) in this problematic but still fabulous musical that’s based on a true story, in which a British woman moves to Siam (now Thailand) to become schoolteacher to the king’s children. He won an Oscar for this role.
Rameses in The Ten Commandments (1956)
Brynner played Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II (c. 1303 – 1213 BCE) in this Biblical story about Moses.
General Sergei Pavlovich Bounine in Anastasia (1956)
Bounine appears to be a fictional character in this romanticized take on the story of Grand Duchess Anastasia (1901-18) and Anna Anderson (1896-1984) set in the late 1920s and continuing forward for at least several years, if not into the 1930s.
Dmitri Karamazov in The Brothers Karamazov (1958)
An adaptation of a Dostoevsky novel, which is “passionate philosophical novel that discusses questions of God, free will, and morality” (Wikipedia) and whose plot summary made my eyes glaze over. Set in the late 19th century (1870s-80s?).
Jean Lafitte in The Buccaneer (1958)
A heavily fictionalized story of real-life pirate Jean Lafitte and his role in the Battle of New Orleans (1815).
Solomon in Solomon and Sheba (1959)
More biblical! More bad hair!
(uncredited) in Testament of Orpheus (1960)
An artsy Jean Cocteau film set in the 18th century.
Chris Larabee Adams in The Magnificent Seven (1960)
One of MANY westerns, this one is a remake of a Japanese film (Akira Kurosawa’s 1954Â Seven Samurai) in which seven gunmen protect a small Mexican village from marauders. Set sometime in the mid- to late-19th century?
Taras Bulba in Taras Bulba (1962)
He plays a Cossack (“a predominantly East Slavic Orthodox Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia” -Wikipedia) colonel in this adaptation of a novel set in the 16th century.
Chief Black Eagle in Kings of the Sun (1963)
A film set in the 12th or 13th century, in which a group of Mayas lose a war and so relocate to the American Gulf Coast region (so Texas/Mississippi?) and encounter a local indigenous tribe headed by Brynner’s character.
Jules Gaspard d’Estaing in Invitation to a Gunfighter (1964)
More Western! “A lone Creole gunfighter, Jules [Brynner], burdened by his own past of dealing with racism and prejudices, ends up in a town dealing with its own racist and hypocritical ignominies” (Wikipedia), which actually sounds interesting. Set post-Civil War, so late 1860s or 1870s?
Chris in Return of the Seven (1966)
The first of two sequels of The Magnificent Seven.
Sultan in The Long Duel (1967)
An adventure film set in 1920s India.
Pancho Villa in Villa Rides (1968)
Pancho Villa was a Mexican revolutionary in the 1910s. This film is set just before Villa’s capture of Mexico City in 1914.
Indio Black in Adiós, Sabata (1970)
Yet more Western! A Spaghetti Western set in 1860s Mexico.
Kongre in The Light at the Edge of the World (1971)
An adaptation of a 1905 Jules Verne novel involving piracy.
Captain Stoloff in Romance of a Horsethief (1971)
An adaptation of a 1917 novel set in Polish Russia involving love and horse thieving.
Catlow in Catlow (1971)
The Westerns keep coming! An adaptation of a Louis L’Amour novel with Brynner “as a renegade outlaw determined to pull off a Confederate gold heist” (Wikipedia) and co-starring Leonard Nimoy.
Uncle Patra in Anna and the King (1972)
Bringing things full circle in a TV adaptation of The King and I!
What’s your favorite of Yul Brynner’s frock flick roles?
The man, the dome, the legend, etcetera etcetera etcetera!
But oh so gorgeous…when not wearing a wig!
The man had presence and charisma to rival anyone in Hollywood. I didn’t know about at least half of these movies, so thank you for this! Interestingly, it looks like Anna’s costumes in Anna and the King are retreads of Irene Sharaff’s designs for the ball gown and striped day dress from The King and I.
Back in 1978, I got to see Brynner on Broadway in a revival of The King and I. At more than 25 years older than his debut in the role, he truly embodied the weariness of the lifetime monarch trying to bring his nation into the Western world. I sobbed when he died at the end. It is the best thing I have ever seen on stage.
Regarding the costumes in The Ten Commandments: It’s been a very long time since I studied ancient near Eastern religions in college, but I have always remembered the little rearing cobra that adorned the crowns of many Pharaohs; part of the regalia over century. It’s called the ‘Uraeus’. In The Ten Commandments, both Seti and Ramses wear it, as seen in these photos. The question is, why is Moses wearing it in the photo where he is showing the pyramid (not seen in the photo) to the seated Ramses? (in that photo, I believe that Moses’ headgear is the ‘khepresh’, the ‘blue crown’ or ‘war crown’ of a pharaoh, though I don’t know if the khepresh had a metal band around it). I think that the crown Seti wears in the photo where he is sitting and Moses is showing the pyramid is the ‘hedjet’, the white crown of Upper Egypt.
I am not an expert on the crowns; all the others seem to be fairly realistic examples of various crowns worn by pharaohs of various times. I definitely remember the Uraeus.
Another part of pharaonic regalia was the false beard, which neither Seti nor Ramses ever wear, as far as I remember, in The Ten Commandments (at least in this production, which, for my money, is the only one that counts, though the Disney animated version is enjoyable).
“Okay so are those glass balls??!!”
Maybe “pool of light” crystals– either real or simulated? Did those come to the West from Asia during the Victorian era?
Also, FWIW– while Jean Cocteau’s THE TESTAMENT OF ORPHEUS presents Cocteau as an 18th century poet who travels through time and space towards immortality (or something), after an initial scene in period costume, everyone’s in modern dress (except for “mythological” characters in theatrical getups– and cartoonish “googly eyes” pasted on Cocteau and a couple of others).
Not for nothing, Cocteau’s full original title translates as THE TESTAMENT OF ORPHEUS, OR: DON’T ASK ME WHY!
Levi’s started making denim jeans in 1873, so I am going to give The Magnificent Seven a pass.
“The Seven Samurai” has my undying love – such a masterpiece! To my mind it can’t truly be matched, but despite that I’m extremely fond of “The Magnificent Seven” (great actors, good directing, fantastic music!), so I’ll vote for that one as my favorite on this list.
The promo photo featuring Brynner and Rosenda Monteros is kinda crazy, though – it makes it look like they’re a couple, when in fact I don’t think his character says more than two words to her through the entire film and she’s actually someone else’s romantic interest! X)
In regard to the Egyptian costumes, I am by no means an expert, but from my research of ancient Egypt (for a novel I was working on) they don’t look half bad. Women apparently wore various sheath-style dresses (similar to the dark dress in the first photo) and upper class women tended to wear clothing made from very fine, see-through linen (it looks like they attempted to recreate that effect with the white dress in the second photo, since you can see her skin through the material). Although I have read that the way clothing was depicted in ancient art isn’t necessarily accurate to what people actually wore: Egyptian art was highly symbolic, after all. So maybe it is more authentic than we know.