My Fair Lady (1964)

My Fair Lady is the film adaptation of the stage play by the same name which is an adaptation of the book, Pygmalion.  A lot of adaptations!  This is the story of the low class flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, who is begrudgingly taken in by a snobby phonetics professor.  He spends the movie striving to make her as respectable as a duchess.  

AAAAAOOOOOOWWWWW!!! I'm a good girl I am!!! -  Well that summed up the first half hour of the movie.  Well, mostly kidding.  Audrey Hepburn's performance as a street urchin is very obnoxious yet so charming.  I have a hard time with this movie. I really like it but I'm so sad that a lot of Hepburn's singing was dubbed over by the same gal who sang Maria's part in West Side Story.  Once you know it's the same voice, you just hear Maria in the part.  It's very strange.  Hepburn sings some of her stuff and it's so sad because she didn't know they were planning to dub her voice.  Her beau in the movie, Freddy, his voice is dubbed too by Prince Philip from Sleeping Beauty (which only makes me swoon a little).  He sings the lovely "On the street where you live."  My favorite part is Eliza's silly drunk father who sings "I'm getting married in the morning." He kinda flits between bars AND women trying to get money for his next glass of whiskey.  He's such a gem.  All in all, just a delightful movie. 

After the mild disappointment of the similar Gigi, My Fair Lady is a return to form of the musicals of the previous decade and features many more memorable songs and performances. It’s endlessly charming watching Audrey Hepburn struggle with her words and sounds as Rex Harrison makes fun of her incessantly. In fact, if this film has a major weakness, it’s that the story loses some of its charm and humor after Eliza becomes “civilized.” Much like Breakfast at Tiffany’s also starring Hepburn, this version deviates from its source material significantly at the end when Eliza forges a “truce” with Higgins instead of leaving him on his pompous ass. At least there is a nod to that in a great scene near the end when Doolittle stands her ground and asserts that she can live without him; nicer clothes and better phonetics were all that had changed for her heart was good when she was just a lowly flower girl and it was Higgins that needed her help in that respect. All in all a good film but one that is not quite a top-tier musical for me. Check out our next post for an example of a musical that is truly top tier. 

Rex Harrison was very disappointed when Audrey Hepburn was cast as Eliza, since he felt she was badly miscast and he had hoped to work with Julie Andrews. He told an interviewer, "Eliza Doolittle is supposed to be ill at ease in European ballrooms. Bloody Audrey has never spent a day in her life out of European ballrooms." Nevertheless, Harrison was once later asked to identify his favorite leading lady. Without hesitation, he replied, "Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady." 

Eliza Doolittle: Come on, Dover, move yer bloomin' arse!