My Fair Lady (1964)
My Fair Lady (1964)
1964’s My Fair Lady is one joyful musical and that may be too negative of a description. It certainly deserves all the accolades it received in 1964-1965 and even today. It’s a magical, romantic movie about how opposites attract. It’s very weird to call this movie a romance because of the actions that take place in the film. There are no kisses, no wooing, none of that fancy stuff…..but undeniably, love is in the air. The songs are enchanting and the performances from Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn are nothing short of fantastic. Sure, modernists may raise some issues about Harrison’s treatment of Hepburn’s character, but this is how it was back during these times. Even so, there are some creative lines of dialogue that makes Harrison’s character a bit more sympathetic.
Many of you may not know this, but this film has some Greek story behind these words and songs. Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Lowe adapted this story from the 1912 film, Pygmalion. That film had a story that started as a Greek legend and retold in every era, all the way until the present 1964 feature. The music these gentlemen created for the movie are memorable in their own way. Two songs stand out. “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” which is about the dreams of Eliza (played by Hepburn) and the one song that everyone knows, “The Rain in Spain…” which is a triumphal duet between the main characters.
The movie also had an expert director overseeing the movie. This director is none other than George Cukor. He made this film vibrant and dazzling as he possibly could have. The colors will catch your eye, and the beauty of the set design would want you to embrace this world with your own imagination. I also loved the costumes. When we see Eliza portrayed as an upper-class woman for the first time, my mind was absolutely blown away. Her dress is magnificent!
The premise of the movie is actually quite simple. Professor Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) is a misanthrope which essentially means he dislikes everyone and everything! But the biggest thing (or person) that gets on his nerve is the dirty, cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn). He despises the way she speaks and the way she mispronounces words, in his harsh opinion. He takes a bet from his good friend Colonel Hugh Pickering (Wilford Hyde-White). This bet forces the Professor to try and turn Eliza into a lady. If he succeeds, what will high society think of her? Will Higgins be less disdainful?
The performances from both Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn are magical. Their characters are complete opposites yet they both have wonderful chemistry together. Despite their strong performances, it does take some time to get used to them. You may be familiar with Rex Harrison from the original Doctor Dolittle film and he is a great actor, but it is kind of hard to get behind such a selfish character at first. Audrey Hepburn is beautiful, but one can admit her original Cockney accent is a little irritable. But the performances from these two were able to wash away any concerns I had. I also thought Wilford Hyde-White provided some witty banter and also Gladys Cooper as Higgin’s mother also delivers a great performance.
There is some good trivia associated with the movie and the biggest trivia fact is that Audrey Hepburn does not do her own singing except during a small reprise. Her voice was not deemed good enough for the film so there was a stand-in who did all the singing. That said, the music is great. The songs are cheerful, melodic, and extremely memorable.
I am not a linguist (even though I studied basic linguistics) and I know teaching accents/vocabulary is not something that happens overnight, so be prepared to bring some imagination into the film. This is an old-school musical about love-and one that is not even seen in Hollywood these days. In fact, the political spectrum (involving Stanley Holloway as Eliza’s poor father) would have been cut. Admittedly, I did find myself charmed with the politics.
If you like musicals, bright and colorful films, long films, or all of the above, then The Fair Lady is the film for you. It may not be to everyone’s taste, but it certainly gave me something to remember!
My Grade: A-
1964’s My Fair Lady is one joyful musical and that may be too negative of a description. It certainly deserves all the accolades it received in 1964-1965 and even today. It’s a magical, romantic movie about how opposites attract. It’s very weird to call this movie a romance because of the actions that take place in the film. There are no kisses, no wooing, none of that fancy stuff…..but undeniably, love is in the air. The songs are enchanting and the performances from Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn are nothing short of fantastic. Sure, modernists may raise some issues about Harrison’s treatment of Hepburn’s character, but this is how it was back during these times. Even so, there are some creative lines of dialogue that makes Harrison’s character a bit more sympathetic.
Many of you may not know this, but this film has some Greek story behind these words and songs. Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Lowe adapted this story from the 1912 film, Pygmalion. That film had a story that started as a Greek legend and retold in every era, all the way until the present 1964 feature. The music these gentlemen created for the movie are memorable in their own way. Two songs stand out. “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” which is about the dreams of Eliza (played by Hepburn) and the one song that everyone knows, “The Rain in Spain…” which is a triumphal duet between the main characters.
The movie also had an expert director overseeing the movie. This director is none other than George Cukor. He made this film vibrant and dazzling as he possibly could have. The colors will catch your eye, and the beauty of the set design would want you to embrace this world with your own imagination. I also loved the costumes. When we see Eliza portrayed as an upper-class woman for the first time, my mind was absolutely blown away. Her dress is magnificent!
The premise of the movie is actually quite simple. Professor Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) is a misanthrope which essentially means he dislikes everyone and everything! But the biggest thing (or person) that gets on his nerve is the dirty, cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn). He despises the way she speaks and the way she mispronounces words, in his harsh opinion. He takes a bet from his good friend Colonel Hugh Pickering (Wilford Hyde-White). This bet forces the Professor to try and turn Eliza into a lady. If he succeeds, what will high society think of her? Will Higgins be less disdainful?
The performances from both Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn are magical. Their characters are complete opposites yet they both have wonderful chemistry together. Despite their strong performances, it does take some time to get used to them. You may be familiar with Rex Harrison from the original Doctor Dolittle film and he is a great actor, but it is kind of hard to get behind such a selfish character at first. Audrey Hepburn is beautiful, but one can admit her original Cockney accent is a little irritable. But the performances from these two were able to wash away any concerns I had. I also thought Wilford Hyde-White provided some witty banter and also Gladys Cooper as Higgin’s mother also delivers a great performance.
There is some good trivia associated with the movie and the biggest trivia fact is that Audrey Hepburn does not do her own singing except during a small reprise. Her voice was not deemed good enough for the film so there was a stand-in who did all the singing. That said, the music is great. The songs are cheerful, melodic, and extremely memorable.
I am not a linguist (even though I studied basic linguistics) and I know teaching accents/vocabulary is not something that happens overnight, so be prepared to bring some imagination into the film. This is an old-school musical about love-and one that is not even seen in Hollywood these days. In fact, the political spectrum (involving Stanley Holloway as Eliza’s poor father) would have been cut. Admittedly, I did find myself charmed with the politics.
If you like musicals, bright and colorful films, long films, or all of the above, then The Fair Lady is the film for you. It may not be to everyone’s taste, but it certainly gave me something to remember!
My Grade: A-
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