My Fair Lady

Warner Bros/CBS, 1964
Starring Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway, and Wilfred Hyde-White
Directed by George Cukor
Music by Fredrick Loewe, Lyrics by Alan Lerner

We kick off October with another Cinderella story, one of the most famous in musical theater. My Fair Lady was the major stage blockbuster of the 1950's, the equivalent of Hamilton and Wicked now, and the movie was an even bigger hit. Does this epic tale of a bachelor professor and the flower seller he tutors in language still resonate? Let's find out...

The Story: Confirmed bachelor Professor Henry Higgins (Harrison) makes a bet with his friend Colonel Pickering (Hyde-White) that he can't tutor Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Hepburn) in linguistics. He wants to make her sound so much like a lady, he'll be able to pass her off as one at an Embassy Ball. Eliza turns him down at first, but she's ultimately intrigued and finally agrees to the experiment. Henry puts her through her paces, basically bullying her into learning. She doesn't do well, until one late night where he gives her a little bit of encouragement. They take her to the Ascot races to practice. She makes a social faux pas, but she also makes an impression on handsome young Freddy (Jeremy Brett), who keeps following her. Even after she's a sensation at the ball, Higgins continues to treat Eliza like dirt. She finally walks out, trying to figure out what to do with herself and wondering what world she really belongs in. Henry, for his part, thinks he can live without her, but learns just how accustomed to his face he is when she turns up at his mother's (Gladys Cooper) house and says she wants to strike out on her own.

The Song and Dance: Harrison, Holloway, and Hyde-White all reprise their roles from Broadway. This is pretty much Harrison's signature role, and he tears into it, especially during his talk-singing numbers about how little respect he has for the opposite sex. Cooper is equally wonderful as his strong-willed mother. Holloway has fun as Eliza's dustman father Alfie, who goes to Higgins to try to bribe him and ends up inheriting money from an American speaker. Hepburn is simply luminous as the transformed Eliza in the second half of the film. She really does look like the duchess Higgins is trying to pass her off as. The stately art direction and period-accurate costumes won Oscars; the film itself won Best Picture, and Harrison won Best Actor.

Some people have problems with the ending, but it's actually one of my favorite things about the musical. I like that it's ambiguous. Most people would have more decisively thrown Henry and Eliza together, but this allows the viewers to come to their own conclusions.

Favorite Number: My favorite song from My Fair Lady has always been "Wouldn't It Be Loverly," as Eliza describes the simple life she imagines to her street buddies. Holloway has two of the best songs in the show, the music hall-style ditties "Wit' a Little Bit of Luck" and "Get Me to the Church On Time" (the latter the show's solo large-scale dance number). Harrison's best number is the finale. "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" shows just how much this bachelor has softened to his charge. He, Hyde-White, and Hepburn are a delight in the impromptu dance routine for "The Rain In Spain." Like Hepburn, Brett was dubbed, but he still looks pretty good singing this show's biggest standard, "On the Street Where You Live."

Trivia: Julie Andrews won much applause playing Eliza on Broadway. Jack L. Warner, who was producing the movie, didn't think she was a big enough star for the film. She ended up in Mary Poppins instead...and took home the Best Actress Oscar over Hepburn.

Folks who grew up in the 80's like me may have fond memories of an older Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes in the 1984 British TV series.

What I Don't Like: A lot of this story hasn't dated well. Henry comes off less like a jerk with a heart of gold today, and more like...well, a jerk. His bullying Eliza and treating her like the dirt under his fingernails can be grating, even if Eliza does give him some comeuppance later by running off. Many audiences are more likely to sympathize with Eliza when she's upset after the Embassy Ball than with Henry's egotism and inability to acknowledge her part in the project. Not to mention, Freddy's constantly following her around can look like stalking. Hepburn herself does better as the transformed Eliza in the second half; no amount of dirt, rags, and colorful hats can make this goddess into a guttersnipe.

The movie looks beautiful, but it runs for much too long (almost three hours), and it moves like a block of lead. Other than "The Rain In Spain" and Holloway's two music hall routines, there's very little dancing. Not surprisingly in a movie about the importance of speech and how one speaks, the emphasis is on the dialogue and vocal songs. It's also a bit on the stagy side. They recreated the Broadway show a little too well. Despite it winning for Cinematography, it feels more like a filmed play than an actual movie. There's also the whole deal with Hepburn and Brett being dubbed; it sounds fine, but many people wish they'd gone more natural (or found performers who could sing).

The Big Finale: Tough call on this one. The problematic plot is offset by splendid performances (especially from Harrison, Hepburn, and Holloway), stunning costumes and sets, and some of  Lerner and Loewe's best songs. If you can deal with Higgins and Cukor's stagy direction, I'd say this is worth a look.

Home Media: If there's one thing I love about discs and streaming, it's that they allow for the viewing of an extra-long movie like this with no interruption (or need to change tapes, as would have happened in the days of VHS). The movie's popularity makes it easy to find on most formats, often for under 10 dollars.

DVD
Blu-Ray
Amazon Prime