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.

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A Dreamer, A Photographer, and a Funny Face - Welcome to the Blog

Hi there, everyone, and welcome to Musical Dreams, my home for my musical movie reviews! I've loved musical film all of my life. One of the first movies my mother took my sister and me to see in the theater was the 1983 version of Annie with Carol Burnett. When I went looking for movie blogs online, I found tons of general movie reviews sites, and sites that specialized in other genres, like horror or sci-fi, but none for musical film. I'd like to fill that gap.

I'll post every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday with a review of a musical.You'll find all kinds of musicals here. Old musicals from as far back as the dawn of sound in film. The latest movie musicals just out of the theater. Animated musicals, originals, and musicals based on stage shows. Musicals that were hits, musicals that flopped, and musicals that are now considered to be "cult" oddities. I may even review the occasional television musical.

So slip into your dancing shoes and warm up your vocal chords, because we're going to explore the wide world of musicals, in all their forms, fantasies, and foliables.

And speaking of fantasy, that brings us to our first review...

Funny Face
Paramount, 1957
Directed by Stanley Donen

The Story: Jo Stockton (Audrey Hepburn) is shocked when Quality Magazine invades her quiet Greenwich Village bookshop, looking for an intellectual backdrop that'll make their models appear more intelligent. She's more interested in philosophy than fashion and sees them as shallow. They finally shut her out...but Dick Avery, the photographer (Fred Astaire), sees a spirit and freshness in her that their other models lack. He convinces her to come to Paris for a big shoot. She's only interested in meeting her idol in "empathicalism," Professor Flostre (Michel Auclair), and hanging out at the local cafes with other radicals.

As Dick takes her from landmark to landmark, she becomes more self-assured, even giving him suggestions for the final shot. She and Dick seem to be enjoying one another's company and the fruits of their work...until she learns that Flostre's giving a lecture the night of an important gala event. She's late for the event and argues with Dick, then leaves when their fighting turns the gala into a disaster. He and Maggie Prescott (Kay Thompson), the editor of Quality, go to Flostre's in search of her. Flostre, however, is not as noble as Jo believes him...and Dick may understand empathy a little more than she thinks.

The Song and Dance: This is partly what we today would call a "jukebox" musical, in this case for George and Ira Gershwin. Four of the songs were taken from their original 1927 Broadway Funny Face, but absolutely nothing else. (Including the remaining three songs, which were written by musical arranger Roger Edens.) Audrey Hepburn uses her own voice here, and while no opera diva, she sounds just fine, especially pairing with the equally imperfect but ageless Astaire on "He Loves and She Loves." It's also a joy to see Thompson, who was usually a musical arranger for MGM and today may be best-known as the author of the Eloise children's books.

Favorite Number: As someone who has always loved color, my favorite part of it may be how it's used to contrast the bright world of fashion with the dressed-down, drab world of the philosophers and beatniks. "How Long Has This Been Going On," with Hepburn swirling around the monochromatic book store in a brilliant green and yellow picture hat, is a prime example. "Clap 'Yo Hands," with Astaire and Thompson doing a wacky gospel spoof in a smoke-filled cafe while wearing the only colors in the place, is another. Hepburn gets to show off her early ballet training in a trio with two fellow philosophers in a smoky cafe.

What I Didn't Like: The parody of philosophy and what most would now call "hipsters" comes off as a bit dated today. While I find that the similarities in Astaire and Hepburn's airy personas transcends any age limitations, some may find the pairing of the 58-year-old dancer and the 20-something starlet to be a bit creepy.

The Big Finale: If you're a fan of Astaire, Hepburn, the Gershwins, Donen, or fabulous 50's fashion, this is one of the best non-MGM movie musicals of the 50's, with some lovely dance numbers an a few iconic Hepburn shots. Highly recommended.