Review of My Fair Lady (1964) by Liam C — 01 May 2015

This film isn't as mean as its concept may make it out to be, this film always seemed to be on at Christmas time whilst I was growing up and while I watched it with my family a number of times I never really saw the whole thing. You read about its concept and it does sound frightfully mean, like Henry Higgins forced Eliza to act differently, when indeed the opposite is true. He does randomly say that he could change her in 6 months and while at that point it did seem rather odd to say that, it was an offhand remark as he wasn't even serious about it. However, it is Eliza that actually confronts Henry and takes him up on his offer, and while she doesn't really agree to what Higgins has offered, with Mrs. Pearce taking her up the stairs, she could have left any time she wanted to, as Higgins constantly reminds her.

I also find the character of Henry Higgins to not be a misogynist but that of a misanthrope, I thought this after the film but reading someone else's review that agreed with this sentiment, it is nice to know that I'm not alone. True, he might seem cruel to Eliza the most but that is just because he is spending most of his time with her, as the film's concept clearly suggests. His dialogue, while being hugely memorable, is also self parody, he talks about how a woman should act but everything he sings about is everything he has done, he says that if he would be with a woman he would end up being selfish and tyrannical but that is what he is anyway. He has a song about being nice but even that isn't what one might associate with being nice. At one point Eliza thinks he is about to hit her but I didn't see it that way; he just very abruptly took the ring back. I did find myself agreeing with his sentiments about staying alone though, not for the reasons about the women but just to be alone and philosophise. In Eliza's song about Henry, even though it is all in her head, I did find it playful the way Henry reacted to being shot and it is all in good fun. He even says at one point that he treats everyone the same way, and we see that right from the first song and he even yells for his mother at the end, it's not like his dialogue is about women being in the kitchen or anything!

1964 was certainly a good year for films and while the competition certainly was high; this does have the feel of a big Oscar winner. I really enjoyed the acting in this film, Rex Harrison, who could probably do this in his sleep at this point, was a great lead and did an excellent job and he really did carry things well, he had a great introduction and I found him quite funny as well and it is surprising to see that he didn't win the BAFTA. His first song is a perfect introduction to his character even if it might seem mean for him to do what he does. Audrey Hepburn was fantastic and as cute as ever, but with the fact that she was unfairly judged because she wasn't Andrews as well as the fact that she was dubbed, those are the reasons I think she was ignored for an Oscar. I think they made the right choice with her though, besides being an excellent actress anyway, my younger sister saw a really nice black and white picture of Hepburn looking up to her right and smiling in the scene where she meets Higgins for the first time and she said that it looked like Mary Poppins, so Hepburn seems like the best choice possible. Before she spoke what I thought she was going to say when she was knocked over was, 'look what you gone and did'. I really liked her when she was the flowergirl and it's crazy to think that nobody would marry her! She's adorable. Stanley Holloway was a great addition and I really liked his songs, even if they did go on a bit, his character might have been a bit mean, considering what he did with £5, but he was great and I'm glad he came back later in the film. His voice seemingly changed a little when he met Higgins but this film shows how his life has been 'ruined' by meeting Higgins and I don't think his storyline could be called misogynistic when he wants to get married. Also, for his first song I expected to hear the line, 'with a bit of luck, get drunk', that song has its clear end but does keep on going a little bit, which is nice but very clear in the soundtrack. When I saw that this film was nominated for Best Supporting Actress I thought it might be for Mona Washbourne because I don't really see what Gladys Cooper did to be considered up for an Oscar, she was good, but an Oscar nomination? It is a bit odd to not see Julie Andrews here though, considering Harrison was in the film and there are a few reasons why she wasn't chosen, like, 'she doesn't have screen presence', really? She was in Mary Poppins that year and she won an Oscar as well, so that's something. But true to form, Harrison won an award for the original and the film and neither of the actresses did.

I really was drawn into this world very quickly and the film did make me smile; I was tapping my feet to the songs and they were very memorable, even if one of them, when they come home from the first big event, did seem to not really be about anything at all. They were just singing about how much of a great job they did and that was it. Which, in that song, I find it hard to believe that Pickering ignored her, as Eliza said, he was nice to her and indeed he was, he was nice throughout the entire film but just for that song he ignores her and looks like he will interact with her only to not. The first song was odd though, the rhythm of it seemed a little off with the musical accompaniment, I do like the song but I still noticed that. While the film looks beautiful and is a very excellent production, I could tell it was a set; very early on whilst everyone is out in the town all the voices had an echo and the cinematography seemed to be very claustrophobic but that was done to show no sky because when we are shown a sky, it doesn't even look like it existed. And there were some odd things, like, sometimes during songs, at the end, character's mouths didn't seem to move and when characters say, 'ho ho ho', it was so obvious their mouths were going, 'ha ha ha'. I didn't really understand why all those character froze at the start and that would be annoying if you were holding something over your head but then it just goes on, I thought there would at least be a musical number. There was also some weird editing in the first scene, Eliza talks and it cuts really quite fast after she spoke. Or how all the megaphones turn off when one of Higgins' songs has finished or how he can hear Eliza screaming about the bath when the door is closed but then opens it and closes it and he can't hear it anymore. And if the people on the phone weren't already suspicious, the line, 'what she does here is our affairs' doesn't sound much better.

I thought the dubbing was okay, besides what I already mentioned it isn't really that noticeable and apparently they were going to dub Harrison as well! At one point nearing the end when she got angry she sounded like her old self for just one word and I wondered if that was going to play out in the storyline but it didn't and later on when she is singing with Freddie it happens again. And when she goes back to her old place I thought she would join in with the loverly song.

It was funny how they sing right at the middle of the night when Eliza gets things right for the first time, they were singing loudly at 3am in the morning. True, the transformation of her dialect happened a tad too quickly because of course she is told something genuinely nice by Higgins but that always seems to happen in any spoof of this but just because she can say a few sentences doesn't really mean she learned a whole new way of talking. I think more time should have been devoted to when Higgins realizes he finally likes her because it happened a bit too quickly. They say at one point after the racetrack scene that she wasn't ready for the next ballroom event but they skimmed over that part quite quickly and Eliza didn't have to learn how to walk properly, she already could. I thought something would go wrong there when that were person looked like they were going to figure out what was going on and Henry's look on his face looked like he didn't understand what was going on and was about to let it happen but he saved it quite nicely.

I know Higgins seemed to only care about winning the bet but he seemed to forget about his offer of finding her a job but it makes sense that he didn't understand why she was upset. It makes sense for the story as to why everyone just seemingly forgot about her, as the bet was won, but it did feel a little odd. I guess the film does give of a theme of being happy with yourself and I guess it is kind of mean to change Eliza like that, regardless if you were to forget about them or not. Still, if you want to think strictly logical about this, it's not like she was being mistreated or anything, as Higgins says, nobody was mean to her and she could have left whenever she wanted, she had everything paid for and was taken to places she never could have dreamed of. It was weird to hear the line about Higgins putting himself through all that work when Eliza was there in that room doing all the alphabet work. I thought she would use the vowels in her song because she began with making the sound of a vowel and I thought that Higgins would see her singing beautifully but that didn't happen.

The part at the racetrack was pretty funny, the part where they all slowly move their binoculars up and then down was oddly amusing and Eliza spoke about much more than the weather and how someone was. I think we all knew she was going to lose it, but it was funny to see someone faint from that. He talks about the way she speaks as; 'new small talk' but later on Higgins said 'bolted' and I thought that was pretty funny.

I thought Freddie's character was quite pointless, he makes sense for the story but gets forgotten about quickly, he also slowed the film down when he got his song at around and 1hr and 40, did he really wait outside the house for that long? I also thought Higgins would call Eliza a fair lady at one point but just calls her attractive, which is still nice.

There was a point whilst watching this that I had to get something but I really didn't want to. I was so engaged in what I was watching that I didn't want to leave, and I found it funny how I quoted one of Higgins' lines and then proceeded to say something that Eliza would say and I found that rather funny. I questioned why this film was nearly 3 hours before I watched it just because it seemed strange to see this film be so long but after watching it, it made sense. This is a great mounted production and it really holds up, it is an excellent engaging film and you go on a grand journey. I thought it was going to have a different kind of ending but then it all works itself out, even if that person coming back seemed to happen fast. I also hope that Harrison said that Hepburn was his favourite after they performed the stage show a second time or else that'd have been awkward and it was good he congratulated Andrews as well that night. While awarding 'Dr. Strangelove' would have been the daring choice and the choice I would have personally gone with just because of how much I adore that film, I mean, even seeing Sellers on screen for the part where they announce the actors really sold how excellent that performance was. It isn't hard to see why they chose this and I love the film too, and, hey, it's twice the length of 'Dr. Strangelove' as well, so it has the 'epic' factor going for it too. With excellent acting, storytelling, musical numbers and overall effort, it isn't hard to see why this remains a classic and is an excellent adaptation. And I really love the posters for this film, the pink one especially. How rare is it to see the stage play and the film of a stage play both be held up in such high regard? Although the consensus for this film really does not say that much about the film at all, 'My Fair Lady', is an absolute classic and an absolute wonder of a film.