Review of My Fair Lady (1964) by Michael Y — 18 Aug 2011

My Fair Lady is as charming and witty as a musicals come. It is a wonderful story of clashing egos and reflection on English society, with some of the most iconic and loveable songs, all adapted to the screen beautifully.

The story to this charming tale begins in 1912 on the dark streets of London. Prof. Henry Higgins runs into cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, and sees a challenge. Higgins wages that he can take a flower girl and make her presentable infront of high society. So he picks Eliza and for months tries to perfect her language and manners so she can speak and act properly. It doesn't sound like much, but it is about the English, so it's bound to be good. The singing is wonderful, the songs are written beautifully and are very catchy, and the dialogue is fast, witty, romantic, hilarious, and often philisophical. This is a movie all about social class and how just the way one talks effects their status in England. It's a cruel prejudice. Rex Harrison played Higgins in the original Broadway production, and no wonder. He is absolutely hilarious and wonderful in his role. The big controversy to this movie though is not only the choice to replace the incredibly talented Julie Andrews (who played Eliza in the Broadway production) with Audrey Hepburn, but that Hepburn's singing numbers are dubbed. It's not a terrible destraction, but it is that side of immoral. But none the less what people look over is that Audrey Hepburn does do her own bloody acting, and her performance is (as always) stunning, romantic, wonderful, perfect. Her transformation from low class to proper is wonderfully played and she makes the screen shine all the way through to the end.

What REALLY passes the line between an enjoyable musical and a brilliant film adaptation is the way it is made. My Fair Lady won Oscars all around for it's cinematography, art direction, costumes and sounds. It is indeed a beautiful movie to watch. The dreary streets of London look particularly great. Very wet, very droopy, and everyone does look dirty in a way. Very good example of art direction there. Higgins' house is a nicely scaled house and a great set, full of expensive furniture, books, and other accessories a rich professor would have. It looks very home-like also. It really is a different set piece from all the other sets. But best of all is when we are into the high class sets and the ballroom. A very shiny setting with great amounts of detail, and everyone's costumes and dresses look INCREDIBLE, ESPECIALLY Audrey Hepburn's costumes. The cinematography is incredible in this movie also, not just for the lighting of scenes, (The best lit scenes are the nighttime ones) but the way the camera is placed and follows it's actors is very well done. This movie musical also has a lot more editing of scenes than most others before it.

It's a shame that Audrey Hepburn (one of my FAVOURITES) wasn't even nominated for her performance, even though Rex Harrison himself prefered her over Julie Andrews. But oh well. Can't win them all. Although this movie did win 8 other Oscars, including Best Picture. My Fair Lady is a highly loveable musical, a different kind of romantic story, and best of all ALL the songs are well written and wonderful. Definitely one of my favourite musicals.