My Fair Lady is a 1964 musical film adaptation of the Lerner and Loewe stage musical, My Fair Lady, based in turn on the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. The film was directed by George Cukor and stars Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison.
The film won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Director.
Plot
Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison), an arrogant, irascible, misogynistic professor of phonetics, believes that it is accents and the tone of one's voice which holds back a person's prospects and hopes for advancement in society. He boasts to a new acquaintance, Colonel Pickering (Wilfrid Hyde-White), himself an expert in phonetics, that he can teach any woman to speak so "properly" that he could pass her off as a duchess at an embassy ball. The person whom he uses as an example is one Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn), a young woman from the London slums with a strong Cockney accent and who sells flowers on the street.
Eliza's big ambition is to work in a flower shop, but her thick working-class accent makes her unsuitable for such a position. She therefore goes to Higgins' house and offers to pay for speech lessons. All she can afford however is a shilling per lesson while Higgins is used to training wealthier members of society and charging heavily.[1] Pickering, who is staying with Higgins, is amused by the idea of passing a common flower girl off as a Duchess and bets Higgins all the expenses of the lessons that he will not be able to do it — thus, in a roundabout way, setting up a bet that he, Pickering, would be glad to lose. Inspired by such a challenge, Higgins takes it up.
Eliza's father, Alfred P. Doolittle (Stanley Holloway), a dustman, arrives three days later, ostensibly to protect his daughter's virtue, but in reality simply to extract some money from Higgins, and is bought off with £5. Higgins is impressed by the man's genuineness, his natural gift for language, and especially his brazen lack of morals (Doolittle explains, "Can't afford 'em!").
Eliza the Cockney flower girl poses as a member of the aristocracy, while Professor Henry Higgins looks on
Eliza goes through many forms of speech training, such as speaking with marbles in her mouth and trying to recite the sentence "In Hertford, Hereford, Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen" without dropping the 'h', and to say "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain" rather than "The rine in spine sties minely in the pline". At first, she makes no progress (due to Higgins's harsh approach to teaching), but just as she, Higgins, and Pickering are exhausted and about to give up, Higgins softens his attitude and gives an eloquent speech about the beauty and history behind the English language. Eliza tries one more time and finally "gets it"; she instantly begins to speak with an impeccable upper class accent.
Higgins takes her on her first public appearance to Ascot Racecourse, where she makes a good impression with her stilted, but genteel manners, only to shock everyone by a sudden and vulgar lapse into Cockney while encouraging a horse to win a race: "C'mon Dover, move your bloomin' arse!". Higgins, who dislikes the pretentiousness of the upper class, partly conceals a grin behind his hand, as if to say "I wish I had said that!"
The bet is won when Eliza successfully poses as a mysterious lady of patently noble rank at an embassy ball and even dances with a foreign prince. The ball is attended by a Hungarian phonetics expert, also trained by Higgins, who, after a brief conversation with Eliza, certifies that she is of Royal blood!
After all the effort she has put in however, Eliza is given hardly any credit, all the flattery going to Higgins. This, and his callous treatment towards her afterwards, especially his indifference to her future prospects, leads her to walk out on him, leaving him mystified by her ingratitude.
Accompanied by Freddy Eynsford-Hill, a young man she met at Ascot and who has become enamoured of her, Eliza returns to her old stomping ground in the East End but finds that she no longer fits in, what with her genteel manners, upper-class accent and lovely clothes. She eventually ends up visiting Higgins' mother.
Putting aside his resentment about the intrusion on his life and toward women in general, Higgins finds Eliza the next day and attempts to talk her into coming back to him. During a testy exchange, Higgins's ego gets the better of him and he actually explodes when Eliza announces that she is going to marry Freddy, a society flop, and become the assistant of the Hungarian phonetics expert, whom Higgins looks upon as a bounder and a crook. Eliza is satisfied that she has had her "own back" and rejects him. Higgins has to admit that rather than being a "a millstone around my neck... now you're a tower of strength, a consort battleship. I like you this way." Eliza leaves saying they will never meet again.
Higgins makes his way home, stubbornly predicting that Eliza will be ruined without him and come crawling back. However, his bravado collapses and he comes to the horrified realization that he has "grown accustomed to her face". His house is now very cold and empty. He is reduced to playing an old phonograph recording of her voice lessons. To Higgins's great delight, Eliza chooses that moment to return to him. The last words are from Higgins: "Eliza? ... Where the devil are my slippers?", to which she just smiles.
The Ending
In the ending of the original play Eliza makes it clear that she will marry Freddy. Shaw later wrote an essay [2] in which he explained precisely why it was impossible for the story to end with Higgins and Eliza getting married (however, they continued to be close throughout their lives).
Higgins himself does not appear to want to marry Eliza. Towards the end of the original play he sees the future as "You and I and Pickering will be three old bachelors together instead of only two men and a silly girl."
This alternative ending, in which they are reconciled, comes from the 1938 film version of Pygmalion starring Leslie Howard.
Production
Andrews vs. Hepburn
It was never assumed that the lead role in the film would go to Harrison's stage partner Julie Andrews, who had played Eliza in the stage version to great critical acclaimcitation needed. Audrey Hepburn was cast instead (despite lobbying from screenwriter Alan Jay Lerner), because Jack Warner of Warner Brothers wanted a box office star, and at the time Andrews was an untested screen presence. Elizabeth Taylor reportedly fought long and hard for the role as well. The casting controversy did little to hurt Hepburn's career.
Andrews' subsequent Academy Award for Mary Poppins — and the lack of a nomination for Hepburn — was seen by many as vindication for Julie Andrews, though both actresses denied that there was ever any animosity between them.
Years later, when Warner Bros. offered Andrews the role of Guinevere in the film adaptation of the Lerner & Lowe musical Camelot (which she also originated to great acclaim on Broadway), Andrews asked for $7 million, and as a consequence, politely declined the offer. Vanessa Redgrave took the role, although she was quoted as saying that, had Julie Andrews wanted to play the role, she certainly would have.
Dubbing
Hepburn's singing was judged inadequate, however, and she was dubbed by Marni Nixon. Some of Hepburn's original vocal performances for the film were released in the 1990s, affording audiences an opportunity to judge whether the dubbing was necessary. Less well known is the dubbing of Jeremy Brett's songs (as Freddy) by Bill Shirley[3].
No dubbing was done for Rex Harrison, even though he spoke most of his lyrics instead of singing them. In addition, the actor declined to pre-record his musical numbers for the film, explaining that he had never sung the songs the same way twice and thus couldn't convincingly lip-sync to a playback during filming (as musical stars had been doing in Hollywood since the dawn of talking pictures). In order to permit Harrison to sing his songs live during filming, the Warner Bros. Studio Sound Department, under the direction of George Groves, implanted a wireless microphone in Harrison's neckties, marking the first time in film history that one was used to record sound during filming. André Previn then conducted the final version of the music to the voice recording. The sound department earned an Academy Award for its efforts.
Copyright issues
The head of CBS put up the money for the original Broadway production in exchange for the rights to the cast album (through Columbia Records). When Warner bought the film rights in February 1962 for the then-unprecedented sum of $5 million, it was agreed that the rights to the film would revert to CBS seven years after its release.
Warner owned the film's original copyright, but it was renewed by CBS due to the 1972 rights reversion. Currently, Warner owns the DVD rights to the film (under license from CBS), while CBS Television Distribution owns the television rights. This makes My Fair Lady the only theatrical film whose ancillary rights are owned by CBS that is not distributed by CBS Home Entertainment.
A VHS release by Paramount Pictures in 2001 is currently out of print.
Musical numbers
Act I
Act II
- "Transylvanian March"
- "Embassy Waltz"
- "You Did It"
- "Just You Wait (Reprise)"
- "On The Street Where You Live" (reprise)
- "Show Me"
- "Get Me to The Church on Time"
- "A Hymn to Him"
- "Without You"
- "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face"
- "Finale"
- "Exit Music"
Awards
| Academy Awards record |
| 1. Best Actor, Rex Harrison |
| 2. Best Art Direction, Gene Allen, Cecil Beaton, George James Hopkins |
| 3. Best Cinematography, Harry Stradling Sr. |
| 4. Best Costume Design, Cecil Beaton |
| 5. Best Director, George Cukor |
| 6. Best Original Score, André Previn |
| 7. Best Picture, Jack L. Warner |
| 8. Best Sound, George Groves |
| Golden Globe Awards record |
| 1. Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy |
| 2. Best Actor - Musical or Comedy, Rex Harrison |
| 3. Best Director, George Cukor |
| BAFTA Awards record |
| 1. Best Film from any Source, George Cukor |
Academy Awards - 1964
My Fair Lady won eight Oscars
It was nominated for four other Oscars
Golden Globe Awards
My Fair Lady won three Golden Globes
BAFTA Awards
American Film Institute recognition
Restoration
By the 1990s, the original film elements had fallen into disrepair from heavy printing and there was fear of total deterioration. Film restorers Robert A. Harris and James C. Katz, in conjunction with 20th Century Fox (whose home video division previously held the rights to the CBS library including My Fair Lady), were brought in to save the film. They succeeded in preserving the film's image quality for future generations. A 30th anniversary re-issue in 1994 by Fox reinforced the film's popularity.
Past animated remake
In 1995 Fox executives gave animation directors/producers Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, then newly appointed as the creative heads of Fox Animation Studios, the choice between creating an animated re-make of either My Fair Lady or the 1956 Fox film Anastasia. Bluth and Goldman chose to make the animated film Anastasia, which became the highest-grossing non-Disney animated film in 1997.
2009/2010 remake
In early June 2008 it was reported that a remake is in the works starring Keira Knightley[4] as Eliza Doolittle was being planned[5] for a release in either 2009 or 2010. It will be produced by Duncan Kenworthy (Love Actually) and co-developed by Columbia Pictures and CBS Films. Emma Thompson is set to write the script.[6]
Hollywood pals Brad Pitt and George Clooney, who have made a number of films together, are said to have fallen out over the issue of the remake since both want the same part. Pitt also wants to have Angelina Jolie as Eliza.[1] [2]
Notes
External links
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