My Fair Lady (1964)

A snobbish phonetics professor agrees to a wager that he can take a flower girl and make her presentable in high society.

Director:

George Cukor

Writers:

Alan Jay Lerner (book), George Bernard Shaw (from a play by) (as Bernard Shaw)

Stars:

Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway

Won 8 Oscars. Another 16 wins & 13 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Audrey Hepburn	...	Eliza Doolittle
Rex Harrison	...	Professor Henry Higgins
Stanley Holloway	...	Alfred P. Doolittle
Wilfrid Hyde-White	...	Colonel Hugh Pickering
Gladys Cooper	...	Mrs. Higgins
Jeremy Brett	...	Freddy Eynsford-Hill
Theodore Bikel	...	Zoltan Karpathy
Mona Washbourne	...	Mrs. Pearce
Isobel Elsom	...	Mrs. Eynsford-Hill
John Holland	...	Butler

Storyline

Pompous phonetics professor Henry Higgins is so sure of his abilities that he takes it upon himself to transform a Cockney working-class girl into someone who can pass for a cultured member of high society. His subject turns out to be the lovely Eliza Doolittle, who agrees to speech lessons to improve her job prospects. Higgins and Eliza clash, then form an unlikely bond -- one that is threatened by an aristocratic suitor.

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Plot Keywords:

remake | king george v character | diction lesson | american film institute | florist | 

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Taglines:

The loverliest motion picture of them all!

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Genres:

Drama | Family | Musical | Romance

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Certificate:

G

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 December 1964 (USA)

Also Known As:

Mi bella dama

Filming Locations:

Backlot, Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$17,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$72,000,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

170 min

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (35mm Mag-optical) Stereo (1964 Reissue) (Stereo) Dolby SR (1994 re-release)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Audrey Hepburn's character's name is Eliza Doolittle. Three years after this film came out Rex Harrison played the title character in Doctor Dolittle (1967).

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Goofs

When Higgins first asks Eliza to recite the verse, "In Hertford, Hereford..." and he makes the mirror rotate, you can see the camera and the crew at times as it is reflected in the mirror.

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Quotes

[first lines]
[sounds from crowd, occasionally a word or phrase, indistinct and mostly not associated with a character]
Mrs. Eynsford-Hill: Don't just stand there, Freddy, go and find a cab.
Freddy Eynsford-Hill: All right, I'll get it, I'll get it.

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Crazy Credits

In the posters, playbills and the original cast album for the stage version of "My Fair Lady", the credits always read "based on Bernard Shaw's 'Pygmalion' ", letting the audience know what play "My Fair Lady" was actually adapted from. The movie credits simply read "from a play by Bernard Shaw".

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Alternate Versions

The intermission is deleted from AMC viewings of the film.

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Connections

Referenced in Dante no es únicamente severo (1967)

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Soundtracks

Wouldn't It Be Loverly
(1956) (uncredited)
Music by Frederick Loewe
Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
Performed by Audrey Hepburn (dubbed by Marni Nixon) and Ensemble

User Reviews

The character of Henry Higgins is greatly misunderstood by many and so is the film.

I have read in a great many places (including the IMDb) that Henry Higgins is a misogynist. It has also been said that the film is a misogynist's fairy tale. Anyone saying this has clearly not watched this film too closely.

First, Higgins is not a misogynist. A misogynist hates women. What Higgins is, in reality, is a misanthrope. A misanthrope basically dislikes and distrusts everyone! Watch the film and you'll notice that Higgins treats everyone with the same disregard-Col. Pickering, Eliza's father, his own mother-everyone receives his rather cynical disdain. Some of the minor characters come off being treated worse than the principals do. It's simply more noticeable with Eliza because it's more frequent, it's newer with Eliza because the other principal characters have known Higgins longer and thus take it in stride. The myth that Higgins is a misogynist is perpetuated by the song, "Why Can't A Woman Be More Like a Man?".

Second, it can hardly be called a misogynist's fairy tale. If that were the case, I doubt Alfred Doolittle would have cause to sing, "Get Me To the Church On Time", as he'd hardly be getting married. His life is just as "ruined" as Eliza's by his encounters with Higgins, just as altered as her life has been.

This is a great musical, a good movie and it was even better as the original play by Shaw. Well worth seeing. Recommended.