Snobbish phonetics Professor Henry Higgins (Sir Rex Harrison) agrees to a wager that he can make flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) presentable in high society.
Dorothy Gale is swept away from a farm in Kansas to a magical land of Oz in a tornado and embarks on a quest with her new friends to see the Wizard who can help her return home to Kansas and help her friends as well.
At the turn of the century in a Welsh mining village, the Morgans, he stern, she gentle, raise coal-mining sons and hope their youngest will find a better life.
In prerevolutionary Russia, a Jewish peasant contends with marrying off three of his daughters while growing anti-Semitic sentiment threatens his village.
While trying to secure a $1 million donation for his museum, a befuddled paleontologist is pursued by a flighty and often irritating heiress and her pet leopard, Baby.
Director:
Howard Hawks
Stars:
Katharine Hepburn,
Cary Grant,
Charles Ruggles
Pompous phonetics Professor Henry Higgins (Sir Rex Harrison) 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 (Audrey Hepburn), who agrees to speech lessons to improve her job prospects. Higgins and Eliza clash, then form an unlikely bond, one that is threatened by aristocratic suitor Freddy Eynsford-Hill (Jeremy Brett).Written by
Jwelch5742
27A Wimpole Street in London (Professor Henry Higgins' address) does not exist (there is a 27 Wimpole Street). See more »
Goofs
Eliza Doolittle is not speaking with a 'Cockney Accent' as she is from Lisson Grove, North London. To be a Cockney you must be born within the sound of Bow Bells, which technically applies only to that area of East London.
It is highly unlikely that Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering would not have been in communication, speaking of mutual visits to England and India, prior to their 'accidental' meeting in Covent Garden.
Eliza calls Colonel Pickering 'Captain', which is correct English. In the original play this word is written as 'Cap'n', which is how it would pronounced by Eliza the flower girl.
When Eliza comes for the speech lessons from Higgins, her accent becomes almost Australian when she rebukes Higgins for charging as much to speak her own language.
The truest Eliza would be exactly as she is, a rough-speaking Londoner, who is taught to speak correctly. Not a practically titled Audrey Hepburn or Northerner Wendy Hiller in the 1938 film Pygmalion. The accent will never ring true. See more »
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.
See more »
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". See more »
Alternate Versions
The intermission is deleted from AMC viewings of the film and severely shortened in the TCM version. See more »
There have been numerous recordings of this musical from the days of Julie Andrews through Kiri te Kanawa and many others. But Marni Nixon's singing in the film is superb. Audrey Hepburn looks the part. Rex Harrison and Stanley Holloway leave their defining performances of Higgins and Doolittle for us to enjoy, the supporting cast are fine - Gladys Cooper, Jeremy Brett, Mona Washbourne, Theodore Bikel and the incomparable Wilfred Hyde-White. Cecil Beaton's designs bring the screen to life and in the newly restored version it looks 'loverly'. One of the best musicals ever, certainly along with West Side Story and Oliver! the cream of the 1960s.
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There have been numerous recordings of this musical from the days of Julie Andrews through Kiri te Kanawa and many others. But Marni Nixon's singing in the film is superb. Audrey Hepburn looks the part. Rex Harrison and Stanley Holloway leave their defining performances of Higgins and Doolittle for us to enjoy, the supporting cast are fine - Gladys Cooper, Jeremy Brett, Mona Washbourne, Theodore Bikel and the incomparable Wilfred Hyde-White. Cecil Beaton's designs bring the screen to life and in the newly restored version it looks 'loverly'. One of the best musicals ever, certainly along with West Side Story and Oliver! the cream of the 1960s.