I like the original My Fair Lady poster mainly because Henry Higgins appears to be a serial killer
“The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she is treated.” – Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn), My Fair Lady
“She’s so deliciously low. So horribly dirty.” – Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison), master of compliments, My Fair Lady
Oh boy, here we go.
I’ve been putting off My Fair Lady for a while now, because a.) I had seen it before, about 15 years ago; b.) I didn’t really care for it then; c.) I know I’m in the minority who hold this opinion. Everybody seemingly loves My Fair Lady. I will say I think the songs are pretty great. Rex Harrison as the stiff, stuck-up Henry Higgins is pretty great (although viewing his portrayal now in 2015 has been irrevocably altered by years of Stewie on Family Guy). But the story is a real clunker that goes on forever and Harrison has zero chemistry with Audrey Hepburn, whose Eliza Doolittle careens wildly from imbecile (at one point she is scared of a bathtub!!!!) to class conscious social liberator. But here we go, My Fair Lady…
Audrey Hepburn’s most famous look from My Fair Lady is not her triumph at the gala but at the disastrous first outing at the race track. This had to be 60’s inspired, right?
Set in turn of the 20th Century England (1912 according to IMDB), My Fair Lady begins with the hoity-toity linguist Henry Higgins studying the low-class flower seller Eliza Doolittle (Hepburn, although she was (in) famously dubbed in most of her singing). Higgins explains, via song (the delightfully mean spirited “Why Can’t the English Learn to Speak), that classes division is based foremost on those who can properly speak a given language and those who cannot. Reflecting on her low social standing, Doolittle asks Higgins to teach her proper English (really proper enunciation and etiquette…Despite Higgins own assertions, it is manners that ultimately change Doolittle’s social standing). Colonel Hugh Pickering (Wilfrid Hyde-White), a visiting academic staying with Higgins, makes a gentleman’s bet with the latter that Higgins cannot transform her in six months. After much arduous training and a near-disastrous tryout at a racing forum, Higgins successfully presents Eliza as an unknown member of European royalty at a gala. Higgins is delighted by his victory but Eliza feels treated like a piece of property and longs for respect and love from her teacher.
OK, so three things bug me about My Fair Lady. First off, Harrison and Hepburn have ZERO romantic chemistry. When Hepburn sings wistfully to herself of potential romantic feelings for Harrison (“I Could Have Danced All Night”), the emotions come from out of nowhere and are frankly a little gross. Higgins has up to this point been a sexless prissy egomaniac who doesn’t deserve anyone’s love and the thought of the two of them matched up just doesn’t work for me. Attempts to reform Higgins later in the movie don’t work either. Perhaps not surprisingly, My Fair Lady was writing by the same people who did Gigi, another movie with troubling sexual politics.
Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn are not a love to last through the ages
Second, the movie ends on an abrupt, ambiguous and frustrating note. Higgins and Eliza have seemingly parted ways for the last time. Higgins walks home singing “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face” while trying to convince himself that he’ll be better off without her. Back home, Higgins listens to a recording he made of Eliza. Suddenly Eliza appears in person and he (comically?) demands his slippers. The end. WTF? No redemption. No change. It’s so abrupt and maddening to me.
Rex Harrion’s charmingly fussy Henry Higgins
Third, the movie is just way too long. There is a painful extra story about Eliza’s ne’er-do-well absentee father who steals money from everyone, only to end up miserable when he is bequeathed a fortune. You could have cut his whole role from the movie, shaved off 45 minutes (of a 3 hour movie!) and really only missed the catchy “With a Little Bit of Luck” song.
As noted, I really liked the songs for this movie and found them quite catchy. Rex Harrison is also very funny, if not nearly as endearing-in-his-stuffiness as I think he’s supposed to be. The best scene is the aforementioned racetrack sequence where Eliza tries out her new elocution. She annunciates clearly but continues to use slang to discuss her belief her aunt was murdered (“It is my belief they done the old woman in”). It is one of the few times I didn’t find Hepburn grating.
Other Awards: Best Actor (Rex Harrison); Best Director (George Cukor); Best Cinematography, Color; Best Art Decoration/Set Decoration, Color; Best Costume Design, Color; Best Sound; Best Music
Box Office: $72 million (third for the year)
Other notable movies of 1964: A Hard Day’s Night; Goldfinger$; Mary Poppins*; A Fistful of Dollars; A Shot in the Dark; Viva Las Vegas; Dr. Strangelove (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb)*; Becket*; Zorba the Greek*; Man’s Favorite Sport?
*Best Picture Nominee
$Top Grossing Film of the Year ($124.9 Million)
Operation: Oscar 