My Fair Lady (1964)

A cockney flower girl (Audrey Hepburn) overhears a linguistics professor (Rex Harrison) boast he could teach her to speak proper enough English to work in a regular flower shop. The following day she arrives at his home to take him up on the offer. He bets his colleague that in six months he could pass her off as a lady at a royal ball. The game is afoot.

Audrey Hepburn was charming as hell, but wow was she miscast. I don’t believe her for a second as a cockney. Harrison reprised his role from the Broadway musical but the studio felt Julie Andrews was too much of an unknown to play Eliza on the big screen, which wasn’t wrong. Even if asked, she was busy working on her first feature film. One complaint about the 35 year old Hepburn was that she was too old for the role. Again, not wrong as Eliza was twenty one. Nobody seemed to bat an eye, however, at the borderline elderly Harrison as the leading man. Ah, Hollywood!

At two hours fifty, My Fair Lady wasn’t too much of a chore to sit through. The only parts that dragged were the songs. I recognized some not realizing where they were from. Not being my thing, cutting ninety seconds from each song might be a good way to take ten or so minutes from the runtime.

In the end I was charmed by My Fair Lady. That’s not to say I don’t have my issues. Harrison’s Professor Higgins has no character arc. He starts as a pompous, self important ass and ends the same but “accustomed to her face”. Can you think of anything less romantic? The story is about social mobility. Eliza Doolittle is a misfit and knows it. This bothers her, but our professor is also a social outcast and is oblivious. His wealth, education, and position forgive his lack of social grace. He treats people poorly and doesn’t understand why that’s a problem.

The story in my head is of Eliza realizing she need not covet the respect of the idle rich and come to accept who she is. She needs diction but it’s Higgins who requires the personal growth. But that is not our story and it’s no use criticizing a film for its source material. But I still chafe at a young woman returning to the embrace of a jerk for him to treat poorly. Besides, Colonel Pickering seemed to be his true love.

My Fair Lady was a fantastic success. A big production movie with some genuinely good moments. It made a ton of money and earned eight Oscars, including best picture. Not for best actress, though. That went to Julie Andrews. AMRU 3.5.