My Fair Lady [G]

When common street flower girl, Eliza Dolittle crosses the path of Henry Higgins, a professor of the English language, her life will never be the same. As Professor Higgins takes her under his wing to transform her into a fine and upstanding lady, Eliza soon learns how the other half live and discovers that there is more life than just plain English. 

Another of the timeless classics, My Fair Lady a wonderful story filled with memorable songs, loveable characters, romance, and an abundance of accents. 

Eliza Dolittle is a common street flower girl who makes an honest living doing the best with what she has. With a strong cockney accent that’s hard on the ears and a stubborn and persistent attitude, she’s one of a kind. One night, she crosses paths with Henry Higgins, a professor of the English language, and gets her mind to thinking when he boasts that he could turn her from a grimy street urchin into a duchess or a woman working in a flower shop. Eager to do more with her life, Eliza goes to Professor Higgins and asks him to teach her proper English and mannerisms so that she might become a fine and upstanding lady. Eager for a challenge, Higgins accepts and takes Eliza under his wing to put her through a series of gruelling vocal exercises and practices that will enable her to speak and make her pass for a fine lady. Seeing how the other half live, Eliza soon learns that there is more to life than just plain English. 

Winner of 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture, My Fair Lady was based on a stage production and the film is very much filmed as such. When you’re watching this movie, it’s almost like being at a smaller Broadway production. There are no cinema tricks to move the film along, just the raw power of the story, the script, and the performances of the actors. Some of the more extravagant musical sequences use effects more common to the stage, the one used most often is the actors’ pausing in mid-movement for a period during the introduction to the song. Scenes such as Little Bit O’ Luck and the Ascot Gavotte sees stage direction and choreography adapted to cinema style, something that hasn’t been done in many movies. 

Audrey Hepburn stars as Eliza Dolittle and she’s absolutely beautiful. I’ve always loved Audrey and watching her in this film is such a treat. With her strong accent at the beginning that transforms into a soft and elegant whisper towards the end, and her grandiose gestures, she dominates every scene that she’s in. A shining star if ever there was one. 

Rex Harrison stars as Henry Higgins and he’s brilliant. Playing a misogynistic pratt (pardon my language), he provides the film with its razor sharp wit and comedy. To see him and Audrey arguing and playing off each other is an absolute delight. It’s the battle of the sexes at its best. 

Starring Sterling Holloway, Wilfred Hyde-White, Gladys Cooper, Jeremy Bratt, Theodore Bikel, and Mona Washbourne, My Fair Lady is a wonderful film filled with romance, memorable songs, loveable characters, and plenty of accents. I love it to pieces!!! 

“I’ll never know what made it so exciting. Why all at once my heart took flight. I only know when he began to dance with me, I could have danced danced danced all night”