My Fair Lady is a 1964 Americanmusicalcomedy drama film adapted from the 1956Lerner and Loewestage musical based onGeorge Bernard Shaw's 1913 stage playPygmalion. With a screenplay by Alan Jay Lerner and directed byGeorge Cukor, the film depicts a poorCockney flower-seller namedEliza Doolittle who overhears a phonetics professor, Henry Higgins, as he casually wagers that he could teach her to speak English so well she could pass for a duchess inEdwardianLondon or better yet, from Eliza's viewpoint, secure employment in a flower store.
In 2018, the film was selected for preservation in the United StatesNational Film Registry by theLibrary of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
In London, Professor Henry Higgins, a scholar of phonetics, believes that a person's accent determines their prospects in society ("Why Can't the English?"). At theCovent Garden fruit-and-vegetable market one evening, he listens to Eliza Doolittle, a young flower seller with a strongCockney accent, and makes notes. This causes others to suspect he is adetective. Eliza protests that she has done nothing wrong and asks Colonel Pickering, himself a phonetics expert, to confirm this. Pickering and Higgins are delighted to become acquainted; in fact, Pickering had come from India just to meet Higgins. Higgins boasts he could teach even someone like Eliza to speak so well he could pass her off as a duchess at an embassy ball. Eliza wants to work in a flower shop, but her accent makes that impossible ("Wouldn't It Be Loverly"). The following morning, Eliza shows up at Higgins's home, seeking lessons. Pickering is intrigued and offers to cover all the attendant expenses if Higgins succeeds. Higgins agrees and describes how women ruin lives ("I'm an Ordinary Man").
Eliza's father, Alfred P. Doolittle, adustman, learns of his daughter's new residence ("With a Little Bit of Luck"). He shows up at Higgins's house three days later, ostensibly to protect his daughter's virtue, but in reality to extract some money from Higgins, and is bought off with £5. Higgins is impressed by the man's honesty, his natural gift for language, and especially his brazen lack of morals. Higgins recommends Alfred to a wealthy American who is interested in morality.
Eliza endures Higgins's demanding teaching methods and harsh treatment ("Just You Wait"), while the servants feel both annoyed with the noise as well as pity for Higgins ("Servants' Chorus"). She makes no progress, but just as she, Higgins, and Pickering are about to give up, Eliza finally "gets it" ("The Rain in Spain"); she instantly begins to speak with an impeccable upper-class accent, and is overjoyed at Higgins having danced with her ("I Could Have Danced All Night").
As a trial run, Higgins takes her toAscot Racecourse ("Ascot Gavotte"), where she makes a good impression initially, only to shock everyone by a sudden lapse into vulgar Cockney while cheering on a horse. Higgins is amused. There, she meets Freddy Eynsford-Hill, a young upper-class man who becomes infatuated with her ("On the Street Where You Live").
Higgins then takes Eliza to an embassy ball, where she dances with a foreign prince. Zoltan Karpathy, a Hungarian former pupil of Higgins, watches, listens, dances with Eliza, and finally declares she is a Hungarian princess.
Afterwards, Eliza's hard work is ignored, with all the praise going to Higgins ("You Did It"). This and his callous treatment of her, especially his indifference to her future, causes her to walk out on him, but not before she throws his slippers at him, leaving him mystified by her ingratitude ("Just You Wait [Reprise]"). Outside, Freddy is waiting ("On the Street Where You Live [Reprise]") and greets Eliza, who is irritated by him as all he does is talk ("Show Me"). She tries to return to her old life, but finds that she no longer fits in. She meets her father, who has been left a generous income by the wealthy American to whom Higgins had recommended him, and is resigned to marrying Eliza's stepmother. Doolittle feels that Higgins has ruined him, lamenting that he is now bound by "middle-class morality" ("Get Me to the Church On Time"). Eliza eventually visits Higgins's mother, who is outraged at her son's behavior.
The next day, Higgins finds Eliza gone and searches for her ("A Hymn to Him"), eventually finding her at his mother's house. He attempts to talk her into coming back to him. He becomes angered when she announces that she is going to marry Freddy and become Karpathy's assistant ("Without You"). He goes home, predicting that she will come crawling back. However, he comes to the realization that she has become important to him ("I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face"). He turns on his gramophone and listens to her voice. Suddenly, she appears in the doorway. He nonchalantly asks, "Eliza, where the devil are my slippers?" She simply smiles.
CBS headWilliam S. Paley made an arrangement where CBS would finance the original Broadway production in exchange for the rights to the cast album (throughColumbia Records).Warner Bros. then purchased the film rights from CBS in February 1962 for the then-unprecedented sum of $5.5 million (equivalent to $57 million in 2024) plus 47.25% of the gross over $20 million.[9][10] Paley added a condition to the Warner contract that ownership of the film negative would revert to CBS seven years following release.[11]
In spite of her success playing Eliza Doolittle on Broadway, whenJack L. Warner acquired the film rights he replaced a then-unknown-to-filmgoersJulie Andrews in the role withAudrey Hepburn.Alan Jay Lerner broke the news to Andrews when she had moved to his production ofCamelot: "I so wanted you to do it, Julie, but they wanted a name."[12]
The entire movie was filmed at Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, California, from August to December 1963. Principal filming took place on six stages of the studio, specifically 4, 7, 8, 11, 16, and 26.[13][14]
With a production budget of $17 million,My Fair Lady was the most expensive film shot in the United States up to that time.[15]
The order of the songs in the Broadway show was followed faithfully with the exception of "With a Little Bit of Luck"; the song is listed as the third musical number in the play, but in the film it is the fourth. On stage, the song is split into two parts sung in two different scenes. Part of the song is sung by Doolittle and his cronies just after Eliza gives him part of her earnings, immediately before she goes to Higgins to ask for speech lessons. The second half of the song is sung by Doolittle just after he discovers that Eliza is now living with Higgins. In the film, the entire song is sung in one scene that takes place just after Higgins has sung "I'm an Ordinary Man." However, the song does have a dialogue scene (Doolittle's conversation with Eliza's landlady) between verses.
The instrumental "Busker Sequence", which opens the play immediately after theoverture, is the only musical number from the play omitted in the film version. However, several measures from the piece may be heard when Eliza is in the rain, making her way through Covent Garden.
All of the songs in the film were performed in their entirety, except that some verses were omitted. For example, in the song "With a Little Bit of Luck", the verse "He does not have atuppence in his pocket," which was sung with a chorus, was omitted because of its space and length; the original verse in "Show Me" was used instead.
The stanzas of "You Did It" that come after Higgins says "She is a princess" were originally written for the stage, but Harrison hated the lyrics and refused to perform the song unless the lyrics were omitted, as they were in most Broadway versions. However, when Cukor threatened to leave the production if the omitted lyrics were not restored for the film version, Harrison obliged. The omitted lyrics end with the words "Hungarian rhapsody" followed by the servants shouting "Bravo" three times, to the strains ofLiszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody", before the servants sing "Congratulations, Professor Higgins."[16]
During the autumn 1963 filming, theNew York Times announced that "Miss Hepburn has a vocal coach and will do her own singing; the high notes may be dubbed."[17] Hepburn's singing, however, was judged inadequate, and she was dubbed byMarni Nixon,[18] who sang all songs except "Just You Wait", in which Hepburn's voice was preserved during the harsh-toned chorus, with Nixon on the melodicbridge section. Hepburn sang the brief reprise of the song in tears. Some of Hepburn's original vocal performances were released in the 1990s. Less well known is the fact thatJeremy Brett's songs (as Freddy) were dubbed byBill Shirley.[19]
Harrison declined to prerecord his musical numbers, explaining that he had never talked his way through the songs the same way twice and thus could not convincinglylip-sync to a playback recording during filming (according toJack L. Warner, dubbing had been commonplace for years, stating, "We even dubbedRin Tin Tin.").[20]George Groves equipped Harrison with awireless microphone hidden in the knot of his necktie, the first such use during filming of a motion picture.[21] The sound department earned an Academy Award for its efforts.
One of the few differences in structure between the stage version and the film is the placement of theintermission. In the stage play, the intermission occurs after the embassy ball at which Eliza dances with Karpathy. In the film, the intermission comes before the ball as Eliza, Higgins and Pickering are seen departing for the embassy.
The film had its premiere at theCriterion Theatre in New York on Wednesday, October 21, 1964, with its regular run starting the following day with a $500,000 advance.[23] It ran for 87 weeks at the theatre.[24]
The film was re-released on January 21, 1971, at the Criterion and earned rentals of $2 million in the United States and Canada.[25][24] Prior to the re-release, Warner Bros. claimed that the film had grossed over $100 million worldwide.[24] Its gross in the United States and Canada after the re-release was an estimated $72 million.[2] The rights to the film reverted to CBS from Warner Bros. after the re-release.[26]
The film was restored in 1994 for its 30th anniversary byJames C. Katz andRobert A. Harris, who had restoredSpartacus three years earlier, at a cost of $700,000. The restoration was commissioned and financed by CBS, to which the film rights reverted from Warner Bros. in 1971.[1] It premiered at theToronto International Film Festival on September 10, 1994. At the end of the gala premiere, Marni Nixon introduced a version of "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" sung by Hepburn, reconstructed from outtakes. The restoration was to be released by20th Century Fox in five cities prior to a video/laserdisc release in October 1994.[27] CBS later hired Harris to lend his expertise to a new 4K restoration of the film for a 2015 Blu-ray release, working from 8K scans of the original camera negative and other surviving 65 mm elements.[28]
In 2019, the film was given a limited theatrical re-release throughTurner Classic Movies andFathom Events on February 17 and 20 as part of TCM Big Screen Classics. In 2024, the film was given another limited theatrical re-release through Fathom Events on February 4 and 5 to celebrate its 60th anniversary.
A restored version ofMy Fair Lady was released on video and laserdisc byCBS/Fox Video for its 30th anniversary in October 1994.[27] It was released inUltra HD Blu-ray on May 25, 2021, by CBS's sister company and existing rights holder,Paramount Home Entertainment.[29] In March 2021, Paramount Home Entertainment also releasedMy Fair Lady on a ten filmBlu-ray set. The set featured nine other Paramount-owned films which wonAcademy Award for Best Picture, including an additional three titles which were originally released by other studios (DreamWorks Pictures andMiramax, respectively).[30]
Bosley Crowther ofThe New York Times opened his contemporary review: "As Henry Higgins might have whooped, 'By George, they've got it!' They've made a superlative film from the musical stage showMy Fair Lady—a film that enchantingly conveys the rich endowments of the famous stage production in a fresh and flowing cinematic form."[31] Philip K. Scheuer of theLos Angeles Times reported from the New York premiere that "when the curtains came together at the finish of just three hours, three hours of Technicolored entertainment, I heard myself all but echoing Col. Pickering's proud summation of Eliza Doolittle's performances as a duchess at the Embassy Ball, 'a total triumph.'"[32]
Robert J. Landry ofVariety wrote: "It has riches of story, humor, acting and production values far beyond the average big picture. It is Hollywood at its best, Jack L. Warner's career capstone and a film that will go on without now-forseeable [sic?] limits of playoff in reserved seat policy and world rentals."[33]
The Monthly Film Bulletin of the UK declared that "with the range of talent, taste and sheer professionalism at work, from Shaw onwards, Warners could hardly have made a film which would do less than please most of the people most of the time. Their $17,000,000 investment looks as safe as houses." The review opined that Cukor directed with "great tact" but "a rather unnecessary circumspection. Scenes move at a steady, even pace, as though every word were worth its weight in gold (perhaps, in view of the price paid for the rights, it very nearly was). Especially, the decor tends to inhibit rather than release the film."[34]
Brendan Gill ofThe New Yorker wrote that the film "has survived very nearly intact the always risky leap from stage to screen," adding, "Miss Hepburn isn't particularly convincing as a Cockney flower girl, but, having mastered her vowels and consonants in the 'rain in Spain' scene, she comes into her own."[35]Richard L. Coe ofThe Washington Post also suggested that Hepburn's casting was the film's "basic flaw", describing her as "recognizably exquisite—but not 21—as the flower girl and to the later scenes she brings a real flirtatiousness quite un-Shavian." Nevertheless, Coe remarked that "there are some marvelous things which will make this a long-loved film," including Rex Harrison giving "one of the classic screen performances" that he correctly predicted was "an absolute certainty for next year's Oscars."[36]
Chicago Sun-Times criticRoger Ebert gave the film four stars out of four, and, in 2006, he put it on his "Great Movies" list, praising Hepburn's performance, and calling the film "the best and most unlikely of musicals."[37]
James Berardinelli wrote in a 2018 retrospective review, "Few genres of films are as magical as musicals, and few musicals are as intelligent and lively asMy Fair Lady. It's a classic not because a group of stuffy film experts have labeled it as such, but because it has been, and always will be, a pure joy to experience."[38]
Dave Whitaker of DavesMovieDatabase, a film aggregator site that combines other lists with box-office, ratings, and awards, listedMy Fair Lady in 2020 as the 100th-greatest movie of all time,[39] as the 9th-greatest musical of all time,[40] and as the 30th-most-awarded movie of all time.[41]
Some analysis ofMy Fair Lady has been more mixed, with disagreement between reviewers about whether the movie critiques or affirms misogynistic and classist tropes.[42][43]
My Fair Lady holds a 95% approval rating onRotten Tomatoes based on 91 reviews, with an average rating of 8.6/10. The consensus states: "George Cukor's elegant, colorful adaptation of the beloved stage play is elevated to new heights thanks to winning performances by Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison."[44] OnMetacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 95 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[45]
^CBS gained the rights to the film in 1971.Paramount Pictures (through former parent company Viacom's acquisition of CBS in 2000) owns the overall film distribution rights.[1]
^"Barbara Pepper".Turner Classic Movies. TCM Archive Materials: WarnerMedia.Archived from the original on March 21, 2019. RetrievedMarch 11, 2019.
^Kennedy, Michael; Kennedy, Joyce Bourne (August 15, 2013).The Oxford dictionary of music (Sixth ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 805.ISBN9780199578542.Archived from the original on May 21, 2021. RetrievedOctober 11, 2020.A well-known example of Sprechgesang is that of Rex Harrison ... as Prof. Higgins in My Fair Lady.
^"Show Business - The Now & Future Queen".Time. Vol. 88, no. 26. December 23, 1966. p. 56. RetrievedMarch 18, 2021.And now the hills are alive still with the sound of success. Julie's recording of the Sound of Music holds the sales record (7,000,000) for all LPs, and the album of My Fair Lady (6,000,000) is second
