My Fair Lady (film)

My Fair Lady (film)

Theatrical release poster by Bill Gold,
original illustration by Bob Peak
Directed by George Cukor
Produced by Jack Warner
Written by Alan Jay Lerner
George Bernard Shaw
Starring Audrey Hepburn
Rex Harrison
Music by Frederick Loewe (Music)
Alan Jay Lerner (Lyrics)
Cinematography Harry Stradling Sr.
Editing by William H. Ziegler
Distributed by Warner Bros. (Original)
20th Century Fox (re-release)
Release date(s) December 25, 1964
Running time 170 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $17 million
Gross revenue $72,000,000

My Fair Lady is a 1964 American musical film adaptation of the Lerner and Loewe stage musical, of the same name, based on the film adaptation of the stage play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. The ending and the ballroom scene are from the 1938 film, Pygmalion, rather than Shaw's original stage play. The film was directed by George Cukor and stars Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison.

The film won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Director.[1]

Contents

Plot

In Edwardian London, Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison), an arrogant, irascible, misogynistic professor of phonetics, believes that the accent and tone of one's voice determines a person's prospects in society. He boasts to a new acquaintance, Colonel Hugh Pickering (Wilfrid Hyde-White), himself an expert in phonetics, that he could teach any woman to speak so "properly" that he could pass her off as a duchess at an embassy ball, citing, as an example, a young flower seller from the slums, Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn), who has a strong Cockney ("Lisson grove lingo" as it is called) accent.

Eliza goes to Higgins seeking speech lessons. Her great ambition is to work in a flower shop, but her thick accent makes her unsuitable for such a position. All she can afford to pay is a shilling per lesson, whereas Higgins is used to training wealthier members of society.[2] Pickering, who is staying with Higgins, is intrigued by the idea of passing a common flower girl off as a duchess and bets Higgins he cannot make good his boast, offering to pay for the lessons himself.

Eliza's father, Alfred P. Doolittle (Stanley Holloway), a dustman, shows up three days later, ostensibly to protect his daughter's virtue, but in reality simply 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 - "Can't afford 'em!" claims Doolittle. Higgins recommends Doolittle to a wealthy American who is interested in morality.

Eliza at Ascot, with Higgins looking on

Eliza goes through many forms of speech training, such as speaking with marbles in her mouth, enduring Higgins' harsh approach to teaching and his treatment of her personally. She makes little progress, but just as she, Higgins, and Pickering are about to give up, Eliza finally "gets it"; she instantly begins to speak with an impeccable upper class accent.

As a test, Higgins takes her to Ascot Racecourse, where she makes a good impression with her stilted, but genteel manners, only to shock everyone by a sudden and vulgar lapse into Cockney while encouraging a horse to win a race: "C'mon Dover, move your bloomin' arse!" Higgins, who dislikes the pretentiousness of the upper class, partly conceals a grin behind his hand.

Eliza poses as a mysterious lady at an embassy ball and even dances with a foreign prince. At the ball is Zoltan Karpathy (Theodore Bikel), a Hungarian phonetics expert trained by Higgins. After a brief conversation with Eliza, he certifies that she is of royal blood. This makes Higgins' evening, since he has always looked upon Karpathy as a bounder and a crook.

After all the effort she has put in however, Eliza is given hardly any credit, all the praise going to Higgins. This, and his callous treatment towards her afterwards, especially his indifference to her future, causes her to walk out on him, leaving him mystified by her ingratitude.

Accompanied by Freddy Eynsford-Hill (Jeremy Brett), a young man she met at Ascot and who has become enamoured of her, Eliza returns to her old stomping ground at Covent Garden, but finds that she no longer fits in. She meets her father, who has been left a large fortune by the wealthy American Higgins had sent him to and is resigned to marrying Eliza's stepmother. Alfred feels that Higgins has ruined him, since he is now bound by morals and responsibility. Eventually, Eliza ends up visiting Higgins' mother, who is incensed at her son's behaviour.

Higgins finds Eliza the next day and attempts to talk her into coming back to him. During a testy exchange, Higgins becomes incensed when Eliza announces that she is going to marry Freddy and become Karpathy's assistant. Higgins explodes and Eliza is satisfied that she has had her "own back." Higgins has to admit that rather than being a "a millstone around my neck... now you're a tower of strength, a consort battleship. I like you this way." Eliza leaves, saying they will never meet again.

After an argument with his mother—in which he asserts that he does not need Eliza or anyone else — Higgins makes his way home, stubbornly predicting that Eliza will come crawling back. However, he comes to the horrified realization that he has "grown accustomed to her face." Then, to his great delight, Eliza suddenly returns to him.

The ending

In the ending of the original play Eliza makes it clear that she will marry Freddy. Shaw later wrote an essay[3] in which he explained precisely why it was impossible for the story to end with Higgins and Eliza getting married, though they would continue to be close throughout their lives. Higgins himself does not appear to want to marry Eliza. Towards the end of the original play, he sees the future as "You and I and Pickering will be three old bachelors together instead of only two men and a silly girl."

The ending of the stage version of My Fair Lady comes from the 1938 film version of Pygmalion, starring Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller. The ending of the musical was faithfully retained in the film version.

Cast

Production

Order of musical numbers

The order of the songs in the show was followed faithfully, except for With a Little Bit of Luck. The song is listed as being the third musical number in the play; in the film it is the fourth. Onstage, 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 makes the decision to go to Higgins's house 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, contrary to some reports, the whole song is sung in the film.

The instrumental "Busker Sequence", which opens the play immediately after the Overture, is the only musical number from the play omitted in the film version.

All of the songs in the film were performed almost complete; however, there were some verse omissions, as there sometimes are in film versions of Broadway musicals. For example, in the song "Little Bit of Lick" the verse "He does not have a Tuppence in his pocket", which was sung with a Chorus, was omitted, due to space and the length. the original verse in "Show Me" was used instead. In the song "Get me to the Church on time" the verse that mentions "Drug me or jail me/ Stamp me or mail me" was omitted because the censors would not allow a verse referring to being drugged or jailed, and Alan Jay Lerner refused to have replacement lyrics for the song.

Dubbing

Hepburn's singing was judged inadequate, and she was dubbed by Marni Nixon[4] who sang all songs except "Just you wait," where Hepburn's voice was left undubbed during the harsh-toned chorus of the song and Nixon sang the melodic bridge section. Some of Hepburn's original vocal performances for the film were released in the 1990s, affording audiences an opportunity to judge whether the dubbing was necessary. Less well known is the dubbing of Jeremy Brett's songs (as Freddy) by Bill Shirley.[5]

Rex Harrison declined to pre-record his musical numbers for the film, explaining that he had never talked his way through the songs the same way twice and thus couldn't convincingly lip-sync to a playback during filming (as musical stars had been doing in Hollywood since the dawn of talking pictures). To permit Harrison to recite his songs live during filming, the Warner Bros. Studio Sound Department, under the direction of George Groves, implanted a wireless microphone in Harrison's neckties, marking the first known wireless microphone use in film history. André Previn then conducted the final version of the music to the voice recording. The sound department earned an Academy Award for its efforts.

Art direction

The art direction was by Cecil Beaton, who won an Oscar. Beaton's inspiration for the library in Henry Higgins' home, where much of the action takes place, was a room at the Château de Groussay, Montfort-l'Amaury, in France, which had been decorated opulently by its owner Carlos de Beistegui.

Copyright issues

The head of CBS put up the money for the original Broadway production in exchange for the rights to the cast album (through Columbia Records). When Warner bought the film rights in February 1962 for the then-unprecedented sum of $5 million, it was agreed that the rights to the film would revert to CBS seven years after its release.

The first home video release was by MGM/CBS Home Video in 1981, and was re-released by CBS/Fox Video in 1984, 1986, 1991, and 1994.

Warner owned the film's original copyright, but it was renewed by CBS due to the 1972 rights reversion. From 1998-2008, Warner owned the DVD rights to the film (under license from CBS), while CBS Television Distribution owns the television rights. This made My Fair Lady the only theatrical film whose ancillary rights are owned by CBS that was not distributed by CBS Home Entertainment.

A VHS release by Paramount Pictures in 2001 is currently out of print. However, Paramount obtained DVD rights in 2009 and re-released the film on October 6, 2009.[6]

Musical numbers

Act I
  1. "Overture"
  2. "Why Can't the English?" - Higgins
  3. "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?"
  4. "An Ordinary Man" - Higgins
  5. "With a Little Bit of Luck" - Alfred
  6. "Just You Wait" - Eliza
  7. "Servants Chorus" - Mrs. Pearce, Servants
  8. "The Rain in Spain" - Eliza, Higgins, Pickering
  9. "I Could Have Danced All Night" - Eliza, Mrs. Pearce, Maids
  10. "Ascot Gavotte" - Ensemble
  11. "Ascot Gavotte (Reprise)" - Ensemble
  12. "On the Street Where You Live" - Freddy
  13. "Intermission"
Act II
  1. "Transylvanian March"
  2. "Embassy Waltz"
  3. "You Did It" - Higgins, Pickering, Mrs. Pearce, Servants
  4. "Just You Wait (Reprise)" - Eliza
  5. "On the Street Where You Live" (reprise) - Freddy
  6. "Show Me" - Eliza
  7. "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" (reprise) - Eliza, Ensemble
  8. "Get Me to the Church on Time" - Alfred, Ensemble
  9. "A Hymn to Him (Why Can't A Woman Be More Like a Man?)" - Higgins, Pickering
  10. "Without You" - Eliza
  11. "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" - Higgins
  12. "Finale"
  13. "Exit Music"

Soundtrack album as heard on the original LP

All tracks played by The Warner Bros. Studio Orchestra conducted by André Previn. Between brackets the singers.

  1. "Overture"
  2. "Why Can't the English?" (Rex Harrison, Audrey Hepburn and/or Marni Nixon (for Audrey Hepburn), Wilfrid Hyde-White)
  3. "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?" (Marni Nixon (for Audrey Hepburn))
  4. "I'm Just an Ordinary Man" Rex Harrison
  5. "With a Little Bit of Luck" (Stanley Holloway)
  6. "Just You Wait" (Audrey Hepburn, Marni Nixon (for Audrey Hepburn))
  7. "The Rain in Spain" (Rex Harrison, Audrey Hepburn, Marni Nixon (for Audrey Hepburn), Wilfrid Hyde-White)
  8. "I Could Have Danced All Night" (Marni Nixon (for Audrey Hepburn))
  9. "Ascot Gavotte"
  10. "On the Street Where You Live" (Bill Shirley (for Jeremy Brett))
  11. "You Did It" (Rex Harrison, Wilfrid Hyde-White)
  12. "Show Me" (Marni Nixon (for Audrey Hepburn), Bill Shirley (for Jeremy Brett))
  13. "Get Me to the Church on Time" (Stanley Holloway)
  14. "A Hymn to Him" (Why Can't A Woman Be More Like A Man?) (Rex Harrison, Wilfrid Hyde-White)
  15. "Without You" (Marni Nixon (for Audrey Hepburn), Rex Harrison)
  16. "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" (Rex Harrison)

Previously unreleased on LP, included on the CD

  1. "The Flower Market"
  2. "Servants' Chorus"
  3. "Ascot Gavotte (Reprise)"
  4. "Intermission"
  5. "The Transylvanian March"
  6. "The Embassy Waltz"
  7. "Just You Wait (Reprise)" (Audrey Hepburn and/or Marni Nixon (for Audrey Hepburn))
  8. "On the Street Where You Live (Reprise)" Bill Shirley (for Jeremy Brett)
  9. "The Flowermarket" (containing the reprise of "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?") (Marni Nixon for Audrey Hepburn)
  10. "End Titles"
  11. "Exit Music"

Awards and honors

Academy Awards record
1. Best Actor, Rex Harrison
2. Best Art Direction, Gene Allen, Cecil Beaton, George James Hopkins
3. Best Cinematography, Harry Stradling Sr.
4. Best Costume Design, Cecil Beaton
5. Best Director, George Cukor
6. Best Original Score, André Previn
7. Best Picture, Jack Warner
8. Best Sound, George Groves
Golden Globe Awards record
1. Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
2. Best Actor - Musical or Comedy, Rex Harrison
3. Best Director, George Cukor
BAFTA Awards record
1. Best Film from any Source, George Cukor

Academy Awards: 1964

My Fair Lady won eight Oscars:[1]

Four nominations

Golden Globe Awards

My Fair Lady won three Golden Globes:

BAFTA Awards

Others

American Film Institute recognition

Restoration

The film was restored in 1994 by James C. Katz and Robert A. Harris, who had restored Spartacus three years earlier. The restoration was commissioned and financed by CBS, who purchased the film from Warner Bros. in 1971.[7]

Remakes

Animated remake

In 1995 20th Century Fox executives gave animation directors/producers Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, then newly appointed as the creative heads of Fox Animation Studios, the choice between creating an animated remake of either My Fair Lady or the 1956 Fox film, Anastasia. Bluth and Goldman chose to make the animated film Anastasia, which became the highest-grossing non-Disney animated film in 1997.

Possible remake

In June 2008, it was reported that a remake of My Fair Lady was being planned, starring Daniel Day Lewis and Keira Knightley[8] as Eliza Doolittle, for release in 2010.[9] It will be produced by Duncan Kenworthy (Love Actually) and Cameron Mackintosh, and co-developed by Columbia Pictures and CBS Films. Emma Thompson was reported to be set to write the script.[10]

Others who had tried to get the part of Higgins had included George Clooney and Brad Pitt whose close friendship is reported to have hit a low point as a result.[11]

References

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "NY Times: My Fair Lady". NY Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/34019/My-Fair-Lady/awards. Retrieved 2008-12-21. 
  2. ↑ In the original play, Higgins states that "in three months I could pass that girl off as a duchess at an ambassador's garden party. I could even get her a place as lady's maid or shop assistant, which requires better English. That's the sort of thing I do for commercial millionaires. And on the profits of it I do genuine scientific work in phonetics, and a little as a poet on Miltonic lines"
  3. ↑ page 86 of the Project Gutenberg edition.
  4. ↑ Lawson, Kyle. "Marni Nixon in My Fair Lady", The Arizona Republic, June 10, 2008
  5. ↑ Bill Shirley at the Internet Movie Database
  6. ↑ Amazon.com: My Fair Lady
  7. ↑ Grimes, William (August 15, 1994). "In 'My Fair Lady,' Audrey Hepburn Is Singing at Last". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/15/movies/in-my-fair-lady-audrey-hepburn-is-singing-at-last.html. Retrieved 2010-04-23. 
  8. ↑ Simon Reynolds, "Knightley in talks for 'My Fair Lady'," Digital Spy (June 6, 2008).
  9. ↑ Keira Knightley is My Fair Lady - ComingSoon.net
  10. ↑ Simon Reynolds, "Emma Thompson to write 'My Fair Lady'," Digital Spy (July 17, 2008).
  11. ↑ Thadian News, September 25th 2008

Bibliography

External links

Awards
Preceded by
Tom Jones		 Academy Award for Best Picture
1964		 Succeeded by
The Sound of Music
Preceded by
Dr Strangelove		 BAFTA Award for Best Film from any Source
1965		 Succeeded by
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Academy Award for Best Picture

West Side Story (1961) · Lawrence of Arabia (1962) · Tom Jones (1963) · My Fair Lady (1964) · The Sound of Music (1965) · A Man for All Seasons (1966) · In the Heat of the Night (1967) · Oliver! (1968) · Midnight Cowboy (1969) · Patton (1970) · The French Connection (1971) · The Godfather (1972) · The Sting (1973) · The Godfather Part II (1974) · One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) · Rocky (1976) · Annie Hall (1977) · The Deer Hunter (1978) · Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) · Ordinary People (1980)

Complete List · (1928–1940) · (1941–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001–present)
Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

West Side Story/A Majority of One (1961) · The Music Man/That Touch of Mink (1962) · Tom Jones (1963) · My Fair Lady (1964) · The Sound of Music (1965) · The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966) · The Graduate (1967) · Oliver! (1968) · The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969) · MASH (1970) · Fiddler on the Roof (1971) · Cabaret (1972) · American Graffiti (1973) · The Longest Yard (1974) · The Sunshine Boys (1975) · A Star Is Born (1976) · The Goodbye Girl (1977) · Heaven Can Wait (1978) · Breaking Away (1979) · Coal Miner's Daughter (1980)

 · (1951–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001–present)
Films directed by George Cukor
1930s
Grumpy (1930) • The Virtuous Sin (1930) • The Royal Family of Broadway (1930) • Tarnished Lady (1931) • Girls About Town (1931) • What Price Hollywood? (1932) • A Bill of Divorcement (1932) • Rockabye (1932) • Our Betters (1933) • Dinner at Eight (1933) • Little Women (1933) • David Copperfield (1935) • Sylvia Scarlett (1935) • Romeo and Juliet (1936) • Camille (1936) • Holiday (1938) • Zaza (1939) • The Women (1939)
1940s
Susan and God (1940) • The Philadelphia Story (1940) • A Woman's Face (1941) • Two-Faced Woman (1941) • Her Cardboard Lover (1942) • Keeper of the Flame (1942) • Gaslight (1944) • Winged Victory (1944) • A Double Life (1947) • Edward, My Son (1949) • Adam's Rib (1949)
1950s
A Life of Her Own (1950) • Born Yesterday (1950) • The Model and the Marriage Broker (1951) • The Marrying Kind (1952) • Pat and Mike (1952) • The Actress (1953) • It Should Happen to You (1954) • A Star Is Born (1954) • Bhowani Junction (1956) • Les Girls (1957) • Wild Is the Wind (1957)
1960s
Heller in Pink Tights (1960) • Let's Make Love (1960) • Something's Got to Give (1962) • The Chapman Report (1962) • My Fair Lady (1964) • Justine (1969)
1970s
Travels with My Aunt (1972) • Love Among the Ruins (1975) • The Blue Bird (1976) • The Corn is Green (1979)
1980s
Rich and Famous (1981)