My Fair Lady (DVD, 1998)

"My Fair Lady" (1964) was director George Cukor's film musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's (1912) play "Pygmalion." Cukor's movie won no less than 12 Academy Award nominations & ultimately 8 Oscars: Best Actor (Rex Harrison), Best Director (Cukor's only Oscar), Best Color Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Color Costume Design (Cecil Beaton), Best Color Cinematography (in widescreen 70 mm), Best Picture, Best Score (Andre Previn), and Best Sound.

In 1964, the competition was quite stiff since the Beatles' "Help" was a best picture nominee, & Julie Andrews was nominated Best Actress for her great leading performance in Disney's classic, "Mary Poppins." Andrews won the Oscar instead of Audrey Hepburn.

"Pygmalion" was a Broadway success from 1956-1962. Shaw's plot wasn't exactly original! Ovid's "Metamorphoses" preceded Shaw's adaptation. Ovid's is about a man named Pygmalion who falls for an ivory statue of a beautiful woman.

The non-musical form of the play from Shaw's screenplay was filmed in Britain in 1938 by co-directors Anthony Asquith & Leslie Howard. In one sentence, Shaw's story is about a Cockney flower vendor, Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn), who is trained by a sexist bachelor linguistics professor, Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison), to speak proper Queen's English within six months.

Higgins is challenged to undertake Doolittle's transformation by accepting a bet by Colonel Pickering (Wilfrid Hyde-White). During Doolittle'speech lessons her drunkard father, a delightful character Alfred or Alfie to his friends (Stanley Holloway), repeatedly shows up looking for money & even tries to sell Higgins his daughter for 50 pounds!

Higgins & Pickering hastily force Doolittle's first public appearance at the opening day Ascot Races. Even though she makes a miserable presentation, Doolittle gains the attention of an upper class born but poor, dashingly handsome young man, Freddie Eynsford-Hill (Jeremy Brett). Their distant romance begins.

Doolittle, Higgins & Pickering wind up triumphant in high society after Doolittle's successful appearance where she is mistaken for a Hungarian Princess at the Embassy Ball. In brief, as the two sexist male gamblers congratulate each other for "their" success, Doolittle is so hurt she leaves in hurried anger after being changed.

Again, not being a spoiler, I wouldn't dare reveal the ending.

Lerner & Lowe's remarkably memorable tunes & (Rex Harrison spoken) lyrics consist of: "An Ordinary Man," "I Could Have Danced All Night," "Get Me to the Church on Time," "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face," "Just You Wait," "On the Street Where You Live," "Show Me," "The Rain in Spain," "Why Can't A Woman," "Why Can't the English Learn to Speak?," "With a Little Bit of Luck," "Without You," "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?," and "You Did It, You Did It."

Any feminist could ask the question of the film's ending, however, "Isn't Professor Henry Higgins the one who needs to be transformed?"