My Fair Lady

Mary Poppins wasn't the only musical set in Edwardian England to be nominated for Best Picture. My Fair Lady, which won the Oscar, was based on the Broadway musical, which in turn was based on George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion. My advice--read or go find a production of Pygmalion.

My Fair Lady is one of those bloated road-show musicals that the '60s were famous for. It's long (almost three hours), has impeccable production and costume design, and is exceedingly tasteful. The music, by Alan Lerner and Frederick Loewe, is full of songs that have become standards. But my problem is in the script--Henry Higgins is just too much of an asshole.

For those who don't know the story, Higgins is a professor of phonetics. As the film opens, he's spying on a Cockney flower girl, Eliza Dolittle (Audrey Hepburn), taking down her speech patterns. She is insulted, but later seeks his help in improving her speech so she can work in a flower shop. Higgins' friend, Colonel Pickering, bets him that he can't turn Hepburn into a proper lady in six months.

Woody Allen had a joke in his stand-up act that went, "I've been removing the music and lyrics from My Fair Lady and turning it back into Pygmalion." Shaw was not a romantic, and Pygmalion is less about a May-December romance between complete opposites than a commentary on class. He even wrote an afterword to the play that says that Eliza will end up with Freddy Eynsford-Hill, who's kind of a drip but at least loves Eliza for who she is.

Rex Harrison won an Oscar for his portrayal of Higgins, and he did succeed if he set out to make the man a monster. He takes Hepburn into his home, but then browbeats her continuously. When he does realize he wants to be with her, it's with the song "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face," which does not say he loves her, but he's grown use to her, like an old sweater. When she comes back to him she does not, I'm sorry to say, shoot him.

The film was directed impeccably by George Cukor, the legendary "director of women," and he finally won his Oscar. The musical numbers are staged without much daring. The best two are those involving Stanley Holloway as Eliza's father, Alfred P. Dolittle, who gives the film desperately needed freshness. His songs, which have both been running through my head since I saw the film, are "With a Little Bit o' Luck " and "Get Me to the Church on Time," which finds the poor Dolittle forced to marry his common-law wife.

The casting of Hepburn is a bit of Hollywood lore. Julie Andrews originated the role on Broadway, and even though Hepburn did not have a great singing voice she got the gig. Her voice was dubbed by Marni Nixon (she also dubbed Natalie Wood in West Side Story). Hepburn did not get an Oscar nomination, but Andrews did, and won, for Mary Poppins.