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Rating: 4.75 out of 5
Here we are once again with another review of a musical. I am just going to put it out there that if you’re a musical and you have been nominated for an Academy Award, I will probably like you. I know, I know. I’ve stated on many occasions that I really don’t like musicals, but it’s starting to get really tough to say that I don’t like musicals when I have given so many positive reviews. This time is My Fair Lady, a film that I thought I would hate but ended up really liking and enjoying. Damn you, great musicals. Stop changing my mind.
Directed by George Cukor with a screenplay by Alan Jay Lerner, My Fair Lady is a musical comedy-drama film adapted from the 1956 Lerner and Loewe stage musical based on George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 stage play Pygmalion. The film revolves around a poor Cockney flower-seller who overhears an arrogant phonetics professor, as he bets that he could teach the flower-seller how to speak “proper” English and presentable in high society. In the grand city of London, Professor Henry Higgins (Harrison), a scholar of phonetics, believes that the accent and tone of one’s voice determines a person’s prospects in society. He meets a young flower-seller woman Eliza Doolittle (Hepburn), during a chance meeting, who speaks with a strong Cockney accent. Taking a bet from Pickering, who is also a phonetics scholar, Higgins boasts he could teach even Eliza Doolittle to speak so well he could pass her off as a duchess at an embassy ball. At first, Eliza is against it, but with dreams of high society filling her head, she agrees to speech lessons to improve her life prospects. Soon Higgins and Eliza clash with each other and their lessons but soon form an unlikely bond. Eliza soon transforms from a pauper to a princess as the ball draws closer.
Okay, my people, let’s talk for a second. I highly enjoyed this film, but I have some issues with the ending. Let’s talk about the plot. I thought the plot was very entertaining and engaging, even without the songs. The whole movie is a stuck-up, know-it-all doctor who bets that he can teach a poor girl how to speak “proper” English and make her presentable in high society. In simpler terms, homeboy wants to give a total makeover to a street girl and convince rich, high maintenance people that she is one of them. What a challenge to take on because Eliza speaking was tough to understand sometimes.
I found the whole process hilarious and entertaining. From the beginning when Higgins throws down the bet that he can change Eliza into a proper girl in 6 months. You think Eliza wouldn’t take it, but she decides to do it as she walks around and thinks about it. Homegirl rolls up to Higgins’ house with this bright-ass hat, her best clothes, and states she wants to change, only for Higgins to pretty much give the “nope, I’m good.” It wasn’t only until Pickering stated that he would pay all the expenses that Higgins pretty much said challenged accepted.
The first thing that Higgins ordered was a freakin bath. Homegirl must’ve stunk up the joint. Then the training and fun began. Watching Eliza on the machine saying the letter “A” repeatedly is hilarious. Now I want to put a disclaimer. Eliza spoke decent before. Her dialect made it seem off, but hey, everyone grew up in a different place. I love seeing the process of when no matter how hard Eliza worked and how she constantly got insulted that she schemed in her head. The song Eliza sings is one that everyone sings when dealing with an unruly or pain in the ass person. Then Higgins goes to drastic extremes by putting marbles in Eliza’s mouth and commands her to talk. I saw this once before, and people didn’t get scared of someone choking. Who does this, and how did this become a way of making someone speak properly? Glad science has changed that.
When all hope seems lost, Eliza starts to speak with excellent speech and without any dialect. Homegirl can pronounce her words and just seems like a freakin robot. This leads to what I think is one of the best scenes in the whole movie. The crew takes Eliza to the horse race with such posh and stuck-up people. Eliza rolls up in her soft pink dress and big ass hat. Homegirl hat could’ve shielded like 10 kids from the sun. As Eliza meets everyone, she is like a robot with her smile and how she talks because it seems unnatural to her. Then we get to the horse racing. As Eliza watches the race after placing a bet, the excitement gets to her, and her natural voice comes out as she wants a horse to move its ass. One woman hit the holy spirit faint. REALLY? You going to faint like that.
The movie proceeds to the ultimate test and whether Higgins did the damn thing. It is time for the ball. I want to say how freakin BEAUTIFUL Eliza is when she comes down the stairs before the ball in that dress. Damn Gurl! The queen recognizes her beauty, and while dancing, Eliza dances with Zoltan Karpathy, a Hungarian phonetics expert trained by Higgins, who is an impostor detector. After his dance, he states that Eliza is a Hungarian princess, making Higgins laugh aloud.
Now, everything would seem great because Eliza passed the test, but it doesn’t, as everyone gives Higgins credit, and Eliza looks so sad. Everyone just disregarded her like she was nothing. Straight up Princess to Pauper again. When she voices her anger, Higgins seems to not care, and she even throws his slippers at him and then bounces. Yet, this is where I became PISSED at the whole movie. After everything and how he treated her, he missed her, but she went back to him. Leave his insult ass, and he is relatively older than you. Hey, besides that, it was a great movie.
I also like how the movie also portrayed Eliza’s father. He spoke well but was a drunk and mooched off his daughter. Yet, the people around him love him. His world changes when he meets with Higgins about Eliza. First off, dude straight up sold his daughter for 5 pounds and is a very moral man and tells it how it is. When Higgins stated he should go meet someone he thinks would be right for him, the next time we see him, he is wearing fancy clothes and getting married. Yet, he is pissed because he has to be all fancy now.
Now for the music. Many songs were enjoyable in this film. First, let’s talk about “Why Can’t the English Learn to Speak?” I liked this song because it makes you think of all the different dialects of English in the world. It’s also funny because dude straight was talking down about his countrymen. One of the favorite songs in the WHOLE movie was “Just You Wait.” This is by far the most perfect song in the world. How many of us fantasize about doing something evil against someone and getting them back? I am raising my hand high and proud. I love the end of the song when Eliza gets caught, and Higgins just looks at her with a strange look. The final song I want to talk about is “With a Little Bit of Luck.” We all need a little bit of luck to make it through the day and find the easy way out of doing things and responsibilities.
Now for the cast. First is my girl, Audrey Hepburn, as Eliza Doolittle. How in the holy f**k doesn’t she get nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress? This was one of the biggest snubs. To dub over her singing is probably another travesty. Hepburn was excellent as Eliza. I love her sassiness, the way she tried to present herself as a lady at the beginning, and her awe. She was simply amazing in this film.
Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins was equally entertaining. I found Higgins so freakin annoying with his stuck-up attitude and know-it-all personality. He guessed where people were from the get-go, and straight-up insulted almost everyone besides his mother. You don’t insult mama. I really didn’t like him, and in the end, he did get a little bit of payback as he missed Eliza. I will give it up to Harrison, he knows how to play his roles and is still Dr. Dolittle in my eyes.
My Fair Lady is one of the best musicals, and I highly enjoyed it. It reminds me of those movies that changes an “ugly duckling” into a swan. The funny parts of this film are Eliza’s training along with the horse racing scene. One must commend Eliza’s ambition. The cast is phenomenal, with Hepburn being snubbed by the Academy. Harrison is as great and charming as ever. Watch this film when you have a chance and feel like singing.
