Rex Harrison: ‘My Fair Lady’ (1964)
My Fair Lady, the iconic stage and screen musical, is a modern-day interpretation of the Greek myth of Pygmalion, based on the stage musical of the same name.
The protagonist (actually anti-hero) is a snobbish professor circa 1910s London, who takes a bet that he can make a crude flower girl presentable as first class lady in circles of high society.
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At present, it’s a controversial subject that has become the film’s most criticized aspect as the years have passed, even if it’s still considered an elegant movie and great material for performers to act and sing.
British Rex Harrison plays the professor, a cynical and misogynistic man who doesn’t really know any better.
Harrison, who also played the part on stage, is always charming and often commanding, but his acting is cold and calculated, lacking passion and soul.
His singing (he speaks his lyrics more often than he intones them) is underwhelming.
It does not help that his co-star, Audrey Hepburn, is also miscast in the film’s first half, when she plays working class girl with no manner.
In general, as I pointed out in my 1994 biography of George Cukor, Master of Elegance, My Far Lady is nt one of the directir’s strong movies, let alone musicals.
In that respect, it’s the 1954 A Star Is Born, with Judy Garland (in her greatest dramatic performance), which qualifies as Cukor’s Best musical–and one of his very best movies.
Credits:
Release Date: October 21, 1964
Director George Cukor
Cast: Rex Harrison, Audrey Hepburn Jeremy Brett, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Stanley Holloway, Gladys Cooper.
Rating: G
Running time: 170
