My Fair Lady is an American musical based on Bernard Shaw's masterpiece 'Pygmalion'. It does not quite show the point of the play, which was Shaw's message to the audience about whether people really should be put in different classes. the comedy in the story is Higgins's arrogance and Eliza's lower classness clashing with the upper class. My Fair Lady does show the comedy, but strays away from the point of the story. The film for some reason concentrates on the romance between Freddy and Eliza and Higgins and Eliza which is NOT relevant to the story. They also deliberately changed the tea scene to the races at Ascots, which there really wasn't any need to do, anyone who thinks that they can re-write Shaw's work better than Shaw himself are very much mistaken. Thankfully, what saves this film is Sir Rex Harrison's brilliant performance as Higgins and bringing the spirit of the play into the film. Audrey Hepburn does try as Eliza, but un-fortunatly she doesn't grasp it. In her defence, she did not spend a lot of time in Britain. Wilfrid Hyde White, Stanley Holloway, Gladys Cooper and Jeremy Brett were all fine choices for their roles and there are good songs in it (even though they do help the film stray away from the spirit of the play). I did actually see this before i saw the fantastic and (much better than this) 1938 film 'Pygmalion' with Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller, where they do stick to the original play and that film is a legend.
I strongly recommend this film if you love musicals (which i don't) but if you respect Shaw, you must see Pygmalion first, understand what it really is about and then watch this so you can understand what i mean.
I strongly recommend this film if you love musicals (which i don't) but if you respect Shaw, you must see Pygmalion first, understand what it really is about and then watch this so you can understand what i mean.