One of the most intense debates I ever observed in an online forum had nothing to do with politics or religion or race or any hot-button issues. Instead, it centered around whether or not it was a mistake to cast Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle in the film version of \u201cMy Fair Lady.\u201d
\n<\/p>\n
On one side of the debate is Team Julie Andrews, which considered it an injustice of grand proportions that she was denied the chance to recreate her Broadway performance for the Warner Bros. film production. On the other side was Team Audrey Hepburn, who insisted their favorite star was perfect for the part even though her singing was dubbed by Marni Nixon.<\/p>\n
I have no complaints with Audrey Hepburn\u2019s presence in \u201cMy Fair Lady\u201d \u2013 if anything, I considered having her on screen as the least of the film\u2019s problems. <\/p>\n
Yes, \u201cMy Fair Lady\u201d is a wonderfully produced film \u2013 Harry Stradling\u2019s cinematography and Cecil Beaton\u2019s costuming and production design coupled with the glorious Lerner and Loewe score offers a feast for the eyes and ears. The performances are across-the-board splendid \u2013 and film buffs with a keen eye can spot old-time character actors including Henry Daniell, Alan Napier and Grady Sutton in uncredited bit parts.<\/p>\n
But while I like \u201cMy Fair Lady,\u201d I can\u2019t say that I love it. For all its style, the substance leaves me cold. Perhaps it is because there is an obvious sense of artificiality to the proceedings \u2013 director George Cukor allowed the film to keep the theatricality of its setting rather than open it up for on-location London scenes. The key segments of the Ascot race or \u201cThe Street Where You Live\u201d were obviously studio-bound \u2013 and for a film made on a then-record $17 million budget, it is strange that \u201cMy Fair Lady\u201d looks like a filmed play rather a cinematic extravaganza. <\/p>\n
By contemporary standards, the misogynistic badgering of Rex Harrison\u2019s Henry Higgins to Audrey Hepburn\u2019s Eliza Doolittle often comes across as nasty rather than amusing. However, this unpleasantness results in one brief but astonishing moment that affirms the casting of Hepburn \u2013 when they are leaving for the embassy ball, Higgins walks out ahead of Eliza, oblivious that good manners requires that he escort her. Eliza looks down momentarily with a painful expression, clearly upset at his thoughtless behavior. It takes a few second before he recognizes his error and properly escorts her outside. Hepburn\u2019s grace and beauty \u2013 she was never more exquisite on-screen \u2013 cannot hide the brief pang of hurt in Higgins\u2019 faux pas, and for that stunning moment \u201cMy Fair Lady\u201d feels like a real movie with real people rather than a theatrical romp.<\/p>\n
As for Julie Andrews \u2013 well, she did okay for herself without being involved in this film, and she had the last laugh when she accepted a Golden Globe Award as the star of \u201cMary Poppins\u201d and mischievously included Jack Warner among her thanks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the most intense debates I ever observed in an online forum had nothing to do with politics or religion or race or any hot-button issues. Instead, it centered around whether or not it was a mistake to cast Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle in the film version of \u201cMy Fair Lady.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":46137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1369],"tags":[2481,3599,3598,2000,3596,3597],"class_list":["post-46136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-retro-cinema","tag-audrey-hepburn","tag-cecil-beaton","tag-george-cukor","tag-musicals","tag-my-fair-lady","tag-rex-harrison"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46136"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46162,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46136\/revisions\/46162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}