G | 2h 50min | Drama, Family, Musical | 25 December 1964 (USA)
Snobbish phonetics Professor Henry Higgins agrees to a wager that he can make flower girl Eliza Doolittle presentable in high society.
Alan Jay Lerner (book), George Bernard Shaw (from a play by) (as Bernard Shaw) | 1 more credit »
Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway | See full cast & crew »
2,438 ( 1,003)
Audrey Hepburn's Son, Sean Hepburn Ferrer, Reflects on His Mother's Elegance, Authenticity, and Legacy
08 January 2021 | The Film Stage
'Audrey' filmmaker Helena Coan: 'Audrey Hepburn showed another way for women to look'
31 December 2020 | Gold Derby
Arthur P. Siccardi Dies: Veteran Broadway Production Supervisor Was 89
28 December 2020 | Deadline
Best Picture Winners at the Golden Globes and Oscars
Beyond the Top 250: IMDb Staff's Favorite Movies
Grandes Fitas
EJ classics x
1001 Movies:Musicals To Watch
Best musicals
1 TOP FAVORITES
Search for "My Fair Lady" on Amazon.com
Title: My Fair Lady (1964)
Movie Rhymes
Blockbuster Oscar-Nominated Best Picture Movies
How about ending the film with an interrogation mark?
Tony/Oscar Crossovers
Favorite Oscar Best Picture Remake or Reboot Nominee?
Favorite Oscar-Winning Best Picture Romance?
Complete credited cast:
Audrey Hepburn ... Eliza Doolittle
Rex Harrison ... Professor Henry Higgins
Stanley Holloway ... Alfred P. Doolittle
Wilfrid Hyde-White ... Colonel Hugh Pickering
Gladys Cooper ... Mrs. Higgins
Jeremy Brett ... Freddy Eynsford-Hill
Theodore Bikel ... Zoltan Karpathy
Mona Washbourne ... Mrs. Pearce
Isobel Elsom ... Mrs. Eynsford-Hill
John Holland ... Butler
Pompous phonetics Professor Henry Higgins (Sir Rex Harrison) is so sure of his abilities that he takes it upon himself to transform a Cockney working-class girl into someone who can pass for a cultured member of high society. His subject turns out to be the lovely Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn), who agrees to speech lessons to improve her job prospects. Higgins and Eliza clash, then form an unlikely bond, one that is threatened by aristocratic suitor Freddy Eynsford-Hill (Jeremy Brett). Written by Jwelch5742
king george v character | 1910s | class differences | class prejudice | remake | See All (102) »
More Loverly Than Ever! See more »
Drama | Family | Musical | Romance
G | See all certifications »
U.S. television viewers had something of a Sir Rex Harrison film-fest on Thanksgiving week, 1973. Doctor Dolittle (1967) aired on Thanksgiving Eve on ABC, followed by this movie on NBC on Thanksgiving Day. This was the U.S. commercial television premiere of both movies, and was probably not a coincidence. See more »
As often happens in film, actors who live in sunny Hollywood reveal themselves as mere actors, and not the actual characters they are playing on screen. Professor Higgins, a tweedy Englishman, who has lived and worked indoors his whole life, has the deep, burnished tan of actor Rex Harrison. See more »
[sounds from crowd, occasionally a word or phrase, indistinct and mostly not associated with a character]
Mrs. Eynsford-Hill: Don't just stand there, Freddy, go and find a cab.
Freddy Eynsford-Hill: All right, I'll get it, I'll get it.
In the posters, playbills and the original cast album for the stage version of "My Fair Lady", the credits always read "based on Bernard Shaw's 'Pygmalion' ", letting the audience know what play "My Fair Lady" was actually adapted from. The movie credits simply read "from a play by Bernard Shaw". See more »
In the remastered version of the film, some of the scene changes are changed from sudden cuts to wipe outs, as they probably were when the film was released. When CBS Fox released it on video originally, they were changed to sudden cuts. See more »
Featured in AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies: America's Greatest Movies (1998) See more »
(1956) (uncredited)
Music by Frederick Loewe
Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
Performed by Jeremy Brett (dubbed by Bill Shirley)
A musical with a brain as well as a heart
28 August 2003 | by eliza-doolittle – See all my reviews
There's a lot of negative things been said about Audrey Hepburn's interpretation of the role of Eliza. Perhaps she's not ideal in the earliest scenes of the movie - her "dirtiness" is never quite believable - but it has to be said that despite this smallish drawback she still glows, and makes an amazing Eliza overall.
The reason for this is simple; Audrey Hepburn brings her "own spark of divine fire", (to quote Higgins) to the role and her vulnerability, mixed with her sweet, naive charm and even her wonderfully juvenile pettishness shown in "Just You Wait" all prove what a talented actress she really is. For an example of this, just watch Eliza's facial expression at Ascot, when she realises her opportunity to demonstrate her new-found mastery of the English tongue - sweetly hilarious.
MFL has been criticized as being too romanticized, too overblown. I disagree; musicals are suposed to be lavish affairs, and none pull it off quite so well as "My Fair Lady" does. It's a momentous film but it has its subtle points: watch the way in which Eliza's eyes are centred on Higgins when she enters at the ball, and the way in which the two of them stare at each other for a few seconds at the top of the stairs a few moments later.
It musn't be overlooked that, thanks to its being based on a Bernard Shaw play, "My Fair Lady" has what the great majority of musicals lack: a deeper meaning and something really quite profound to say.
The actor in the role of Colonel Pickering is a little weak, but it must be said that Rex Harrison IS Henry Higgins. In a lot of ways (in fact, in most ways) Higgins has an objectionable personality: rude, snobbish, impatient and even misogynistic, but somehow Rex Harrison pulls it all off and makes us like Higgins without betraying the character. As to romance, his song "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" is an ode to the kind of love which sneaks up on you. Overall, this movie is romantic, but not too sentimental. It has just enough romance to be dramatically fulfilling, but it never becomes soppy or mawkish. The word "love" is never mentioned at all and the two leads never even kiss. The famous end sequence is perfect and does the movie justice; after all, a big happy bow tied around a perfect romance at the end would simply not fit with everything we have learned about the two protagonists.
Q: Is 'My Fair Lady' based on a book?
Q: Who (or what) is Pygmalion?
25 December 1964 (USA) See more »
My Fair Lady See more »
Backlot, Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA See more »
$354,764, 17 February 2019
Warner Bros. See more »
4-Track Stereo (35 mm magnetic prints)| 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints)| Dolby Stereo (70 mm prints) (1994 re-release)| DTS (35 mm prints) (1994 re-release)| Dolby Digital (35 mm prints) (1994 re-release)