At one time the longest-running Broadway musical, My Fair Lady was adapted by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe from the George Bernard Shaw comedy Pygmalion. Outside Covent Garden on a rainy evening in 1912, dishevelled cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) meets linguistic expert Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison). After delivering a musical tirade against "verbal class distinction," Higgins tells his companion Colonel Pickering (Wilfred Hyde-White) that, within six months, he could transform Eliza into a proper lady, simply by teaching her proper English. The next morning, face and hands freshly scrubbed, Eliza presents herself on Higgins' doorstep, offering to pay him to teach her to be a lady. "It's almost irresistable," clucks Higgins. "She's so deliciously low. So horribly dirty." He turns his mission into a sporting proposition, making a bet with Pickering that he can accomplish his six-month miracle to turn Eliza into a lady. This is one of the all-time great movie musicals, featuring classic songs and the legendary performances of Harrison, repeating his stage role after Cary Grant wisely turned down the movie job, and Stanley Holloway as Eliza's dustman father. Julie Andrews originated the role of Eliza on Broadway but producer Jack Warner felt that Andrews, at the time unknown beyond Broadway, wasn't bankable; Hepburn's singing was dubbed by Marni Nixon, who also dubbed Natalie Wood in West Side Story (1961). Andrews instead made Mary Poppins, for which she was given the Best Actress Oscar, beating out Hepburn. The movie, however, won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Harrison, and five other Oscars, and it remains one of the all-time best movie musicals. Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Genre: Musical
- Category Musical Comedy, Musical Romance
- Theme: Opposites Attract, Mentors, Culture Clash, Fish Out of Water, Pygmalion Stories, Rags To Riches
- Studio: Paramount
- Run Time: 02 hr 52 min
- Language: English
- Subtitle Language: Portuguese
- Picture Format: widescreen
- Format: DVD
- Release Date: October 6, 2009
- Lead Actor: Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Gladys Cooper
- Supporting Actor: Laurie Main, Oscar Beregi, Victor Rogers, Walter Burke, William Beckley, Jack Greening, John Holland, Mona Washbourne, Theodore Bikel, Jeremy Brett, Marni Nixon, Maurice Dallimore, Colin Campbell, Frank Baker, Henry Daniell, John McLiam, Marjorie Bennett, Michael St. Clair, Pat O'Moore, David Robel, Sam Harris, Diana Bourbon, Allyson Daniell, Alma Lawton, Brendan Dillon, Roy Dean, Queenie Leonard, Nick Navarro, Moyna MacGill, James O'Hara, Grady Sutton, Bill Shirley, Betty Blythe, Ben Wright, Barbara Pepper, Ron Whelan, Owen McGiveney, Lillian Kemble-Cooper, John Mitchum, John Alderson, Isobel Elsom, Hilda Plowright, Gwendolyn Watts, Geoffrey Steele, Charles Fredericks, Ayllene Gibbons, Alan Napier
- Director: George Cukor
awards
- Awards: Academy Awards (8), Golden Globe Awards (2)
- Winner: Golden Globe Awards, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, 1964, Rex Harrison
- Winner: Golden Globe Awards, Best Director, 1964, George Cukor
- Winner: Academy Awards, Best Sound, 1964, George Groves
- Winner: Academy Awards, Best Color Cinematography, 1964, Harry Stradling
- Winner: Academy Awards, Best Color Art Direction, 1964, Cecil Beaton, George James Hopkins, Gene Allen
- Winner: Academy Awards, Best Color Costume Design, 1964, Cecil Beaton
- Winner: Academy Awards, Best Director, 1964, George Cukor
- Winner: Academy Awards, Best Picture, 1964, Jack L. Warner
- Winner: Academy Awards, Best Actor, 1964, Rex Harrison
- Winner: Academy Awards, Best Adapted Score, 1964, Andre Previn
- Nominations: Academy Awards (4), Golden Globe Awards (2)
- Nominee: Academy Awards, Best Supporting Actress, 1964, Gladys Cooper
- Nominee: Academy Awards, Best Editing, 1964, William H. Ziegler
- Nominee: Golden Globe Awards, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, 1964, Stanley Holloway
- Nominee: Academy Awards, Best Supporting Actor, 1964, Stanley Holloway
- Nominee: Academy Awards, Best Adapted Screenplay, 1964, Alan Jay Lerner
- Nominee: Golden Globe Awards, Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Pictur, 1964, Audrey Hepburn
