1964
Director: George Cukor Writer: Alan Jay Lerner Actors: Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Jeremy Brett
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You may or may not know that this movie is based on George Bernard Shaw's crypto-feminist play Pygmalion. The parallels with the Pygmalion myth are strong, as Professor Higgins literally "creates" a new Eliza, only to find she's not his anymore.
One day, a young Cockney woman named Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) walks into the home of Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison), asking to be taught how to "talk proper" so she can get a job at a flower shop. Higgins is attracted to the challenge and makes a bet with his partner that within six monthes, he can so thoroughly retrain her that she will be able to fool even experts into thinking she's a lady. At first, Eliza is impatient with the tedious exercises, but Professor Higgins succeeds in retraining her and wins the bet. By then, he's fallen in love with her, but she dislikes being treated like a human doll and marries a poor man (Jeremy Brett) that she's going to have to provide for.
The sets and costumes, not surprisingly, are gorgeous. This remains one of the most sumptious movies of all time. The songs and dances are also generally spectacular. My favorites are Hepburn's blissed out "I Could Have Danced All Night" and the song and dance right before the races at Ascot, where the wealthy people parade slowly and stiffly around in bizarre tableau poses. It's an apt metaphor. The entire cast is marvelous, especially Rex Harrison, but the real star of the show is Audrey Hepburn, who's just magnificently elegant and emotive, and pulls off her dual accents perfectly.
I did dock this movie half a star for too-simplistic portraits of happy, carefree poor people and a little too much staginess, but don't let that discourage you.
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