Cheap My Fair Lady (Two-Disc Special Edition) (DVD) (George Cukor, Suzie Galler) Price

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Customer Reviews of My Fair Lady (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Loved the Lipstick; Hated the Pig
Loved the lipstick; hated the pig. <
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>"My Fair Lady" is an elaborate wedding cake; it offers all the rewards and punishments of that overblown confection. The opening credits alone stuff you till you can't move: under white titles, lush, buttercream peonies, daisies and carnations lounge as if they were odalisques in a harem. You just want to bury your face in their petals and drown in scent. <
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>And then, after he's proved he can wow you with white alone, Academy Award winning director George Cukor pops your eyes: a magenta gown and exotic, feathered headdress bedeck a woman descending a stair. She and the vintage luxury car she enters, before driving out of the movie forever, are onscreen for mere seconds. <
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>No top hat is without its luster; no cobblestone lane without the dawn- or dusk- echoing heelstrike of a lovelorn swain. <
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>The elaborate gold wallpaper in Higgins' home writhes like some Edwardian opium eater's hallucination. This is juxtaposed with grey housekeeper Mrs. Pearce's (Mona Washbourne) bosomy officiousness. The Ascot scene juxtaposes hysterical lyrics -- "Pulses rushing! Faces flushing! Heartbeats speed up! I have never been so keyed up!" with the funniest parody of British stiff upper lips. And the Transylvanian Queen is played by a real Baroness, Bina Rothschild. <
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>The songs exemplify the best of Broadway: "Wouldn't it be Loverly?" "The Street Where You Live," "I Could have Danced All Night," "The Rain in Spain," "I've grown Accustomed to Her Face." <
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>Audrey Hepburn is as close to a fairy princess as any star who's graced us. She is beautiful and she's got soul and intelligence to burn. The attention she brings to one small scene -- she asks Freddy's mother to compensate her for Freddy's having trod on her violets -- her body performs a little ballet; her face broadcasts exactly who Eliza Doolittle is -- a girl of poverty, decency, ambition, and wit -- set the screen a-sparkle. <
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>"Sexy Rexy" earned his nickname by running through women like I run through kitchen sponges; there were two suicides. Harrison *is* Higgins (In the same way that he was also Captain Gregg, King Mongkut, Julius Cesar and Pope Julius. He really owned these roles.) Harrison is entirely believable, even though his performance is stagey, larger than life, and his dialogue frequently over-the-top. <
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>"My Fair Lady" was based on George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion," which took its title from a sublime Greek myth. Sculptor, and misogynist, Pygmalion sees no need for a woman in his life. Perhaps thanks to unconscious motivation, he carves a woman: Galatea. Over time, the proud bachelor metamorphosizes into a humble supplicant. Please, he begs of love goddess Aphrodite, grant me this one boon: allow my Galatea to come to life; allow me to love her. Just as his hard arrogance melts, and he resurrects to a new life of love, Galatea's marble melts, and she lives to love her Pygmalion. <
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>Shaw appropriated the title, but he violated the myth, perhaps in self-exculpation. Shaw was excessively attached to his mother; he never had sex with his wife, and he threatened his mistresses. Shaw didn't allow *his* creation, Higgins, to overcome his problem with women, to experience on the page or the stage what eluded arrogant Shaw in life. <
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>One definition of "main character": it's the character who changes. The title of this myth is "Pygmalion," the name of the sculptor. It's *his* journey that has made this tale poignant to two plus millennia of fans. Where there is life, there is change. Death rejects change. Shaw's Pygmalion, Higgins, may as well be dead. <
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>It is a convention of Romantic movies that the lead couple "meet cute." They do, in "My Fair Lady." Language scholar Henry Higgins is about to travel to India to meet scholar Colonel Pickering, and Colonel Pickering is traveling to India to meet Higgins. In London, they have a star-crossed meeting. <
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>Higgins' eyes twinkle when he looks at Pickering. He is endlessly affectionate to, appreciative of, and polite with Colonel Pickering. <
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>Eliza? Higgins treats her, from start to finish, with utter contempt, and more than a little softcore S&M. He denies her food. He shoves marbles into her mouth and forces her to attempt to recite. She struggles; she can't; she swallows a marble. Higgins shoves more in her. Ha, ha, ha. There are websites that cater to this sort of kink. Higgins, in a very grim scene, calls Eliza an "insect," a "creature." By the end of the movie, when Eliza is in Higgins' presence, she keeps silent till spoken to, and looks at the floor. And he looks, not only old enough to be her father, but perhaps her grandfather. <
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>When Eliza makes her two breakthroughs -- the "Rain in Spain" scene and the "Embassy ball" scene, Higgins doesn't so much as look at Eliza; he celebrates passionately with -- Pickering. Higgins doesn't say, "I think *you've* got it" to Eliza, he says, "I think *she's* got it" to Pickering. After the "Spain" scene, Higgins interrupts his arm-in-arm ascent of the stairs, to bed, with Pickering, to playact dressing Pickering up in a gown; later he says that Eliza's Ascot gown doesn't fit because he and Pickering bought it together, without Eliza. <
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>Harrison and Hepburn have zero chemistry; even in still photos. Harrison looks overcome with contempt and distaste; she looks terrified. <
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>Sure, Higgins admits, "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face." Of course. Eliza knows where his slippers are. In the end, the writing is so phony and transparent you want to FedEx Shaw to the National Organization of Women. Eliza accepts an unchanged relationship with an unchanged Higgins. Uh, huh. We believe that. Not. <
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>Imagine how fine this film could have been had we had a scene where we see Higgins undergo the change that rocked Pygmalion's world, and some of our own, as well, when we finally found love. <
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Way Over-Rated, and Often VERY Unpleasant!
Yes, it is a nice Cinderella story, and Audrey plays a fine role.There is an excellent message about the ingrained Brit Class System circa 1910..And there are some nice costumes, mainly women's hats, at the Horse race..Add to this a few memorable songs..So what is the problem with this ? Mainly, the near- nauseating character of Higgins, an old fashioned snob and misogynist of the ugliest type, who we have to watch sneer and scold for the better part of two hours! Not pretty! True, Pickering is a nice counterpoint, and really a decent old chap, but Higgins is the main character, and to watch and listen to this old goat goes well beyond a pleasant way to spend time! The song and dance numbers are hardly even third rate. Any comparison with a 1940's-50's MGM musical puts this one to shame! No dancing to speak of, and very low production quality..Then again, this was Warner, not known for musicals!..And there is a claustrophic sense here that says , "How can I get away from this miserable phonetics teacher?" It's near impossible..I can think of at least 30 musicals far and away above this, not just MGM, but Fred and Ginger, and so forth..In fact, 3-stars may be too kind for this one, since it is way below the hype!..Also, check out the 1930's PYGMALION with Wendy Hiller and Leslie Howard, and you can easily see how almost the entire movie (MY FAIR LADY) was completely taken from PYGMALION, including the sets and dialogue..About the only thing new is the songs, which are fun and amusing, but not really in the top tier of great musical tunes.

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Is the Creator Responsible for His Creation?
I had not watched this marvelous movie for many years when I took the opportunity to watch it again. The movie is a little stiff in places, but that stiffness seemed, to me, to enhance the formality of English high society. Audrey Hepburn belies that stiffness with her free-spirited characterization of Eliza Doolittle. Eliza contrasts nicely with Henry Higgin's mother, played by veteran actor Gladys Cooper ("The Happiest Millionaire," "The Song of Bernadette," and "The List of Adrian Messenger"). Mrs. Higgins is quite proper and perfect in every situation. Henry, played by the incomparable Sir Rex Harrison, is disdainful and aloof. Henry believes he is the remote scientific observer who can categorize and stereotype everyone, and is not affected by his surroundings. <
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>A problem arises when Henry Higgins bets Colonel Pickering (Wilfrid Hyde-White, "Ten Little Indians" (1965) and "In Search of the Castaways") that he could take anyone, such as Eliza Doolittle, and turn them into something like a lady's maid or a shop girl. Colonel Pickering takes Henry up on his bet, volunteering to finance the experiment. <
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>Looking at the next part of this movie with five decades of life, I quickly saw the problem that Henry was getting into. Henry was taking a human life adjusted to a certain set of surroundings, modifying that life so that it no longer fit in, and was then prepared to cast that life adrift once he proved his point. Henry failed to see that he did anything wrong, and therein lies the irony and pathos of this movie. The question a first-time watcher asks is whether Henry will be able to grow up at last and realize that people require compassion and empathy and are more than science experiments. <
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>In addition to a marvelous story, this movie boasts wonderful music and excellent sets. Though some of Audrey Hepburn's singing survived, Marni Nixon sang most of the music attributed to Hepburn. Nixon's singing was phenomenal and her singing voice is close enough to Hepburn's that it sounds as though Hepburn could be singing. <
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>Other singing numbers contained extensive choreography on expansive sets. Two complexly choreographed songs that come to mind are "Get Me to the Church on Time" and the "Ascot Gavotte." <
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>This movie featured an array of sets depicting street scenes and interior scenes. Though the street scenes were excellent, my favorite set in the movie has always been Henry Higgin's incredible library. I would love to have his library in my house, though duplicating that library would be incredibly expensive. <
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>This movie won 20 awards, which includes eight Oscars. Rex Harrison won the Best Actor Oscar and the movie won the Best Picture Oscar, both highly coveted awards. Harrison won many other awards for this film, and "My Fair Lady" became the most awarded movie of 1965. <
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>Of course, awards do not necessarily mean a film is either good or great. However, Rex Harrison, Audrey Hepburn and Wilfrid Hyde-White have such incredible acting skills and such screen presence that they make this film a joy to watch. I was spell-bound as I watched Audrey Hepburn become Eliza Doolittle and capture the hearts of everyone in the movie. Rex Harrison was incredible as Henry Higgins. This movie was either Harrison's best, or one of his best. <
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>The story is also captivating. Henry Higgins experiments with the life of a human being. What Henry Higgins failed to realize is that once he became involved with his subject, he lost his objectivity and learned compassion. Love can come from compassion. The only thing that surprised me in this viewing of the movie is that I previously had not realized how early in the movie that Eliza Doolittle had come to love Henry Higgins. <
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>"My Fair Lady" is one of the best musicals of all time. The combination of story, acting, singing and sets is amazing. Fans of musicals and love stories will enjoy this movie, even on multiple viewings. <
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>Enjoy! <
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