Oscar-winning adaptation of the Broadway hit about an English professor who teaches a cockney merchant to... (Learn more)
Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway (View All)
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Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway
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
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US Release Date
1/1/64
MPAA Rating
Rated G
Running Time
170 mins.
Language
- English
Box Office Total
$447,579
Awards
- Winner of the Best Picture - Musical or Comedy award at the 1964 Hollywood Foreign Press Association [F Awards.
- Winner of the Best Color Art Direction award at the 1964 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Winner of the Best Color Cinematography award at the 1964 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Supporting Actor award at the 1964 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical award at the 1964 Hollywood Foreign Press Association [F Awards.
- Winner of the Best Picture award at the 1964 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Winner of the Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or award at the 1964 Hollywood Foreign Press Association [F Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Supporting Actress award at the 1964 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Winner of the Best Director award at the 1964 Directors Guild of America [Festival/A Awards.
- Winner of the Best Sound award at the 1964 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Winner of the Best Film - Any Source award at the 1965 British Academy of Film and Television Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Picture award at the 1964 National Board of Review [Festival/Awa Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion award at the 1964 Hollywood Foreign Press Association [F Awards.
- Winner of the Best Color Costume Design award at the 1964 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Winner of the Best Director award at the 1964 Hollywood Foreign Press Association [F Awards.
- Winner of the Best Actor award at the 1964 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Winner of the Best Director award at the 1964 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Editing award at the 1964 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Winner of the Best Picture award at the 1964 New York Film Critics Circle [Festival Awards.
- Nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay award at the 1964 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Winner of the Best Actor award at the 1964 New York Film Critics Circle [Festival Awards.
- Winner of the Best Adapted Score award at the 1964 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie Awards.
- Winner of the 100 Greatest American Movies award at the 1998 American Film Institute [Festival/Awar Awards.
Distributor
- 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
- Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution
- Warner Brothers
