A more visually inspired director - Vincente Minnelli or William Wyler - might have brought a little more élan to the work, but, with elegance and taste, George Cukor rightly preserves the theatricality of the enterprise and provides a joyful experience to savour again and again. My Fair Lady started life as a stage musical by Lerner and Loewe, based on George Bernard Shaws Pygmalion, and starring Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison. My Fair Lady, like Shaws play before it, revolves around the gruff and ill- mannered phoneticist Henry Higgins and the impoverished flower girl eliza Doolittle. If not coarse enough for the Covent Garden flower girl, nobody, but nobody, could ever blossom as beautifully as Hepburn does in the Cecil Beaton costumes later on, and, despite being dubbed in the singing duties by Marni Nixon, her portrayal is funny and heart-warming in equal doses. At the time, there was criticism that Julie Andrews didn't re-create her original Broadway role, but Audrey Hepburn is still quite wonderful as Eliza. The story unfolds as Professor Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) makes a bet that he can transform flower girl Eliza Dolittle into a high society lady and ends up falling in love with his 'project'. It boasts superb performances from Rex Harrison - repeating his stage success as Henry Higgins - and Stanley Holloway as Alfred P Doolittle (Warner Bros wanted James Cagney). Both the play and the later musical spin the myth of Pygmalion. History My Fair Lady 50 Years Later: Why My Fair Lady Is Better Than You Remember Audrey Hepburn in a scene from the film My Fair Lady Archive Photos / Getty Images By Charlotte. This sumptuous adaptation of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's smash Broadway version of George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion won eight well-deserved Oscars. My Fair Lady G 1964, Musical, 2h 50m 94 Tomatometer 90 Reviews 90 Audience Score 100,000+ Ratings What to know Critics Consensus George Cukor's elegant, colorful adaptation of the beloved stage. My Fair Lady is a musical adaptation of the play Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw (1912).
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