My Fair Lady (40th Anniversary 2-Disc Special Edition) [1965]
RRP: £13.99
Our Price: £4.98 (subject to change)
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
Hollywood's legendary "woman's director," George Cukor (The Women, The Philadelphia Story), transformed Audrey Hepburn into street-urchin-turned-proper-lady Eliza Doolittle in this film version of the Lerner and Loewe musical. Based on George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, My Fair Lady stars Rex Harrison as linguist Henry Higgins (Harrison also played the role, opposite Julie Andrews, on stage), who draws Eliza into a social experiment that works almost too well. The letterbox edition of this film on video certainly pays tribute to the pageantry of Cukor's set, but it also underscores a certain visual stiffness that can slow viewer enthusiasm just a tad. But it's really star wattage that keeps this film exciting, that and such great songs as "On the Street Where You Live" and "I Could Have Danced All Night." Actor Jeremy Brett, who gained a huge following later in life portraying Sherlock Holmes, is quite electric as Eliza's determined suitor. --Tom Keogh
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
Hollywood's legendary "woman's director," George Cukor (The Women, The Philadelphia Story), transformed Audrey Hepburn into street-urchin-turned-proper-lady Eliza Doolittle in this film version of the Lerner and Loewe musical. Based on George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, My Fair Lady stars Rex Harrison as linguist Henry Higgins (Harrison also played the role, opposite Julie Andrews, on stage), who draws Eliza into a social experiment that works almost too well. Star wattage keeps this film exciting, that and such great songs as "On the Street Where You Live" and "I Could Have Danced All Night." Actor Jeremy Brett, who gained a huge following later in life portraying Sherlock Holmes, is quite electric as Eliza's determined suitor. --Tom Keogh
Editorial
Special Features
- New hour-long documentary - More Loverly Than Ever: The Making of My Fair Lady
- Commentary by art director Gene Allen, singer Marni Nixon and restoration team Robert A Harris and James C Katz
- Making-of featurette The Fairest Fair Lady
- "Show Me" galleries: black & white Production Stills, Production Documents, Architectural Drawings and double Oscar-winner Cecil Beaton's Costume Sketches
- Audrey Hepburn alternate vocals for "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" and "Show Me"
- 1963 production 'Kickoff Dinner' footage
- Los Angeles premiere footage
- Rex Harrison's Golden Globes acceptance speech & 37th Academy Awards footage
- Comments from Martin Scorsese & Andrew Lloyd Webber
Editorial
Synopsis
A priceless classic, MY FAIR LADY has become one of the most popular musicals of all time. Based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play PYGMALION, the film swept the Academy Awards. Cecil Beaton's lavish sets and costumes and Lerner and Loewe's winning score became the background for George Cukor's striking mix of styles that ranged from the fantastic to the abstract in his telling of the tale of a waif who's educated into being a lady. Egotistical linguist Professor Henry Higgins (Oscar-winning Rex Harrison) bets his friend, Colonel Hugh Pickering (Wilfrid Hyde-White), that he can transform Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) in time for an important society ball. His gamble could pay off--but the spirited Eliza is more of a handful than the Professor could have predicted. As she slowly becomes more refined, and less reliant upon him, Higgins realizes, to his confusion, that he can't live without her. The film was nominated for 12 Oscars and won eight, including Best Picture and Director.
A great musical with great songs and a great story and a great cast
Review date: 2008-06-10 Rating: 10 out of 10
The title says it all, I think and the reviewer who considers it classist and misogynist has obviously failed to see the point of the movie which actually makes fun of these attitudes. Remember the scene at Mrs. Higgin's house or Alfred P. Doolite's remarks on 'middle-class morality' - hardly narrow-minded.
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Reviews
TOP DRAWER MUSICALReview date: 2007-10-26 Rating: 8 out of 10Grab your pearly duds and adopt a London accent.
What a great film this is, great soundtrack and choreography. You feel a nice warm glow throughout and even the most Bolshy musical hater must be impressed.
Nice One AudreyBrilliant!!Review date: 2007-09-10 Rating: 10 out of 10Ive never seen this before but heard some of the songs, I think it was really good musical.
What more can you say apart from its one people should watch
Utterly delightful !!!One of the greatest films ever made - fullstopReview date: 2007-08-17 Rating: 10 out of 10Ok, I'll carry on. If you try hard you can pick some faults with this / the musical version of Pygmalion in the ending (a bit naff in the film, though a good moment for the actors) and yes the whole plot is slightly far fetched. Now go back in time to when George Bernard Shaw wrote the play, and he too had various endings in mind; on its opening night people wanted to cancel it for profanity (the horse race scene). Even so it is a magnificent story of class divide, pretension and London poverty whisked with a liberal dose of chirpy, cockney spirit polished up a treat in the film.
The sets are wonderful, Audrey Hepburn is divine (ok it was Julie Andrews on Broadway who wanted the part, and Audrey didn't do the singing), the costumes are lavish, the music full bodied.
I don't particularly like Rex Harrison, though he is good for this role, Wilfred Hyde White is good and we have a huge performance in Alfred Dolittle.
If you've never seen it and like a bit of musical then the price makes this a no-brainer, if you have seen it you must know how good this is - go on get a copy!Luverley with the Hepburn vocalsReview date: 2007-07-29 Rating: 8 out of 10Like other people, I saw this film on broadcast tv with a not so brilliant copy, and on VHS. Although this has been 'restored', I feel the people involved nodded off during the process. There are literally hundreds of damaged frames left in, some very bad. There's nothing left in that could not have been repaired. Having said that, the film is as enjoyable as ever, and if you don't like musicals, (I do not) zap the songs. The film works as well without them, but listening to Audrey Hepburns' own vocals reveals to me that they should NOT have dubbed the film. As a musician I can hear that the vocal isn't perfect, but she's a poor flower girl. In Hollywood today, it probably would not happen, but in the 1960's that is what happened to many actors. Hepburns' accent isn't half bad, let us not forget she was not an American doing a Dick Van Dyke! Almost all of the actors give great performances, spot the one dodgy accent if you can.(It's none of the main players)
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Stanley Holloway
Audrey Hepburn
Rex Harrison
Gladys Cooper
Wilfrid Hyde-White
Creators:
Audrey Hepburn (Primary Contributor)
Rex Harrison (Primary Contributor)
Director(s):
Recording label: Warner Home Video Manufacturer: Warner Home VideoEAN: 7321900288859Binding: DVDNumber of items: 2Format: Box set, PAL, Special Edition, Widescreen, Release date: 2004-04-05Number of discs: 2Aspect ratio: 2.40:1Audience rating: Universal, suitable for allRegion code: 2Running time: 163 minutesTheatrical release date: 1964-12-25Language: English (Original Language)
Language: English (Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired)
Language: Italian (Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired)
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: French (Subtitled)
Language: Italian (Subtitled)
Language: Spanish (Subtitled)
Language: German (Subtitled)
Language: Romanian (Subtitled)
Language: Dutch (Subtitled)
Language: Arabic (Subtitled)
Language: French (Dubbed)
Language: Italian (Dubbed)