"Women are irrational, that's all there is to that! Their heads are full of cotton, hay, and rags. They're nothing but exasperating, irritating, vacillating, calculating, agitating, maddening and infuriating hags"As a young girl lines like this infuriated me to no end and made it very hard to enjoy the musical numbers and pretty clothes. 8 year olds don't know much about irony and the portrayal of misogynistic snobs as representations of the English (and European-inspired) patriarchal caste system - they just think Prof Higgins is a knob and don't understand why Eliza didn't throw his damn slippers at his arrogant head!
Granted, I'd still like to see that (note to Emma Thompson who is currently working on the remake) but I can get a lot more positives from this movie and the enduring story of Pygmalion as presented in the 1964 Oscar winner, "My Fair Lady".
Everyone is familiar with the movie itself, I'm sure, Eliza Doolittle is plucked from the streets of London by the emotionally stunted phonetics expert Prof Henry Higgins to win a bet that it is only the cockney slur of their speech that keeps the 'common class' from ascending in society.
What had escaped my notice on earlier, more indignant viewings is that it is Eliza herself who seeks out his teachings to 'better herself' and gain employment in a flower shop. It is Eliza who works her butt off under his grating tutelage and endures hours of abuse with no sympathy from his equally unfeeling staff to grasp her class-raising grammar and enunciation and it is Eliza who decides to leave once the coup at the ball is achieved and who decides to return once Higgins has revealed his attachment to her and proven that he needs her far more than she needs him.
But gender power struggles aside, the really interesting stuff was the politicking that was going on behind the scenes of this film! Rex Harrison plays Higgins with the self-assuredness that he earned in the role on Broadway, but was mightily displeased that his Broadway leading lady (Julie Andrews) was not to be cast as his film Eliza.
The studio (specifically Jack Warner) decided she wasn't well known enough and wanted Audrey Hepburn for the role instead. Poor old Audrey (I think undeservedly) went on to cop decades of flack for this particular casting maneuvering. She spent months taking singing lessons on the understanding that it would be her voice used in the film, indeed she recorded all the songs for the movie and during filming her voice was what she was lip-syncing too, but the more accomplished Marni Nixon's voice was used in the end in all but a few sections of two songs (play the 'can you spot them' game for yourself!).
Julie got her revenge 3 years later though! By this time "Mary Poppins" and "Sound of Music" had made her a star and Jack Warner was begging her to star in his version of Camelot - she refused and because of this, Warner lost his 3 other leads. The film flopped and Warner was fired!
Almost like a real life Pygmalion!
As for the movie itself, the set work is done really well (although again, why can't they go outside just once?!) and the choreography and shot set-up is remarkable. The songs are well-known and timeless and the arrangements flawless.
And of course there's Audrey. Audrey is charming, I really don't care what anyone says! While the caterwauling and 'garn-ing' to begin with is painful to the ears, she does it with great comic timing and pathos and her dignified rise to the object of Prof Higgins eventual quasi-emotional awakening as he has 'grown accustomed to her face' is breathtaking and makes the movie the enduring classic it is today.
Overall, Mat scored it 65 and I gave it 78 and I'll be happy to watch it again with my new found perspective on just who was teaching who in this transformation marvel.
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