Review: My Fair Lady

First posted: August 11, 2007

I've never really liked the movie, My Fair Lady.

A lot of people thought the Julie Andrews should have had the part and considered her Academy Award for Mary Poppins that year a kind of rebuke to the producers. They cast the star, Audrey Hepburn, for her drawing power rather than the woman who was famous for the role on Broadway.

Looking back -- the controversy benefited the box office of both movies.

When I remember that I didn't really like My Fair Lady, I think about the controversy and think – get over it. I should give the Audrey Hepburn movie a chance. I should watch it again with an open mind, not comparing her to Julie Andrews, but evaluating the movie on its own merits.

I watched it again. I still don't like My Fair Lady.

Or more correctly, I hate the last minute or so of My Fair Lady.

If one is going to hate a minute or so of a movie, the worst possible minute to hate is the last minute. Think about it. If one doesn't like a minute or so in the middle, something that one likes will probably happen soon, before one gives up and leaves or turns off the DVD. Of course if one is annoyed or finds distasteful the first few minutes, one can always turn it off or leave, but most people will give it a few more minutes to see if things start looking up. Especially in a theater, where people have paid to be there, they seldom walk out too early.

But hating the last minute leaves a really bad taste. There is no getting over it.

Audrey Hepburn has given Rex Harrison a large piece of her mind and walked out, saying she won't be back. He sings his realization that he loves her in the beautiful "I've Grown Accustomed to her Face" and goes home. What does he do? Nothing. She just comes back. He asks for his slippers. Curtain.

I never could figure out why, with all the maids in his house, the slippers were downstairs in the first place.

It appears to me that he hasn't learned anything, that he will just go on as he has before. She stood up for herself – and then just capitulates. She didn't change anything either.

One of the problems is that apparently the Shaw estate required them to stick very closely to Pygmalion. If this is Shaw's ending, it gives me a very poor idea of his opinion of women.

Compare this to the ending of Can-Can. Shirley MacLaine is the proprietor of a café notorious for showcasing the Can Can. Frank Sinatra plays her lawyer who is always on call to defend MacLaine and her dancers from the law. They are having an affair. She wants marriage; he doesn't. She decides to move on and look for a more stable relationship. He realizes he loves her, singing to Juliet Prowse, "You have a lovely face, but it's the wrong face." He goes to elaborate lengths to fake an arrest. She is thrown into a paddy wagon screaming "Call my lawyer!" He is waiting there saying, "See, when you are in trouble, who do you call for? Me. Let's get married."

Sinatra has learned his lesson and is doing something to win his lover back. Much better than "Where are my slippers?"

Of course, in the fifties, marriage was the only possible outcome.

MacLaine is a strong and independent character. Hepburn never develops a backbone. Her outburst is that of a petulant child. Who comes back contrite. Give me a break.

Both movies have lovely music, great costumes, wonderful supporting actors, but when Can-Can is over, I'm content, when My Fair Lady is over, I'm annoyed.