My Fair Lady (1964)

I love Audrey Hepburn. I love England. I love musicals. So naturally, I love the film My Fair Lady .

The movie is based on the musical that was based on the play Pygmalion written by George Bernanrd Shaw. It involves a bet between two men that the one, a master of linguistics, can make a guttersnipe appear to be a lady among the wealthy, upper-crust.

In my senior English class in high school, we had to read Pygmalion. The teacher assigned roles to the class and told us to read them using an English accent. My role that day was that of Freddie's mother. When it was my turn to read, I did so in my best English accent. After I read, the teacher stopped the next person from reading and asked if I had worked on that accent. I told her I had not but she (and people in my class) were really impressed. It made my day and further increased my desire to go to England.

But back to the film. Henry Higgins is also an older man and Eliza could do worse. I know Freddie loved her and all but an older bachelor is the way to go. It annoys me that a scene from this movie was "modernized" in the atrocity that is Pretty Woman. (Think the horse race scene.)

The music in this is also really fun and famous. It features such songs as "Why Can't the English?," "Wouldn't it Be Loverly?," "I Could Have Danced All Night," and "Get Me to the Church on Time." I know there was a huge controversy over Julie Andrews not playing Eliza in the film. I am sure Julie was not too upset about not getting that role because she took home the Oscar that year for Mary Poppins.