My Fair Lady

[maddiemookins16mum]

I’d forgotten just how vile (bullying, sexist etc) Henry Higgings is to Eliza.
Shame as the costumes were great.
(and of course the fact Julie Andrews should have had the role instead of Audrey Hepburn who was dubbed by Marni Nixon (the Mother of Andrew Gold).

Love that movie! It was of its time. Not everything needs to be woke op

God I hate the film and the story. Hate the premise of the story and sad to say Audrey Hepburn's accent in the film is almost as bad as Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins (g'day Mary Poppins)

Adore it, all this woke nonsense ffs.

Agree with all views - it was a lovely print on Channel 5 HD I think so it looked great. But watching the last 15 mins, Rex Harrison is way too old for Hepburn and looks like the very devil, he never looks like he could reform. Hepburn due to her way about her I guess got paired with over the hill actors a lot - Fred Astaire, William Holden, Humphrey Bogart and Cary Grant, though most of these were more charming than Harrison. For all that Harrison is brilliant in the movie really so what can you do?

A lot of the old TV reruns this Xmas strike me - I'm a bloke btw - as really quite sexist, it's like a page has turned. Ghostbusters for instance, I mean Bill Murray hanging around Signourney Weaver's apartment, it's just creepy even if you haven't heard the recent allegations about him and the film just doesn't seem that funny. Similar conduct from Robbi e Coltrane's character with Emma Thompson in Tutti Frutti. Some Like It Hot ought to be creepy but redeems itself cos it's just brilliant and the two leads are in near constant peril.

I must admit I agree that Audrey Hepburn’s Cockney accent is pretty much Dick Van Dyke’s Bert, and I think she was miscast. I love the songs, though, and much prefer to musical to the Shaw play, with any of the different endings.

Oh god, watched this a few months ago for the first time in decades and was appalled - the final scene where she fetches him his slippers made me howl with rage. Such a shame as I loved it as a child but it has not aged well. Sets and costumes still stunning though!

i was reading about this when it was on the other day, Pymalion was on stage in 1913
and the story was changed for the public, who wanted a happy ending.
she was meant to marry freddie.
i think Rex Harrison was too old.

Over the hill actors? Oh dear. I hope you're not including Gregory 'handsomest man ever' Peck in that. Roman Holiday is one of my favourite films ever.

I said this on another thread the other day, watched it with 15 yo DD who loves Audrey and was OUTRAGED she went back to HH in the end.

I saw it on stage with Martine McCutcheon - she’s no Audrey but she got the cockney accent right anyway.

I watched most of it the other day. For nostalgic purposes in terms of Xmas TV then it’s great but the whole skippers thing etc does annoy me but I just remember it as reflecting a period of times in terms of the norms. The costumes are great and I do love AH.

It's not skippers, it's kippers.

Shall we just pick apart all old films because they aren't woke enough ??

Or try Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. It has lots of flaws, but the central message (to me) is the power of female friendship.
Plus Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell are stunning in it.

I resisted watching Gentlemen Prefer Blondes because I often find watching Marilyn Monroe makes me feel uncomfortable. However, I loved it. Jane Russell is the outstanding performer of the two. And any film with the following number in it is definitely worth a view.

It's a 1964 film based on a 1913 play. You can't retrofit the past.
They tried to make Poldark all 21st century. Shiny hair and feminist. It was horrible. 18th century miners calling their boss/landlord Ross like he wasn't landed gentry.
If they want to set MFL in the present day then fair enough but otherwise take is as a snapshot of the past.
Interestingly it's called My Fair Lady because it's the way Eliza would have said Mayfair.

Jeremy Brett, later the best Sherlock Holmes ever, was the young man that sang On the Street Where You Live.
My favourite song in the film.

...and a 1913 play based on a Greek myth

Oh I love it, the songs and customers are wonderful. Of course it isn't in line with modern-day beliefs, but that doesn't mean it can't be watched and enjoyed as something of its time.

Interestingly my mum would never let me watch the ending when I was young (80s/early 90s) because she hates the way Rex Harrison behaves and didn't want me seeing it. Adults can understand the context in a way children can't.

Horrible retrofitted historical films is a thread in itself. One that sticks in my my is Reese Witherspoon's Vanity Fair, where she played a Beccy Sharpe who is a loving mother.

God I hate the word woke being used as an insult. As if being aware of injustice is a bad thing.

I loved the film as a kid (mainly for the songs) but saw the musical on stage this year with my dd and we both thought how ridiculous.

Not My Fair Lady but I was channel hopping yesterday and stopped on South Pacific. Pairing young beautiful women with much older actors was clearly a thing!

The films were of their time there's no way they would be allowed to be made now so what's the problem ??? Should all old films be banned now in case they offend ??

Pretty Woman also based on pygmalion.
how about that then, she stays with Richard Gere in the end too.

No one is calling for them to be banned but just commenting that watching them now inevitably makes you see how 'of their time' they are. I mean the whole premise of the story was quite uncomfortable even then.

Even more recent musicals (grease for example) raise many issues now.