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Features: DVD
Editor's Note
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.
Plot Summary
An insufferably arrogant linguist, Professor Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison), bets a colleague that he can transform a flower-selling Cockney guttersnipe into a regal lady. His quarry, the irrepressible Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn), accepts his offer for diction lessons in good faith, hoping to improve her station with a career as a shopgirl. This quintessential musical, scored by Lerner and Loewe, was based on the 1913 play PYGMALION by George Bernard Shaw, and virtually swept the Academy Awards, winning, among others, Best Picture, Director, and Actor (Harrison).
| Features | Region 1 | | Widescreen | | Audio:
| Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo - English |
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| Technical Info
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Release Information
|  | Studio: Paramount Home Video |
| Release Date: 10/6/2009 |
| Running Time: 172 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1964 | | UPC: 00097368719644 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Video: Color |
| Cast & Crew | Theodore Bikel | | Jeremy Brett | | Gladys Cooper | | Audrey Hepburn | | Rex Harrison | | Wilfrid Hyde-White | | Mona Washbourne | | Stanley Holloway | | Isobel Elsom | | Henry Daniell | | André Previn - Music Director | | William Ziegler - Editor | | Alan Napier - Featured | | George Bernard Shaw - Story | | John McLiam - Featured | | Frederick Loewe - Composer | | Gene Allen - Art Director | | Cecil Beaton - Costume Designer | | Harry Stradling - Director of Photography | | George James Hopkins - Set Designer | | William Taylor - Featured | | Betty Blythe - Featured | | Laurie Main - Featured | | Barbara Pepper - Featured | | Maurice Dallimore - Featured | | Patrick O'Moore - Featured | | Hermes Pan - Choreographer | | Ben Wright - Featured | | Marjorie Bennett - Featured | | John Holland - Featured | | James Wood - Featured | | Jack L. Warner - Producer | | Colin Campbell - Featured | | Alan Jay Lerner - Lyricist | | Walter Burke - Featured | | Monika Henreid - Featured | | Dinah Anne Rogers - Featured | | John Mitchum - Featured | | Grady Sutton - Featured | | George Cukor - Director |
| Awards |
Academy Awards (1964) |  | Winner, Best Art Direction - Set Decoration (Color) | | Winner, Best Costume Design (Color) | | Winner, Best Picture | | Winner, Best Sound | | Rex Harrison, Winner, Best Actor | | Jack Warner, Winner, Best Picture | | André Previn, Winner, Best Adapted or Musical Song/Score | | George Cukor, Winner, Best Director | | Harry Stradling, Winner, Best Cinematography |
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| | Professional Reviews | New York Times
"...Glorious....Features [Beaton's] astounding costumes, [Cukor's] stately direction, the best-loved, most hummable of all Broadway scores and a sublime cast headed by [Harrison and Hepburn]..."| 09/21/1994 p.C13Chicago Sun-Times
"...One of the most joyous musicals ever written....Cukor's film is a pleasure to behold..." 09/23/1994 p.40 |
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