Cinema Sunday: My Fair Lady

Last week, Cinema Sunday covered a movie that was only 77 minutes long.

This week, our focus turns to a much longer film, clocking in at just under 3 hours. 

From 1964, it's My Fair Lady adapted from the 1956 Lerner and Loewe stage musical which in turn was based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 stage play Pygmalion. 

Set in Edwardian England, the story is how Eliza Doolittle, a poor Cockney flower-seller, crosses paths with Henry Higgins, a pompous phonetics professor who takes it on a dare that he can transform Eliza into someone presentable to London's high society.  

Henry Higgins' efforts to teach Eliza Doolittle how to speak English correctly seemed doomed to failure.  Eliza wants to learn to speak properly but Henry, in all his arrogance, keeps talking at her, not to her.  He expects Eliza to jump through all his tutorial hoops with no questions asked.  

Finally, it is Eliza who has an epiphany that allows her a break through and at last  "The rine in Spine stize minely on the pline" becomes "The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain!"   

"By George! She's got it!"  

Henry Higgins takes his new and improved Eliza out for a spin at the Ascot Racecourse for a genteel, upper crust day at the races.   Eliza stays on point mostly with her dialect and accent even as the topic wanders off into some strange backstory about Eliza's family.  Then while cheering on a horse, the ol' Cockney slips back in: "Move your bloomin' arse!"  

Well, more went right than wrong as Henry Higgins prepares Eliza Doolittle for her next event, an embassy ball where she will hobnob with English and foreign dignitaries.  

After the ball, everyone is singing Henry's praises for his remarkable accomplishment without giving Eliza one bit of any acknowledgement of her own role in her own transformation. 

Angry at being overlooked and fearful for her own future, Eliza lets Henry have it with a tirade that includes throwing his slippers at him. Henry is oblivious to whatever the hell Eliza is going on about but by the next morning, he discovers she's pack up her things and left the Higgins household.

Henry Higgins goes to look for Eliza Doolittle and tries to convince her to return. She refuses to do so which irks Henry to no end.  But he's also unexpectedly sad about it as well, coming to the startling realization how important she is to his  life.  

In the very last moment of the last scene, Eliza Doolittle returns to Henry Higgins. 

Why? Because the story demands it? 

OK, let me say that My Fair Lady is a spectacular production. The sets are detailed and colorful and the costuming is simply gorgeous.  

There are some memorable musical sequences such as Eliza's "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" and "I Could Have Danced All Night" and Henry's "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face".

Alfred P. Doolittle, Eliza's layabout no account father, gets a couple of great showstoppers with "With a Little Bit of Luck" and "Get Me to the Church On Time".  

But the ending doesn't feel earned.  Basically, Henry Higgins spends the entire movie being a total jerk to Eliza Doolittle as he tries to impose his lessons of proper phonetics. By his behavior for 95% of the movie, he should be perfectly happy that Eliza has vacated his home once the grand experiment is over. His sudden concern to find her once she leaves has received no build up, no foreshadowing. His forlorn "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" is the first hint that he has any affection for Eliza whatsoever.

And what exactly compels Eliza to return to the Higgins household in the movies denouement?  

Basically, Eliza and Henry end the movie together because they have to end the movie together.  

It's a nice sweet moment to end on with Eliza and Henry back together. But I can't ignore the question: why?  

This is not the first time this has come up in a Cinema Sunday post (see my post from Sunday, September 12, 2021 about Kiss Me Kate) and it won't be the last (in a few weeks hence, it will come 'round again in An American In Paris.)  

There is the inescapable pressure to make sure the male and female leads wind up together at the end, whether it makes sense or not.  

I'm all for a happy ending but is it too much to ask for it to be earned?  

My Fair Lady looks gorgeous and sounds wonderful with indelible performances by Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle and Rex Harrison as Henry Higgins. The film could use a little editing. (3 hours is a long time!) but it is on balance a fun and entertaining romp.