My Fair Lady: Difference between revisions

[[File:My_Fair_Lady_poster_7599.jpg|frame]]

 

 

While most people are more familiar with the 1964 [[Audrey Hepburn]] film from [[Warner Bros]], '''''My Fair Lady''''' started life as a stage [[Musical]] by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, based on [[George Bernard Shaw]]'s ''[[Pygmalion]]'', and starring [[Julie Andrews]] and [[Rex Harrison]]. It was a smash hit when it opened in 1956, and set new records for the longest run in Broadway musical history (a title now held by ''[[The Phantom of the Opera]]'', which is still running).

The musical follows the young Eliza Doolittle, an outspoken and hopeful flower girl in Edwardian England who takes elocution lessons from Professor Henry Higgins, who (as a result of a bet with the kindly Colonel Pickering) promises to turn her into "a lady." He then trains her, day and night, using some downright bizarre machinery and techniques (the marbles make sense, but some of the others...)

 

 

The lessons finally culminate in the Embassy Ball, at which ambassadors, lords, and the Queen and Prince of Transylvania will be present. The ball, despite the presence of the venal language expert Zoltan Kaparthy, goes incredibly well; Eliza dances with the prince and many at the ball believe Kaparthy's identification of Eliza as a Hungarian princess(!).

 

 

 

* [[Adaptation Decay]]: [[Averted Trope|Not enough, really]]. One peculiarity about the film is how it uses the old stage directions, even the [[Medium Awareness|meta]] jokes that don't work in a movie setting. Instances of this include Higgins doing a short jig at the horse race -- a [[Call Back]] to "I Could Have Danced All Night" -- but without the knowing laughter of a live audience, he merely looks a like a lunatic. He also sets a teacup on his hat, a gesture which would be funny on-stage, but looks ''really'' odd in this context.

* [[Adorkable]]: Freddy gets positively randy over Eliza's bad social graces.

* [[Break the Haughty]]: Mrs. Higgin's favorite sport with her son, and delights in Eliza putting him in his place in front of her.

* [[British Accents]]: Received Pronunciation ("Queen's English") as enforced by Henry Higgins. A wide variety of other, more ''common'' ones, especially during the opening scenes.

Higgins: "Wrong by 100. To be exact you heard 130." }}

* [[British Stuffiness]] / [[Dull Surprise]]: "The Ascot Gavotte." The English sure know how to party.

* [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]]: He may be lord of the manor, but Higgins' weirdness is very apparent in public.

* [[Catch Phrase]]: "I'm dashed." -- Pickering

* [[Chorus-Only Song]]: "Ascot Gavotte" / "Servant's Chorus" (film only).

* [[Con Man]]: Alfie.

* [[Dances and Balls]]: The Embassy Ball.

* [[Dark Reprise|Dark(er) Reprise]]: "Just You Wait" gets a reprise shortly after "You Did It". This time, [[It's Personal]].

* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: Henry Higgins REALLY should have known that, when referring to the form of execution, it's hanged, not hung.

* [[Dogged Nice Guy]]: Freddy, in what would be considered stalking by today's terms.

* [[Dude, Where's My Respect?]]: Eliza is ''extremely'' angry over how Higgins gets all the praise for fooling everyone at the Embassy ball.

* [[The Edwardian Era]]: 1912, to be precise. ([[Fridge Horror|Makes one rather wonder]] about Freddy's [[World War I|fate]].)

** In 1912, Edward VII had been dead for two years so strictly speaking the New Georgian Era.

*** In historical terms, the Edwardian Era lasted from the death of Queen Victoria until the First World War.

* [[Entertainingly Wrong]]:

...Not only Hungarian, but of royal blood. }}

* [[Fanfare]]: "The Transylvanian March".

* [[Fee Fi Faux Pas]]: Eliza's outburst at the races, to her (and Henry's) embarrassment.

* [[Got Me Doing It]]: The voice exercises start getting to poor Pickering after awhile. "'Ave you troid the ploin cayke?"

* [[Grief Song]]: "I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face" arguably, since it's a combination of grief and anger.

* [[He-Man Woman Hater]]: Henry is very misogynistic, though he insists he's not. In fact, he's got a whole song dedicated to whining about how much he dislikes women ("An Ordinary Man"). The end of the play may have helped him get over it, but again, it's up to viewer interpretation.

** ''Two'' whole songs -- there's also "A Hymn to Him" ([[Refrain From Assuming|a.k.a.]] "Why Can't a Woman Be More Like a Man?").

** Higgins even uses that exact phrase, then shudders at the idea of marriage. He also has a hard time admitting Eliza "might" be attractive when he suggests she marry herself off (cue flamboyant flourish), laments that women aren't more like men, and while all this might have been intended as [[Belligerent Sexual Tension]] it's taken so far that the idea of a sexual/romantic relationship between him and Eliza becomes ... a stretch.

** Higgins asks Pickering where one can find a Ladies' Dress Shop. Pickering replies so quickly, Higgins asks how he would know. Pickering clears his throat and says "Common knowledge" (despite having just arrived in London from years living in India).

** If you insist, you ''can'' interpret Higgins' "Why Can't A Woman Be More Like A Man" number as evidence.

** "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face." He's [[False Reassurance|a most forgiving man]].

* [["I Am" Song]]: "With a Little Bit of Luck" and "An Ordinary Man".

* [[I Uh You Too]]: Higgins finally confesses to Eliza that he's going to miss her... then quickly follows it up by saying Pickering misses her, too.

* [[Innocent Flower Girl]]: Eliza at the start of the story. The later battle to get her bathed kind of proves her innocence.

** [[Alfie|What's it allll aboooout....Alfie?]]

* [[Last-Second Word Swap]]:

You can go to...Hartford, Heresford and Hampshire!'' }}

* [[Lighter and Softer]]: Much more so than the original Shaw play.

* [[Lyrical Dissonance]]: "Ascot Gavotte," wherein upper-class gents and ladies sing about "a ripping, absolutely gripping moment" with all the enthusiasm of a funeral host.

* [[Meaningful Name]]: A name like Doolittle totally makes sense for someone like Eliza's father. Eliza herself, [[Unfortunate Name|on the other hand...]]

* [[Missing Mom]]: Seeing as Eliza's father remarries, and his side comments about his old wife are along the lines of "You look just like her, Eliza" and "Just like her, you never give me money!" it can be safely assumed Eliza's mother is dead.

** Honorable mention goes to Henry's teacup and saucer.

* [[No Sympathy]]: The servants express more compassion for Higgins than his hapless student (Doesn't rest / Doesn't eat / Doesn't touch a crumb!) [[Description Cut|Cut]] to Higgins munching on cakes while Eliza is wasting away.

* [[Nursery Rhyme]]: The title, of course, comes from "London Bridge is falling down", a snatch of whose melody is heard at the beginning of "Get Me To The Church On Time".

* [[Obsession Song]]: "On the Street Where You Live". Considering that Freddy continues to wait outside for several days: possibly weeks -- this song can get creepy for some viewers.

** Alfie gets one when he cajoles Eliza to be self-reliant, as "she's a lady now."

* [[Pimped-Out Dress]]: See the photo; also, her gown for the Embassy ball.

* [[Precision F-Strike]]: '''MOVE YER BLOOMIN' ARSE!'''

* [[Princess for a Day]]: Well, for several months. Eliza's training is to help her pass as a "lady."

* [[Pygmalion Plot]]: Duh.

* [[Rags to Royalty]]: Well, upper middle class. And she ''was'' able to be taken for nobility.

* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]: Both Eliza and Henry deliver these to each other. Several times. Henry even gets a Reason Your Speech Sucks Speech.

** Eliza even gets a Reason You Suck ''Song'' ("Just You Wait").

* [[Romantic False Lead]]: Freddy

** Or Higgins. It's left very ambiguous.

* [[She Cleans Up Nicely]]: See the image; when first introduced Eliza's very dirty and wearing torn-up, worn clothing. The exact words of the trope are used by her father on first seeing her as a 'lady'.

* [[Shot At Dawn]]: Eliza gleefully fantasizes about this happening to Higgins, who is very casual about the whole business before keeling over.

* [[Smug Snake]]: Higgins throughout most of the musical.

* [[Sophisticated As Hell]]: What happens when you combine Eliza's blue language with a posh accent.

* [[Spot of Tea]]: It is set in England, after all!

* [[Stalking Is Love]]: Freddy. 'Nuff said.

* [[Stealth Insult]]: Eliza gets Higgins with a few. Higgins isn't so good at being stealthy with insults, but doesn't understand why he has to be.

** Mrs. Higgins, disgusted by his conduct, [[Ironic Echo|echoes this advice]] in the end.

* [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich]]: Higgins and Pickering are too stuffed to finish the last cake tart. Not to worry, says Higgins; he knows somebody who ''loves'' these. He marches right past a famished Eliza to feed it to a parrot.

* [[Tsundere]]: Eliza is Type A, though this largely comes through from being around Higgins; when left with her Cockney friends, she's more Type B.

* [["The Villain Sucks" Song]]: "Without You" is this, as well as being a bit of a [[Anti-Love Song]]. Also "Just You Wait".

* [[Wasted Song]]: Though it gets plenty of screentime, you've got to mention that "On The Street Where You Live" is just too catchy and pretty a song for a secondary [[Love Interest]] who {{spoiler|[[Did Not Get the Girl]]}}, at least in the film.

* [[Westminster Chimes]]: A modified version begins every iteration of "Poor Professor Higgins".

* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?]]: Alfred's windfall is a double-edged sword, as he's now forced to enter into legal marriage with "Mrs." Dolittle.

* [[You Can't Go Home Again]]: Fed up with her keeper, Eliza returns to the old neighborhood after her blossoming into a lady, but no one recognizes her.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Films of the 1960s]]