Eliza doolittle my fair lady11/21/2023 Nixon intoned Eliza's tunes, the one member of the cast who actually sang his songs was Stanley Holloway, who replayed his original Broadway role as Alfred P. While Rex Harrison "talked" his songs, often as he contemplated his feelings and course of action, and while Ms. Audrey was Eliza and should have sung Eliza's songs. For the sake of authenticity alone, I would have preferred Audrey's singing. When I recently listened to the film soundtrack, I decided that Nixon did not enhance the music significantly enough to warrant Hepburn's abrupt replacement. Even in the worst of circumstances, she never failed to live up to our idealized image of her. Having undergone extensive voice training for the role, upon learning that all of her songs would be dubbed by Marni Nixon, Audrey Hepburn walked off the set in a state of bitter disappointment but humbly apologized to the cast on the next day. And, while I think about it, cannot justify the many 10s I see for the film. To me, these are flaws that prevent the film from earning a higher score. Well, my response is that it can't merit anything more than an 8 because the dialog was directly lifted from the earlier film AND so much of the singing was NOT done by the stars themselves. I assume this is from fans who adored this 1964 film. UPDATE-Only days after posting this review, I got quite a few "not helpfuls". I could say more in my review about this film, but considering that there are already a zillion other reviews, I'll end it here. Both are exquisitely produced and acted and you can't go wrong with either one. My recommendation is that you see them both. Because it is a bright and colorful musical, the characters in MY FAIR LADY seem a bit less real, but with PYGMALION you are almost brought to tears late in the film. Another major difference is that MY FAIR LADY feels more like a comedy and PYGMALION feels much more sad and deeper emotionally. Another is that although Leslie Howard did a very fine job, somehow Rex Harrison came off as grouchier and more entertaining in the lead. One very obvious difference is that MY FAIR LADY is a musical with lovely songs, so it's a much longer movie. Quality-wise, both films are superb and I enjoyed them immensely. In the play, the ending was more sad but also much more realistic and consistent with the characters and their growth (or lack thereof in the case of Henry Higgins). Additionally, both films have the same ending-one that is NOT the same as the original play. That's because the dialog (particularly Henry Higgins') is often word-for-word that of the film. It seems that MY FAIR LADY is actually NOT based on the George Bernard Shaw play as much as it's based on the Leslie Howard movie. However, it wasn't until last night that I finally saw the 1938 version of PYGMALION and this was very interesting indeed.
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