OSCAR WINNER - 1964
• Best Picture
• Best Director - George Cukor
• Best Actor - Rex Harrison
• Best Cinematography - Color
• Best Costume Design - Color
• Best Production Design - Color
• Best Score Adaptation
• Best Sound

AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE:
100 Years... 100 Movies (1998): #91
100 Years... 100 Passions (2002): #12
100 Years... 100 Songs (2004):
”I Could’ve Danced All Night” - #17

Hepburn and Harrison shine in this stunning Oscar-winning musical!

Audrey Hepburn has never been more ”loverly” than in this breathtaking musical extravaganza that won 8 Academy Awards in 1964, including Best Picture.

For the first time on Blu-ray, this beloved adaptation of the Broadway stage hit stars Hepburn as a sassy, working-class London street vendor whom an arrogant professor (Rex Harrison in the role that won him the Tony Award and the Oscar for Best Actor) attempts to turn into a sophisticated lady through proper schooling. But, when the humble flower girl blossoms into the toast of London’s elite, her teacher may have a lesson or two to learn himself. Performance, style and sweet spirit have made MY FAIR LADY a timeless classic.


TRIVIA:

• Although playing a 19-year-old, Audrey Hepburn was actually 35 in real life. 30-year-old Jeremy Brett was cast as 20-year-old Freddie so Hepburn would not seem too old by comparison.

• Most of Audrey Hepburn’s singing was dubbed by Marni Nixon, despite Hepburn’s lengthy vocal preparatory work for the role. Hepburn did sing most of ”Just You Wait”, as well as the reprise to the song, herself, showcasing her ability to sing perfectly at ease when the songs were set in a reasonable tessitura. Audrey also sang one or two lines for the opening of ”The Rain in Spain”, ”I Could Have Danced All Night” and ”Without You”. Thus, the claim that Nixon dubbed all of Hepburn’s singing (as asserted by syndicated columnist Hedda Hopper), is false.

• When Audrey Hepburn was first informed that her voice wasn’t strong enough and that she would have to be dubbed, she walked out. She returned the next day and - in a typically graceful Hepburn gesture - apologized for her ”wicked behavior”.

• Jack L Warner originally didn’t want Rex Harrison to reprise his stage role as Higgins for the film version, since he had seen CLEOPATRA and thought the actor looked too old to be believable as Audrey Hepburn’s love interest. Peter O’Toole was considered for the role but his salary demands were too high. Harrison responded in a letter to Warner that he only looked old as Julius Caesar because he had been playing an epileptic at the end of his life and after some publicity photographs - without his toupee - he was eventually cast.

• When Rex Harrison accepted his Academy Award for MY FAIR LADY, he dedicated his victory to his ”two fair ladies”, Audrey Hepburn and Julie Andrews both who had played Eliza Doolittle with him.

• Audrey Hepburn later admitted she never would have accepted the role of Eliza Doolittle if she had known in advance that producer Jack L Warner intended to have nearly all of her singing dubbed. After making MY FAIR LADY, Hepburn resolved not to appear in another film musical unless she could the singing entirely on her own.

• Walt Disney offered to delay filming on MARY POPPINS until the summer of 1964 if Julie Andrews was cast as Eliza in the film version of MY FAIR LADY.

• Rex Harrison sang the entire role of Higgins live as each of scenes were filmed.

• Jack L Warner offered the role of Higgins to Cary Grant; Grant replied saying that not only would he not play the part but unless Warner cast Harrison in the film, he would never make
another film for Warner Bros again.

• Audrey Hepburn apparently believed that Julie Andrews always should have played Eliza in the film, but was told by Jack L Warner that Julie wouldn’t be cast even if Audrey turned down the role down. Julie Andrews said that she ”threw a few tantrums” when she learned that she wouldn’t be playing Eliza in the film, and yet, she got along very well with Audrey Hepburn, without holding the slightest grudge against Audrey whom she knew was an innocent party in the whole thing.

• Audrey Hepburn herself revealed years later that had she turned down the role of Eliza, the next actress to be offered it would not have been Julie Andrews but Elizabeth Taylor, who wanted it desperately.

• When asked why he turned down the role of Henry Higgins, Cary Grant remarked that his original manner of speaking was much closer to Eliza Doolittle.

• Julie Andrews got her revenge on Jack L Warner three years later when she wasn’t cast as Guinevere in the film version of CAMELOT, a part which she had made her own on Broadway. Her Great White Way co-stars Richard Burton and Robert Goulet were also not cast in the film, which went on to flop so poorly for Warner Bros that the company ousted Warner as its president.

• Many felt that Andrews’ snub in not getting to portray Eliza in the film as well as Audrey Hepburn’s singing being dubbed led to Hepburn’s not being nominated for the Best Actress Oscar nomination.

• Audrey Hepburn announced the assassination of President John F Kennedy to the devastated cast and crew immediately after filming the ”Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?” on the Covent Garden set on November 22, 1963.

• The title is derived from a line in traditional rhyme: ”London Bridge is falling down, my fair lady.”

• Amusement park trams were rented to carry ballroom scene extras across the studio lot, in order to prevent their makeup and costumes from getting dirty or damaged.

• When Audrey Hepburn entered the set for the first time in Eliza’s legendary gown for the ball, she was so incredibly beautiful the crew and the rest of the cast stood silently gaping at her, then broke into applause and cheers.

• The film was advertised as the most eagerly anticipated film production since GONE WITH THE WIND.

• While the film received generally favorable reviews, critics were divided on Audrey Hepburn’s performance as Eliza. While some were critical of the fact that she was dubbed, others such as esteemed British dramatist Sir John Gielgud went on record saying that Audrey Hepburn was ”better than Julie Andrews!” in the role.

• At $17 million, this was the most expensive Warner Bros film produced at the time. Nevertheless, it went on to become one of the top five grossing films of 1964.

• Along with WEST SIDE STORY and SOUTH PACIFIC, MY FAIR LADY may be the most complete film adaptations of Broadway musicals ever made, with no omissions of any songs from the stage versions.

• One of only 4 productions to win both the Tony Award for Best Play or Musical and the Best Picture Oscar. The other three are as follows:

- THE SOUND OF MUSIC
- A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS
- AMADEUS

• MY FAIR LADY opened on Broadway at the Mark Hellinger Theater on March 15, 1956. The music was written by Frederick Loewe and the book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. The cast was led by Rex Harrison as Henry Higgins, Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolittle, Stanley Holloway as Alfred Doolittle and Robert Coote as Colonel Pickering. The musical was a smash hit and won six 1956 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Director (Moss Hart), Best Actor in a Musical (Rex Harrison) and Best Musical Direction. The production ran for a record-setting 2,717 performances (breaking the record previously set by OKLAHOMA! with 2,212 performances) and closed on September 29, 1962. As of 2017, it’s the 20th longest running show in Broadway history. Two years following its New York premiere, MY FAIR LADY opened in London at the Drury Lane Theater with Harrison, Andrews, Holloway and Coote all reprising their stage performances from Broadway. Harrison and Holloway were the only two cast members from either the Broadway or London productions who would go on to play their respective roles in the film version. The production was equally successful in London and ran for an impressive 2,281 performances.

• An entire sound stage had been used for doing hair and makeup for the Ascot race scene.

• At Audrey Hepburn’s insistence, George Cukor shot all her scenes in sequence so that she could grow into the role and hold her own against Rex Harrison and Stanley Holloway, who had both done the play for several years.

• The original choice to direct the film was Vincente Minnelli but when his salary demands were too high, the job went to George Cukor.

• The original Broadway production of PYGMALION on which MY FAIR LADY was based opened at the Lark Theater on October 12, 1914, ran for 72 performances and was revived in 1927, 1938, 1945, 1987 and 2007.

• Thanks to George Cukor’s efficiency, shooting was completed in less than four months. Filming started in August 1963 and ended that December.

• Jack L Warner considered this film one of his very finest achievements.

• MY FAIR LADY went on the garner 12 Academy Award nominations and won eight of them including Best Picture, Best Director (George Cukor), Best Actor (Rex Harrison), Best Musical Score Adaptation, Best Cinematography (color) and Best Sound. It also received five Golden Globe nominations and won three for Best Picture - Musical or Comedy, Best Director (George Cukor) and Best Actor - Musical or Comedy for Rex Harrison.

• MY FAIR LADY had its television premiere on NBC-TV on Thanksgiving Day 1973.

• Jeremy Brett’s singing had been fully dubbed by actor/vocalist Bill Shirley.

• Rex Harrison is one of only (so far) nine actors to have won both a Tony and an Oscar for having portrayed the same role on stage and screen. The others are
as follows:

- Jack Albertson (THE SUBJECT WAS ROSES)
- Anne Bancroft (THE MIRACLE WORKER)
- Shirley Booth (COME BACK, LITTLE SHEBA)
- Yul Brynner (THE KING & I)
- Viola Davis (FENCES)
- José Ferrer (CYRANO DE BERGERAC)
- Joel Grey (CABARET)
- Paul Scofield (A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS)

1964

G

097368719644

Musical

Movie

1960

2018-02-07 18:33:11

2.20:1

170

United States

1964-12-25

MPEG-2

1080p

2.35:1

9.4 GB (DVD)

1

4

Slip Sleeve

~$5.99

2026-01-02

2018-02-07 18:33:11