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Special Features
- More Lovely Than Ever: The Making of My Fair Lady Then & Now
- Vintage 1963/ 1964 Featurettes, Footage and Audio
- Alternate Audrey Hepburn Vocals
- Show Me Galleries
- Comments on A Lady
- Trailers
- Commentary (English, Japanese subtitles)
- Vintage 1963/ 1964 Featurettes, Footage and Audio
- Alternate Audrey Hepburn Vocals
- Show Me Galleries
- Comments on A Lady
- Trailers
- Commentary (English, Japanese subtitles)
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Hollywood's legendary "woman's director," George Cukor (The Women, The Philadelphia Story), transformed Audrey Hepburn into street-urchin-turned-proper-lady Eliza Doolittle in this film version of the Lerner and Loewe musical. Based on George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, My Fair Lady stars Rex Harrison as linguist Henry Higgins (Harrison also played the role, opposite Julie Andrews, on stage), who draws Eliza into a social experiment that works almost too well. The letterbox edition of this film on video certainly pays tribute to the pageantry of Cukor's set, but it also underscores a certain visual stiffness that can slow viewer enthusiasm just a tad. But it's really star wattage that keeps this film exciting, that and such great songs as "On the Street Where You Live" and "I Could Have Danced All Night." Actor Jeremy Brett, who gained a huge following later in life portraying Sherlock Holmes, is quite electric as Eliza's determined suitor. --Tom Keogh
Product Description
At one time the longest-running Broadway musical, My Fair Lady was adapted by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe from the George Bernard Shaw comedy Pygmalion. Outside Covent Garden on a rainy evening in 1912, dishevelled cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) meets linguistic expert Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison). After delivering a musical tirade against "verbal class distinction," Higgins tells his companion Colonel Pickering (Wilfred Hyde-White) that, within six months, he could transform Eliza into a proper lady, simply by teaching her proper English. The next morning, face and hands freshly scrubbed, Eliza presents herself on Higgins' doorstep, offering to pay him to teach her to be a lady. "It's almost irresistable," clucks Higgins. "She's so deliciously low. So horribly dirty." He turns his mission into a sporting proposition, making a bet with Pickering that he can accomplish his six-month miracle to turn Eliza into a lady. This is one of the all-time great movie musicals, featuring classic songs and the legendary performances of Harrison, repeating his stage role after Cary Grant wisely turned down the movie job, and Stanley Holloway as Eliza's dustman father. Julie Andrews originated the role of Eliza on Broadway but producer Jack Warner felt that Andrews, at the time unknown beyond Broadway, wasn't bankable; Hepburn's singing was dubbed by Marni Nixon, who also dubbed Natalie Wood in West Side Story (1961). Andrews instead made Mary Poppins, for which she was given the Best Actress Oscar, beating out Hepburn. The movie, however, won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Harrison, and five other Oscars, and it remains one of the all-time best movie musicals.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
510 of 524 people found the following review helpful
By William
Format:DVD
MFL is a marvellous film about a professor who turns a common flower girl into a lady. It is full of sing-a-long songs and funny moments. It is basically a classic for all the right reasons! Plenty of re-watch factor makes it a film to own.
In 1994, the film was restored and thank the lord they did! The film's negative was almost lost forever. In fact, the film had become yellow-tinged and full of scratches, blotches and all the rest! It would have been a very sad day for the movie industry if a flim like this had been lost.
The original DVD that featured this new restoration was released in the late 90's. This DVD included a 9 minute featurette, actor profiles, audio commentary, and Audrey Hepburn singing in 2 scenes.
This original 1-disc DVD has since been updated to a special 2-Disc Edition. Which one to get? I have both so I feel qualified to answer this. The new DVD includes all the features found on the original DVD, except the actor profiles. The new DVD once again includes the restored print but is apparently a new transfer from the restored print. However, according to a report that I have read, the new transfer is not perfect and has aliasing problems throughout. The average watcher probably won't pick up on this detail. If this is an issue to you, purchase the original edition DVD where the transfer has been given two thumbs up!
The advantage of the special 2-Disc Edition DVD is that it includes a 58 minute 1994 documentary hosted by Jeremy Brett (Audrey's love interest in the film). Jeremy is no longer with us, so it's nice to have this as a piece of nostalgia. On top of this, there are many more features on this disc that aren't included on the original DVD such as footage from the film's premiere, production dinner, as well as discussions with Rex and Audrey.
The choice is easy. If you're a fan of the film and don't care for all the extras, buy the original DVD. You at least get the best transfer. If you do care about having all the extras, buy both!
In 1994, the film was restored and thank the lord they did! The film's negative was almost lost forever. In fact, the film had become yellow-tinged and full of scratches, blotches and all the rest! It would have been a very sad day for the movie industry if a flim like this had been lost.
The original DVD that featured this new restoration was released in the late 90's. This DVD included a 9 minute featurette, actor profiles, audio commentary, and Audrey Hepburn singing in 2 scenes.
This original 1-disc DVD has since been updated to a special 2-Disc Edition. Which one to get? I have both so I feel qualified to answer this. The new DVD includes all the features found on the original DVD, except the actor profiles. The new DVD once again includes the restored print but is apparently a new transfer from the restored print. However, according to a report that I have read, the new transfer is not perfect and has aliasing problems throughout. The average watcher probably won't pick up on this detail. If this is an issue to you, purchase the original edition DVD where the transfer has been given two thumbs up!
The advantage of the special 2-Disc Edition DVD is that it includes a 58 minute 1994 documentary hosted by Jeremy Brett (Audrey's love interest in the film). Jeremy is no longer with us, so it's nice to have this as a piece of nostalgia. On top of this, there are many more features on this disc that aren't included on the original DVD such as footage from the film's premiere, production dinner, as well as discussions with Rex and Audrey.
The choice is easy. If you're a fan of the film and don't care for all the extras, buy the original DVD. You at least get the best transfer. If you do care about having all the extras, buy both!
228 of 232 people found the following review helpful
By Tom Anderson
Format:Blu-ray|Amazon Verified Purchase
First things first: Amazon, would you please STOP mingling all the Blu-Ray and DVD reviews together, not to mention the different releases of a given title!!!!!!!!! This disreputable practice has gone on for years--wake up and smell the coffee!!!!! Each transfer needs its own reviews so people don't get the wrong idea about what they're wanting to buy.
Now for the Blu-Ray review of My Fair Lady. The fact that CBS/Paramount gave this title very little publicity made many fans of this movie suspicious of what was coming. As it turns out, they had a right to be wary. CBS was asleep at the wheel when this title was being prepared for Blu-Ray release. Robert A. Harris, a highly respected film restorer who worked on this film back in the 1990s, is furious and outright sick at what was done, or rather NOT done, for this release. He and some other web reviewers feel that CBS (the owner of My Fair Lady ever since it premiered on Broadway) used some materials from the 1994 restoration that were okay for DVD resolution, but weren't adequate for high definition, and simply transfered them to Blu-Ray with little or no corrections. And instead of using 65-mm elements, which would've given an incredibly sharp and detailed picture, they used 35-mm elements, resulting in only 30-35% of the possible resolution making it to the disc, according to Mr. Harris. The transfer has other problems: speckles, dirt, and instances of the extreme sides of the picture being much lighter (or at times even foggy looking) than the middle. If a human eye even checked the picture quality before it was okayed, he didn't know any better or CBS was determined not to spend a penny more than necessary to just get the movie out there.
Please understand that the level of problems one sees can be affected by the size of your television screen. On my 42-inch plasma set, this disc looked sharper and prettier than I was expecting, but it certainly could have been better even on that smaller screen. There should have been greater resolution, the speckles should've been removed, and there is certainly NO excuse for the foggy sides of the picture frame! My Fair Lady is the 1964 Oscar winner for Best Picture and is one of the very best musicals ever made; it is a classic that deserves the same stellar treatment that The Sound of Music and Ben-Hur received. While not a horrible effort, CBS's indifference to one of its crown jewels is an insult to the artists who made it and to the consumer who is being asked to pay for its substandard quality.
Now for the Blu-Ray review of My Fair Lady. The fact that CBS/Paramount gave this title very little publicity made many fans of this movie suspicious of what was coming. As it turns out, they had a right to be wary. CBS was asleep at the wheel when this title was being prepared for Blu-Ray release. Robert A. Harris, a highly respected film restorer who worked on this film back in the 1990s, is furious and outright sick at what was done, or rather NOT done, for this release. He and some other web reviewers feel that CBS (the owner of My Fair Lady ever since it premiered on Broadway) used some materials from the 1994 restoration that were okay for DVD resolution, but weren't adequate for high definition, and simply transfered them to Blu-Ray with little or no corrections. And instead of using 65-mm elements, which would've given an incredibly sharp and detailed picture, they used 35-mm elements, resulting in only 30-35% of the possible resolution making it to the disc, according to Mr. Harris. The transfer has other problems: speckles, dirt, and instances of the extreme sides of the picture being much lighter (or at times even foggy looking) than the middle. If a human eye even checked the picture quality before it was okayed, he didn't know any better or CBS was determined not to spend a penny more than necessary to just get the movie out there.
Please understand that the level of problems one sees can be affected by the size of your television screen. On my 42-inch plasma set, this disc looked sharper and prettier than I was expecting, but it certainly could have been better even on that smaller screen. There should have been greater resolution, the speckles should've been removed, and there is certainly NO excuse for the foggy sides of the picture frame! My Fair Lady is the 1964 Oscar winner for Best Picture and is one of the very best musicals ever made; it is a classic that deserves the same stellar treatment that The Sound of Music and Ben-Hur received. While not a horrible effort, CBS's indifference to one of its crown jewels is an insult to the artists who made it and to the consumer who is being asked to pay for its substandard quality.
120 of 124 people found the following review helpful
By D. Hartman
Format:Blu-ray
I was suspicious from the beginning that a film of this import was being slipped onto the blu-ray market with little to no fanfare. I read the other reviews on Amazon criticizing the transfer from the restored 1994 DVD, and dismissed the manufacturing complaints (blurred, foggy picture around the edges) as probably owing to faulty equipment. I was foolish. The disc is a mess.
From the moment the credits begin to roll, it is apparent something is not right. The gorgeous background flowers are grainy and in questionable focus, and there is indeed fog around the edge of the picture in the opening outdoor scenes. Then the fog follows the action indoors and never leaves.
Every once in a while there is a scene without fog and in crystal clear resolution. Those moments are dazzling, and it makes you realize what the film might have looked like. But it is very apparent that not only are there serious transfer issues with the disc, but also serious manufacturing problems as well.
Stay AWAY from this blu-ray, and complain bitterly to CBS for their shoddy work on this less than fair lady!!!
From the moment the credits begin to roll, it is apparent something is not right. The gorgeous background flowers are grainy and in questionable focus, and there is indeed fog around the edge of the picture in the opening outdoor scenes. Then the fog follows the action indoors and never leaves.
Every once in a while there is a scene without fog and in crystal clear resolution. Those moments are dazzling, and it makes you realize what the film might have looked like. But it is very apparent that not only are there serious transfer issues with the disc, but also serious manufacturing problems as well.
Stay AWAY from this blu-ray, and complain bitterly to CBS for their shoddy work on this less than fair lady!!!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
My Fair Lady was the original musical
We bought this film to share with our 10 year old granddaughter since she loves to sing and enjoys playing with the english language. She enjoyed every bit of the musical. Read more
Published 1 day ago by Patricia Plantenberg
5.0 out of 5 stars
We loved it.
The Lenore and Lowe music is perturb. The story is terrific. Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn were so great together in this marvelous movie.
Published 4 days ago by Roy C. Tulee
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great musical.
Beautifully remastered both from the sound and the picture. The acting is tops and the actors are all beautiful people.
The music is gorgeous and the story very romantic. Read more
The music is gorgeous and the story very romantic. Read more
Published 5 days ago by Janette Rothwell
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love it
So happy to have this in Blu Ray, this has been my favorite musical for over 20 years. Can't wait to watch it.
Published 8 days ago by Amber R. Browning
4.0 out of 5 stars
Weak ending
I loved the movie except for the final scene. Lerner should have ended the movie the way Shaw ended his play - with Eliza exiting in triumph - leaving Higgins a crushed man, just... Read more
Published 13 days ago by Ronald D. Bowring
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just As I Remembered
This dvd is as close to the original regarding picture, quality, sound, etc. It is a great dvd to add to your collection of classics. Arrived quickly and in tact.
Published 20 days ago by PrincessEReader
4.0 out of 5 stars
Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison - how much better does it get?
A movie I saw as a child - a bit longer than I remembered, but every bit as entertaining. The music I've heard all my life and can now sing along with. Read more
Published 21 days ago by Deborah M. Cope
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolute Favorite!!
Audrey Hepburn has always been an absolute favorite of mine. I have made it a goal to purchase all of her movies that she stared in. Read more
Published 27 days ago by angie patton
5.0 out of 5 stars
Spectacular
It is beyond rating this wonder. The Lyrics, music, acting, costumes, are superb without doubt, question or comparison. It has earned all the awards it gathered.
Published 29 days ago by Edward Gronet
5.0 out of 5 stars
audrey hepburn, nuff said
not a real musical lover, but this one rates as an exception. music, settings, costumes all outstanding, audrey hepburn is perfection. made me want to bet on a 'orse.
Published 29 days ago by RobinRater
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