My Fair Lady question(s)- Page 2

[Rinaldo]

Posted: 7/31/14 at 3:18pm

Note too that the changed ending for the Pygmalion film (the lines are essentially the same in the last scene of My Fair Lady) uses only lines "lifted" from earlier in the play: their taped conversation, "I washed my hands...," "Liza where the devil...". So Pascal and his co-conspirators were able to insert it into the movie without violating Shaw's contractual guarantee that any new dialogue in the film was to be supplied by him. And they did do it pretty much behind his back. He was diplomatic in public about it -- "too inconclusive to make a fuss about" -- and of course he enjoyed his awards; why not?

[MCfan2]

Posted: 7/31/14 at 4:43pm

It's not hard for me to believe that a woman could fall for Higgins as played by Rex Harrison. The man had incredible charisma. But more to the point, he convincingly managed to portray Higgins as a man who learned a few things through the course of the movie. By the time Eliza comes back, you can see that their future relationship will be very much a relationship of equals.

Anyway, there's no way a spirited, strong woman like Eliza could end up with a drip like Freddie. It'd never work, and I think Eliza always knew that.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 7/31/14 at 4:49pm

In the movie it comes off as parental/paternal because Rex Harrison's Higgins just seems so very very very very very much older than Audrey Hepburn's Eliza, and there's a total absolute utter frozen void lack of anything remotely resembling sexual chemistry between them. The film of PYGMALION makes it a little more plausible as Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller seem to be at least the same generation, and their scenes together have a charge that George Cukor couldn't be bothered to coax out of Harrison and a frankly miscast Hepburn.

[MCfan2]

Posted: 7/31/14 at 5:30pm

Eye of the beholder. I thought Hepburn was perfect in the part (it was my first time seeing her in anything, and she quickly became my favorite actress) and that they had terrific chemistry.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/31/14 at 8:58pm

I love Audrey Hepburn, but do I believe she is a cockney flower vendor? Not a chance.