Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
A snobbish phonetics professor agrees to a wager that he can take a flower girl and make her presentable in high society.
My Fair Lady is a lavish, beloved musical adaptation of Shaw's Pygmalion. Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison deliver iconic, career-defining performances that anchor the film's reputation. The plot, while charming and witty, is borrowed directly from a celebrated stage musical and Shaw's play, limiting its novelty score. The cinematography is competent and colorful in the grand Hollywood tradition but not groundbreaking. The ending remains somewhat controversial — Eliza's return to Higgins is ambiguous in its feminist implications — functional but not transcendent. Overall a prestige classic elevated chiefly by its performances and source material.