The first time I say MY FAIR LADY I did not like it. Henry Higgins pretentious snobbery infuriated me. I felt that the film was as elitist as he was. The parts that I enjoyed were the ones where Eliza fought back. Later I would read Roger Ebert's Great Movie review of the film and he made a key point that made me want to rewatch the film. The point is — Eliza chooses to better herself. She wants the finer things in life and is willing to take Henry's abuse to achieve it. Since reading his review I have seen the 1938 adaptation of PYGAMALION, which is the George Bernard Shaw play that MY FAIR LADY is based on. And now that I have seen the musical a second time, I see the brilliance of MY FAIR LADY more fully.
Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn, BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S) is a poor flower girl with a thick cockney accent. One night as the opera lets out she runs into Prof. Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison, UNFAITHFULLY YOURS), a linguist who can determine exactly where someone was born just by their speech. He brags that he could teach Eliza proper English so she could get a job as a proper shop girl. The next day Eliza comes to Henry's house and asks to pay for lessons. Always ready for a challenge Henry takes a bet from his fellow linguist Colonel Hugh Pickering (Wilfrid Hyde-White, THE THIRD MAN) that he can pass Eliza off as a princess at a royal ball.
Harrison doesn't try to make Higgins the least bit sympathetic. He believes that speech, his expertise off course, is the key element that separates the classes. And he may be right, but his superiority over others that do not have perfect diction is often cruel and demeaning. Eliza must endure endless tests into the wee hours of the morning. Unaccustomed to more refined ways of life, Eliza is scared by many of the things she is forced to do. However, the hope of a better life drives her to keep going. She wants bread, and roses, as they say. Hepburn is charming as both the whining "guttersnipe" and the elegant lady versions of her character. In listening more closely to the dialogue of Harrison's songs, I better appreciated the nuance of his character. He is a snob, the perfect perpetual bachelor and ungrateful; all negative elements of his refined lifestyle. He doesn't change, but his solo song after his final fight with Eliza reveals poignantly feelings he is not accustomed to and cannot think his way out of.
There are three other key characters — Freddy Eynsford-Hill (Jeremy Brett, 1956's WAR AND PEACE), Alfred Doolittle (Stanley Holloway, THE LAVENDER HILL MOB) and Mrs. Higgins (Gladys Cooper, NOW, VOYAGER). Freddy falls for Eliza not because she is the perfect lady, but an unusually honest one. She is not like any woman he has ever met before. My favorite song in the production comes when Eliza demands passion not words from Freddy if he really wants to be her lover. Eliza's father Alfred is a loveable con man, who even charms Henry, who called him "the most original moral philosopher in England." Henry's mother, like Colonel Pickering, is the kind elite, who cares about what happens to Eliza. Watch how she regards Henry when he shows up at the races — she lives in an aloof world, but some people are too full of their own self-importance even for proper society.
In his selfish single-mindedness, Henry only sees Eliza as a project. Eliza has come to care for Henry because he has given her more than any one else in her life, but she is greatly wounded when Henry coldly disregards her. In one of film's most poignant moments, Eliza tells Henry, when he suggests that she should get married, "I sold flowers; I didn't sell myself. Now you've made a lady of me, I'm not fit to sell anything else." However when Eliza challenges Henry's unfairly cruel way of treating her, he counters that he treats a pauper and princess the same — with equally doses of distain. However, now more secure with who she is, Eliza counters him stating that he has no right and that Colonel Pickering, who comes from the same class as him, treats a pauper and princess the same as well, only he treats both like a princess.
This time around I saw the film through the eyes of Eliza. She wanted to enter Henry's world, but will only do so as long as she retains her dignity. What I took away from the film is that even with rough edges, Eliza was always a better human being than Henry Higgins; only the world couldn't see it that way. Henry represents that world. And like the world, Henry won't admit it, because what would that say about proper society? Equal parts entertaining and intelligent, this musical has something to say about class struggle. It's rare to find a musical where the songs are so crucial to the story. Accustomed to musicals where the plot stops moving forward when the band strikes up, I believe I missed a great deal of the poignancy the first time around. Eliza may dream of dancing all night, but that is not all she wants… or deserves.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
