--- title: "My Fair Lady" year: 1964 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/my-fair-lady" fi1m_score: 76 critics_score: 77 critics_reviews: 11 published: "2026-09-20T04:21:06.454312+00:00" updated: "2026-09-20T04:21:06.656550+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # My Fair Lady (1964) Directed by George Cukor · 2h 53m · MPA G · Comedy, Romance, Music **Fi1m score: 76** · Critics 77 from 11 reviews *In a sentence:* Three hours of a man teaching a woman to speak so that he can ignore her in better English > Cukor films the Lerner and Loewe musical much as it stood on stage, dressed by Cecil Beaton, with Rex Harrison exact as Higgins. It is handsome and civilised, half an hour too long, and Audrey Hepburn’s Cockney is a problem it never solves. ## Synopsis Edwardian London. Outside the Covent Garden opera house on a wet night, Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) is selling violets when Professor Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison), a phonetician, takes down her vowels and announces that he could pass her off as a duchess within six months. Colonel Hugh Pickering (Wilfrid Hyde-White), a fellow enthusiast, takes the bet. The next morning Eliza turns up at Higgins’s house in Wimpole Street asking for lessons so she can work in a flower shop, and Mrs. Pearce (Mona Washbourne), the housekeeper, puts her in a bath. Higgins drills her on marbles, candles and ‘The rain in Spain’ while her father Alfred P. Doolittle (Stanley Holloway), a dustman, calls round to see what the arrangement is worth to him. ## Review George Cukor was handed the most successful stage musical of its day and asked, in effect, not to drop it. Alan Jay Lerner adapts his own book, every one of Frederick Loewe’s songs is kept, and Cecil Beaton designs the clothes and, with George James Hopkins, the rooms. It is a good film, well spoken, well dressed and good-humoured, and if you like musicals it will fill an evening. It is also 173 minutes long, and it has a lead actress who is right for half the part. Rex Harrison is the reason to see it. He does not sing; he talks the songs, on the beat, in the voice of a man dictating a letter, and it is the best musical performance in the film by a distance. *I’m an Ordinary Man* is a list of the ways women ruin things, delivered while he paces his study, and Harrison makes Higgins’s rudeness sound like a chain of reasoning. We laughed out loud, more than once, at a man being unpleasant in perfect sentences. He is arrogant, funny and not at any point trying to be liked. Audrey Hepburn is a different case. Julie Andrews played Eliza on the stage and was passed over, and Hepburn has been apologised for ever since; the apology is half deserved. Her Cockney is a finishing-school girl’s idea of one, the vowels put on like a hat, and in the early scenes you can see her working at it. Her singing is done by Marni Nixon, uncredited, and the join shows. During *I Could Have Danced All Night* we noticed that the voice and the face belonged to two different women, and then, somewhere in the second verse, we stopped minding, because Hepburn’s face was doing the work anyway. Once Eliza can speak, Hepburn is exactly right: stiff, careful, frightened of getting a word wrong, and later angry in a way the film is not quite ready for. Beaton’s Ascot is the sequence people remember, and it deserves to be. Everyone is in black, white and grey, hats the size of tea trays, and they stand perfectly still while the horses go by. Harry Stradling shoots it flat and wide, like a plate from a fashion magazine, and we were delighted. Then we noticed that nobody moves much for the rest of the film either. The Wimpole Street study is a proper room, all leather and brass listening horns, but Covent Garden at night is a soundstage with painted sky and tidy puddles. Stradling lights it all warm and even, every frame composed to be looked at, which is the pleasure and the problem. The problem is the length. William H. Ziegler cuts as little as he can, scenes run to where the curtain would have come down, and the numbers are given every verse they had on stage. Stanley Holloway is wonderful as Doolittle, a dustman with a philosophy, and *Get Me to the Church on Time* is a splendid knees-up that goes on about two minutes longer than it should. By the third hour we were checking the clock and feeling faintly guilty about it, since everything on the screen was well done. Wilfrid Hyde-White is gently funny as Pickering, Gladys Cooper is dry as Higgins’s mother, and Jeremy Brett, as Freddy, is handsome and given one song and nothing else to do. Cukor made [*The Philadelphia Story*](https://film.one/film/the-philadelphia-story) and *A Star Is Born*, films in which people talk fast and the camera keeps up with them. Here he behaves like a custodian. There is no shot in the film that a theatregoer in the stalls could not have seen, and that is by choice. The ending, which we will not describe, is the musical’s and not Shaw’s, and it has bothered people for sixty years; it bothered us too, mostly because Hepburn has by then made Eliza too real for it. Watch it at home with the lights down and the sound up, and take the interval where the film offers one. The clothes will be as good as you remember. Harrison will be better. And you may find, as we did, that by the end you are on Eliza’s side against the film’s. *Fi1m score 76, published 20 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (11) - **Radio Times**, Tony Sloman (5/5): This sumptuous adaptation won eight Oscars with superb performances from Harrison and Holloway. Hepburn is wonderful as Eliza despite not being coarse enough initially, and Cukor preserves the theatricality with elegance and taste to provide a joyful experience. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-nwgidb/my-fair-lady/) - **Empire**, empire (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the film as wonderfully stylish, wittily scripted and immaculately cast. Audrey Hepburn's transformation is highlighted as a timeless, captivating classic. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/fair-lady-review/) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (90/100, inferred): Ebert finds the film a visual and verbal triumph that holds up beautifully, praising its literate screenplay, performances, and Cecil Beaton's designs while noting the legendary casting controversy around Audrey Hepburn versus Julie Andrews. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-my-fair-lady-1964) - **The Guardian**, Alistair Cooke (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the film as a great one, highlighting Jack Warner, George Cukor’s direction that preserves the romanticism, Cecil Beaton’s designs, and especially Audrey Hepburn’s sensitive, poignant performance as Eliza that adds unexpected depth and pathos. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oct/23/my-fair-lady-audrey-hepburn-archive-1964) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, James Powers (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the film a fabulous musical that surpasses its stage origins as an exquisite and unique gem of filmmaking. They single out its breathtaking visual beauty in Technicolor, Cukor's crisp direction, and the witty, sentimental story with strong performances from Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/my-fair-lady-1964-film-939823/) - **Variety**, Robert J. Landry (85/100, inferred): Landry calls the film a stunning screen entertainment and Hollywood at its best, praising Rex Harrison and Cecil Beaton's designs as standout contributions along with the overall production values and direction by George Cukor. [Read](https://variety.com/1964/film/reviews/my-fair-lady-2-1200420692/) - **The New Yorker**, Brendan Gill (80/100, inferred): Gill is surprised and delighted by how well the stage musical translates to screen, singling out Audrey Hepburn's fresh take on Eliza and Rex Harrison's even stronger Higgins performance. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1964/10/31/forever-wilt-thou-love) - **The Times**, Stephen Dalton (80/100, inferred): The review calls the 1964 film a sumptuous, best-loved screen musical and praises the special edition’s visual quality from digital restoration along with its witty, infectious tunes and charming cast including Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/theatre-dance/article/my-fair-lady-special-edition-u-lrq97fcp9wm) - **Sight and Sound** (30/100, inferred): Cukor directs with tact and care for the source material but with unnecessary circumspection and a steady pace that inhibits the film. Rex Harrison's definitive Higgins stands out amid sumptuous but flat decor and Hepburn's limitations as the guttersnipe Eliza. [Read](http://old.bfi.org.uk/features/ultimatefilm/chart/details.php?ranking=79) - **Time Out**, GA (30/100, inferred): Cukor transfers the musical effectively to the screen with sumptuously impressive sets, costumes, photography and choreography, and Harrison makes a fine arrogant Higgins. Hepburn is awkward as the Cockney Eliza in the first half and the adaptation is a little too reverential to really come alive. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/my-fair-lady-1) - **Collider**, Matt Goldberg (85/100, inferred): The critic praises the film's lavish production values and enduring appeal as a classic Hollywood musical, highlighting the strong performances and memorable songs. The review singles out the meticulous sets and costumes for particular admiration in the context of the new transfer. [Read](https://collider.com/my-fair-lady-4k-review/) ## Details - **Director:** George Cukor - **Director:** George Cukor - **Screenplay:** Alan Jay Lerner - **Cinematography:** Harry Stradling - **Editor:** William H. Ziegler - **Music:** Frederick Loewe - **Production design:** George James Hopkins, Cecil Beaton - **Costume design:** Cecil Beaton - **Producer:** James C. Katz, Jack Warner - **Cast:** Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle; Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins; Stanley Holloway as Alfred P. Doolittle; Wilfrid Hyde-White as Colonel Hugh Pickering; Gladys Cooper as Mrs. Higgins; Jeremy Brett as Freddy Eynsford-Hill; Theodore Bikel as Zoltan Karpathy; Mona Washbourne as Mrs. Pearce - **Runtime:** 2h 53m - **Certificate (MPA):** G - **Release (the US):** 25 December 1964 - **Genres:** Comedy, Romance, Music - **Budget:** $17 million - **Box office:** $73 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJBM6qs22sE ## Where to watch in the US - Apple TV: add-on, uhd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, uhd - Apple TV: rent $5.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $16.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $16.99, uhd *Checked 2026-09-20.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, HR, IE, IT, JP, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, RO, RS, SE, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1965: Best Film Editing (nominated); Best Supporting Actor (nominated); Best Supporting Actress (nominated); Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (nominated); Best Actor (won); Best Art Direction, Color (won); Best Cinematography, Color (won); Best Costume Design, Color (won); Best Director (won); Best Picture (won); Best Score, Adaptation or Treatment (won); Best Sound (won) - Silver nugget for the best foreign film 1965: Silver nugget for the best foreign film (won) ## If you liked this - *Pygmalion* (1938): Shaw’s play without the songs, faster and sharper, with Leslie Howard’s colder Higgins. - *Gigi* (1958): Lerner, Loewe and Beaton again, in Paris, at a much brisker pace. - *The Umbrellas of Cherbourg* (1964): A French musical from the same year that sings everything and wastes nothing. - *Educating Rita* (1983), Fi1m 71: A Liverpool hairdresser and a drunk tutor; the same story, told from her side. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/educating-rita.md) - *Singin' in the Rain* (1952), Fi1m 93: Another musical about borrowed voices and elocution lessons, and a good deal shorter. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/singin-in-the-rain.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/my-fair-lady