My Fair Lady | 
| Director: George Cukor
Actors: Harry Stradling Sr., Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Cecil Beaton, Frank Flanagan
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $7.09
You Save: $12.89 (65%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  252 reviews
Sales Rank: 515
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: G (General Audience)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 173
Aspect Ratio: 2.20:1
DVD Layers: 2
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.6 x 0.5
MPN: 085391666820
ISBN: 630522577X
UPC: 085391666820
EAN: 9786305225775
ASIN: 630522577X
Theatrical Release Date: December 25, 1964
Release Date: December 8, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Still in wrapping
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Product Description
Lerner and Loewe's musical version of 'Pygmalion' about a Covent Garden flower girl who becomes a lady.
Genre: Musicals
Rating: G
Release Date: 8-DEC-1998
Media Type: DVD
Amazon.com essential video
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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 247 more reviews...
 Among the Top-3 Best Hollywood Musicals of All Time! June 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This musical won 8 Oscars including Best Picture and it is richly deserving of the accolades. The cast is superb and the songs are all standards destined to be appreciated over the years. I've watched this film many times over the years and I never get tired of watching it and in fact I'm looking forward to the next screening. No fan of musicals should be without this dvd in their collection.
The dvd itself is also a treat as it has been restored pretty well. Picture quality-wise it isn't perfect but it's still very good given the state of the severely deteriorated original master and is still a lot better than many other "restored" older films that I've seen. Also widescreen format is the best way to view this film and this is the format in which it is presented here on this dvd. There is a nice short making-of documentary included and the biggest plus of this dvd version is the excellent sound quality that comes in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. I've seen other films with this feature but they don't sound as good but it is clear here that a lot of effort went into vastly improving and getting the most out of the 5.1 format.
Excellent sound quality and very good picture quality make this dvd great value for money. I wonder what other improvements we can expect from the upcoming Blu-ray version? As far as standard dvd versions go though, this version is very, very good.
Recommended.
 audrey hepburn June 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am a huge Hepburn fan, she has such a way when you are watching her you forget....everything else around you! the films I do own breakfast at tiffany's roman holiday, sabrina, funny face, One that is vastly different is The nun's story... she is quite deglamorized in that one! she truly was a talented beauty of her time AND YES, my fair lady made me laugh!!!
Family fare May 13, 2008
I had seen My Fair Lady as have most people and enjoyed it. We went to the recent stage play and I wanted to see again Audrey and Rex. It was great. I recommend it to all who love to be uplifted when they see a movie.
One of those movies where there is a reason it's a classic May 10, 2008
Sadly, I had never seen this movie before purchasing it here. And this comes from a girl who adores Audrey Hepburn! But the moment the score began I was hooked at this humerous, enchanting tale of an very unusual Cinderella and Fairy Godmother. The music is perfect, suited to every emotion felt by every character, making for a bright, fun, and touching musical experience. The setting is grand, even for the streets of London (though it is probably not a good thing to romanticize poverty) but in the guise of the theatre it works perfectly. The direction is different, slightly wild, and dare-I-say incredibly imaginative. The very motions of the actors are brilliantly thought-out. The acting is spot on, especially by the great Audrey who rids herself of charm to play the most obnoxious street urchin you will ever meet. Even as she rises through the process of becoming a proper lady she never quite loses that earthy charm. It's a touching story full of vivid, wild characters and plenty of heart. As for the second disk, the geek in me loved the features that added plenty of trivia to my first "My Fair Lady" experience.
 BRILLIANT MUSICAL SATIRE OF BRITISH SOCIAL CLASS SYSTEM IS NOT AS "LOVERLY" AS IT SHOULD BE IN FILM VERSION. April 29, 2008
"My Fair Lady" is one of the greatest musicals of all time. Lerner & Loewe's score never violated the wit, elegance, and sophistication of George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion." The songs enhance the story; lifting it up into the heavens! The 1964 film version won eight Oscars; including "Best Picture." Cecil Beaton certainly deserved the Oscar for his sumptuous costume design. But "Fair Lady" is about more than clothes and glamour. It is a brillant satire of the British social class system. All the great scenes and songs are intact in the film version. Still, the viewer is likely to feel emotionally detached from the fascinating relationship between haughty Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) and Cockney Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn).
The film version loses its true sense of purpose in all the splendour of the visual design. There is very little impetus. "My Fair Lady" has been preserved here as a museum piece. I keep waiting for a spark of excitement and pace that seldom materializes. Everything is terribly static. The film is obviously shot entirely in a studio. I wish Warner Brothes had put out even more money so director George Cukor could have shot at least some of the film on location in London-- as Robert Wise did in New York City (partially) for "West Side Story" (1961) and Austria/Germany for "The Sound Of Music" (1965). Cukor won the "Best Director" Oscar for "Fair Lady," but this is far from his best work. That would be his masterpiece "A Star Is Born" with Judy Garland in 1954; or almost any of his films with Katharine Hepburn (see 1938's "Holiday" or 1949's "Adam's Rib"). So it is easy to see that Cukor had, indeed, earned his long-overdue Oscar by 1964.
Rex Harrison also earned an Oscar for recreating his Tony-Award Winning stage role. But he is merely "walking through" the role of Higgins here. Similarly, Stanley Holloway, recreating his stage role as Alfred P. Doolittle, looks tired. I'm comparing Harrison & Holloway with their own much more inspired performances on the "Fair Lady" Broadway and London Cast Albums.
Jack Warner did not invite Julie Andrews to re-create her Broadway and London stage triumph as Eliza Doolittle, leaving Audrey Hepburn to deal with the inevitable critical slings and arrows. Audrey was not allowed to sing the songs herself. Why somebody at Warner Brothes didn't transpose the songs into a different vocal range for Audrey is beyond me! A look at Audrey's own performances of "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?" and "Show Me" (on Disc 2) clearly demonstrates that she sang with more expression and deeper understanding of Eliza Doolittle in her own thin, whispery voice than Marni Nixon's soprano. Every time the voice switches from Audrey's own unforgettable voice into Marni Nixon's "California Cockney", I am disturbed, dismayed and lost! The documentary on Disc 2 features an interview with Marni Nixon, who comes off as EXTREMELY DEFENSIVE, desperately seeking to "Justify" herself in this instance, I am not finding any fault with Audrey or blaming her at all. Indeed, the film comes alive whenever Audrey is on screen. The great irony is that ("Just You Wait, Jack Warner, Just You Wait!!") Julie Andrews achieved great cinematic success, in short order, with "Mary Poppins" and "The Sound Of Music." And Audrey and Julie, both very "fair ladies," became good friends just a few years later.
Sad to admit, but I feel that, as cinema, the story is better served in the outstanding 1938 B&W film version of "Pygmalion," starring the superb Wendy Hiller and Leslie Howard. If you want the glorious Lerner and Loewe songs, I highly recommend the 1959 London Cast Album in Stereo starring Harrison, Holloway, & Julie Andrews.
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