Cast: Rex Harrison, Audrey Hepburn, Stanley Holloway, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Gladys Cooper, Jeremy Brett
First saw this film in my freshman year of college. We watched it for my Linguistics class, and as you'll see, there's a good reason why. The film is based on George Bernard Shaw's play, Pygmalion. The musical theater version starred Julie Andrews.
PLOT: Uppity professor Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) bets his rival, Zoltan Karparthy (Theodore Bikel) that he can transform girl-from-the-slums Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) into a lady by teaching her proper English and grooming her. This, obviously, is a difficult task, but Eliza finally makes it by some miracle ("the RAIN in SPAIN stays MAINLY in the PLAIN"), and even manages to fall in love along the way.
REVIEW: This musical is one of my favorites; great songs and a great cast. A very unexpected role for Audrey Hepburn to take, and her singing voice IS dubbed, but she is funny and does well. Of course, no one expects Rex Harrison to be able to sing, so his solo is mostly him talking, but it is funny nonetheless. The film is basically a classy version of NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE, except without teenagers. 4 out of 5 stars.
