What is Pygmalion? It's a play by George Bernard Shaw, written in 1913, and inspired by Greek Mythology where "Pygmalion fell in love with one of his sculptures, which then came to life," according to Wikipedia. Shaw capitalized on this idea by writing a play about a linguist being challenged to teach a flower seller from Piccadilly to speak properly, and then pass her off as upper class.
This play was very successful and inspired a movie by its original name in 1938 starring Leslie Howard (the Scarlet Pimpernel from a previous review) and Wendy Hiller, a stage musical called My Fair Lady in 1956 starring Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison, and then a film version of the musical in 1964 starring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison returning to the role.
(Julie Andrews truly wanted to be in the My Fair Lady film, but wasn't cast due to not being famous enough, and then was cast in Mary Poppins in which she earned an Oscar, the same year My Fair Lady won a bunch of Oscars).
The first time I watched My Fair Lady was entrancing. Instant love. The story was fun, loved the music, and it was the first time I saw Hepburn on film. Oh, I loved Hepburn so much in this role, and was disappointed to learn many years later that she didn't do any of her own singing, which was done by the incredibly talented, though sadly forgotten, Marni Nixon. That's another story. I still love Hepburn as Eliza.
My Fair Lady follows closely with Shaw's vision, though with grander settings and music. Eliza is still the flower girl turned lady, but there's a horse race and other delightful sets, both grand and simple musical numbers ("Wouldn't It Be Loverly?", "Just You Wait", "The Rain in Spain", and "I Could Have Danced All Night", etc, are all favorites), and wonderful costuming.
A couple weeks ago My Fair Lady was on TCM, and I sat for the whole of it, and it was wonderful until the end. Eliza coming back to Higgins, and Higgins smugly asking for his slippers. The built up left me cold, and how is it, after all these viewings, did I not realize how unhealthy this relationship was going to be? If you've seen the movie you know how egotistical, lack of empathy, and needing to control Higgins is. By the end you learn how dependent Higgins has become with Eliza. He seems to want her not because he loves her, but because he needs her in a superficial way. She seems happy to oblige, though Eliza could have ran off with Freddie.
Talking about Freddie, the other guy. When he sings "On the Street Where She Lives" is quite romantic. Though the way he fawns and waits for her is problematic, and a little annoying.
I was wondering how the 1938 movie depicts the story, being closer to the original stage version, and it sadly has the same ending... with the call for slippers. And Freddy is an absolute dolt!!!!! Oh, he's stupid. At least in My Fair Lady he seems to be respectable and honestly in that telling Eliza should have ended up with him instead of the demanding, take credit for everything Higgins.
(If you want to watch Pygmalion it's on HBO Max. It is enjoyable, apart from the ending.)
Eliza should not have ended up with Higgins, and apparently Shaw agreed!! It is a hugely troublesome relationship, that is if Higgins never learned to truly love Eliza, which we never get to see. It seems "Pygmalion fell in love with one of his sculptures, which then
came to life," only I greatly doubt that Higgins truly loves Eliza.
This is from Wikipedia, though no source was given. "Shaw fought against a Higgins-Eliza happy-end pairing as late as 1938. He sent the 1938 film version's producer, Gabriel Pascal,
a concluding sequence which he felt offered a fair compromise: a tender
farewell scene between Higgins and Eliza, followed by one showing
Freddy and Eliza happy in their greengrocery-flower shop. Only at the
sneak preview did he learn that Pascal had finessed the question of
Eliza's future with a slightly ambiguous final scene in which Eliza
returns to the house of a sadly musing Higgins and self-mockingly quotes
her previous self announcing, "I washed my face and hands before I
come, I did"."
Oh I would love to see the My Fair Lady version of Freddy, not the super dolt version, with Eliza in a flower shop. Wouldn't that be Marvelous??!!! That's the ending the show should have had. It would have been better for all the characters.
A girl can dream...
Sarah
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