"The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain" is probably the line that anyone who has seen My Fair Lady knows by heart. In fact when I told my co-worker that he got a song from My Fair Lady stuck in my head earlier today he laughed and said just that... "the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain". The fact that a metal head who dislikes musicals not only has seen the movie but remembers that line shows how long of a shadow that this film has cast since it release in 1964. When a phonetic scholar named Rex Harrison runs into a fellow scholar, Hugh Pickering, he starts to boast about how he can pinpoint where and how people grew up just by how they talk. He uses an example of Eliza Doolittle, a young woman with a thick British accent, of how she is unsuitable to work in a flower shop because she does not have a very ladylike way of talking. Harrison makes a wager with Pickering that he could take Eliza out of the dirt and just by changing her clothes and her accent that she can presented to the Duchess at the upcoming embassy ball. The kicker is that he only has three months to undo about 20 years worth of habits. This musical comedy takes you on a hilarious rags to riches journey.
My Fair Lady is one of the most beloved musicals to ever embrace the screen. For many people nowadays it likely one of the first musicals that they ever watch while they are growing up. It's has everything you need for it to be as loved as it is, a love story, great costumes, great cast, hilarious movie moments and of course one of the best musical scores ever to be in film. It is really easy to see how Warner Brothers took home the Oscar that year over Paramount's Becket, Columbia's Dr. Strangelove or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb; Disney's Mary Poppins; and 20th Century Fox's Zorba the Greek.
This is not the first time I have seen this film, like I said earlier it was one of the first musical that I remember seeing growing up. However, when I first say it I did not like it at all. It did make much sense to me and I didn't think it was that funny. This is the second time that I have seen that film. My verdict this time..... still not a crazy huge fan. Granted I did like it so much better this time around, mainly I was a little older to understand it. However, it is not in my all time favorite musicals or movie list. I still can watch it and understand why its so highly regarded. I think this is just going to one of those films that, for me, I will never fall in love with it as the rest of the world has.
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