2. MY FAIR LADY (1946)

When it came out in 1964, My Fair Lady was already famous, but for several strange reasons.

Based on George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, My Fair Lady was originally a smash Broadway musical starring Julie Andrews. However, when it came time to cast the movie, Warner Brothers decided that they wanted a big name (Julie had yet to make a movie), so they cast Audrey Hepburn in the role. This caused a great uproar in Hollywood, so much so that Disney immediately offered the title role of Mary Poppins to Julie, and it made her a star. Furthermore, even though Hepburn wanted to sing in the film (and she practiced for a long time), the studio decided that her singing wasn't up to snuff, so they dubbed her singing.

When the film was released, there was a huge uproar about how Hepburn wasn't any good because she took Julie Andrew's role and wouldn't even sing in it. In the end, Hepburn wasn't even nominated for an Academy Award (though the film was nominated for 12 and won 8), while Julie Andrews took the Oscar home for Mary Poppins. So goes life.

But aside from all the controversy, you have a great musical. Hepburn stars as Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flowergirl. Rex Harrison is Prof. Henry Higgins, a world-renowned linguistics specialist. After Eliza begs him to teach her to speak proper and "like a lay-day," Higgins bets his friend Colonel Pickering that he can pass Eliza off as royalty at a huge ball. Over the course of her education, Higgins and Eliza seem to fall in love with each other, though it's never quite clear.

The fact that their relationship is so complicated is what makes this love story interesting. He's blatantly cruel to her, treating Eliza like an object with no feelings. Higgins is so misogynistic that the only way he can say that he loves Eliza is to sing, "I've grown accustomed to her face." Oooh, romantic. But this decidedly adult romance lends the film the needed weight that so many musicals lack. And the music in My Fair Lady is classic, including the songs "Wouldn't It Be Loverly," "The Rain in Spain," "I Could Have Danced All Night," and "Get Me to the Church On Time."

One particularly famous scene takes place at the horse races. Everyone there is dressed in elaborate European fashion, wearing black, white, and gray. They sing in a slow monotone about how exciting and fantastic the races are. When Eliza enters, wearing a red rose in her hat, she becomes the life of the party.

Notes:

  • Nominated for 12 Academy Awards, but Audrey Hepburn was not nominated for Best Actress
  • Won 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Actor
  • Placed #91 on the American Film Institute's "100 Greatest Movies" List