My Fair Lady

(1964)

170 minutes

Drama / Family / Musical

Directed by George Cukor

Cast:

Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle 
Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins 
Stanley Holloway as Alfred P. Doolittle 
Wilfrid Hyde-White as Colonel Hugh Pickering 
Gladys Cooper as Mrs. Higgins 
Jeremy Brett as Freddy Eynsford-Hill 
Theodore Bikel as Zoltan Karpathy 
Mona Washbourne as Mrs. Pearce 
Isobel Elsom as Mrs. Eynsford-Hill 
John Holland as Butler 

Henry Higgins lives in London and is a domineering, cantankerous, misogynistic professor of phonetics. He believes the way one speaks reveals their place in society . He brags to a new associate, Colonel Hugh Pickering how he knows everything there is to know about phonetics and how he could transform any woman to speak well. He even goes to say after she is transformed, she could pass as a duchess. Here enters Eliza Doolittle, who has a thick accent and comes from the streets.

Eliza decides to take Higgin’s class, for she would love to work in a flower shop, but her strong accent gets in the way. Higgins is accustomed to teaching richer people of society, whereas Eliza can only afford a shilling for each lesson. Pickering is interested in the idea of making Eliza a duchess, for he wants to see if Higgins can back up his big boast. Pickering decides to pay for Eliza’s lessons.

Eliza's father, Alfred P. Doolittle visits Higgins to make sure Eliza is doing well and see if he can get any money from Higgins. Higgens admires that Doolittle at least tells the truth as it is and tells him to visit a rich American who is interested in integrity. Meanwhile, Eliza is going through many types of speech lessons. At first she starts off slow, but quickly learns how to speak with an immaculate upper class accent. She is then sent off to high society to see how she does, where she meets interesting characters.