My Fair Lady

This is the second musical of 4 to win best picture in the 60's and the first of 2 musicals in a row to win best picture.  The mid 60's were kind of  the peak of musicals in my opinion. Growing up my sister loved this movie. I have not seen it in a long time but was still excited to see it. Some of the songs aren't great but I love the story and the acting. 

The movie is about a phonetics professor Henry Higgins(Rex Harrison) who accepts a bet to reform a simple cockney Londoner Eliza Doolittle(Audrey Hepburn) into a lady who could pass as royalty  This meeting of two worlds gets off to a rocky start.  Higgins is an egomaniac and treats everyone else as dirt.  Eliza is a girl that will not stand to be treated like that and is always standing up for herself and constantly butting heads with Higgins. Her whole reason for being there is to improve her place in society so she doesn't have to sell flowers in the street anymore.  After some work she starts to  make progress and he eventually brings her to a big ball where she is mistaken for royalty.  After winning his bet Higgins begins to gloat and feeling very good about himself but does not give any credit to Eliza. When Eliza finally leaves after not feeling very appreciated for the work she put in Higgins realizes that he kind of liked having her around and wants her to come back and live there. 

I can see why my sister and any young girls would like this movie. It is that age old story about an ugly ducking turning into a princess.  Audrey Hepburn is amazing. Her transformation in the movie is amazing and when she finally steps into the ballroom she is stunning. I love the constant back and forth between her and Rex Harrison.  The unfortunate thing about this movie is that all of Hepburn's singing was dubbed, which is sad because she is a good singer. And probably because her voice was dubbed she got denied a nomination for Best Actress which is a shame because it is such a great performance. The movie did win 8 awards in total including Best Director for George Cukor and Best Actor for Rex Harrison

The big competition for My Fair Lady that year was another of my favorite musicals Mary Poppins. Mary Poppins was nominated for 13 awards and won 5 including Best Actress for Julie Andrews and Best Song for  "Chim Chim Cher-ee" which is my favorite songs in that movie.  It is interesting that Julie Andrews won for Mary Poppins because she originated the role of Eliza Doolittle on Broadway and many people thought she should have reprised the role in the movie seeing as Rex Harrison reprised the role of Higgins for the film. The other musical that came out that year that got 2 nominations was A Hard Day's Night. And while it was nominated for Best Screenplay and Best Score none of The Beatles songs were nominated for Best Song.

The movie that is currently considered the best of 1964 is Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb directed by Stanley Kubrick. This movie was probably a little bit too edgy for the Academy at that time and it is truly amazing that it got 4 nominations including Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Director. Oddly enough Peter Sellers was not nominated for Best Actor even though he played 3 characters in the movie. Sellers also had two other movies that came out that year that he could have been nominated for. A Shot in the Dark and The World of Henry Orient.
On AFI 100 Greatest Movies My Fair Lady was number 91 in 1997 and did not make the list in 2007
Dr. Strangelove was number 26 and 30 in 2007.