"As Henry Higgins might have whooped, 'By George, they've got it!' They've made a superlative film from the musical stage show My Fair Lady -- a film that enchantingly conveys the rich endowments of the famous stage production in a fresh and flowing cinematic form." -- Bosley Crowther, New York Times.

"Rex Harrison is incomparable. Give him a simple, helpless line like: 'Damn Mrs. Pearce, and damn the coffee, and damn you!' and he will make it sound as elegantly yet majestically final as a trio of crashing chords at the end of a symphony." -- Kenneth Tynan, The Observer.

"The property has not been so much adapted as elegantly embalmed." -- Andrew Sarris, Village Voice.

"Cukor's film is a pleasure to behold. Harrison, suave and distant and somehow reptilian around the eyes, makes a Higgins who never ever seems a pushover for Eliza. Hepburn, so touchingly waiflike, brings a poignancy to her coming-out scenes that is magical; she never seems quite confident that anyone will like her." -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times.

"The film seems to go on for about 45 minutes after the story is finished. Audrey Hepburn is an affecting Eliza, though she is totally unconvincing as a guttersnipe, and is made to sing with that dreadfully impersonal Marni Nixon voice that has issued from so many other screen stars. Rex Harrison had already played Higgins more than a bit too often." - Pauline Kael, 5001 Nights at the Movies.

"You cannot criticize the Changing of the Guard or the Beatles; you either stay and worship or sneer and decamp." -- Alistair Cooke on the impossibility of reviewing My Fair Lady.

"The sets, costumes (by Cecil Beaton), photography, and Hermes Pan's choreography are all sumptuously impressive, and Harrison makes a fine, arrogant Professor Higgins; but Hepburn is clearly awkward as the Cockney Eliza in the first half, and in general the adaptation is a little too reverential to really come alive." - Geoff Andrew, TimeOut Film Guide.

"A professional but uninspired celluloid version of the fabulous Lerner-Loewe musical play from Shaw's Pygmalion (qv). A prodigious expenditure of talent, and to a lesser degree money, is evident, and there is plenty to enjoy; but more might have been packed into the most eagerly anticipated musical of the decade." - Leslie Halliwell, The Filmgoer's Companion.

"I have never seen two people less suited to end up together at the end of a picture than Eliza Doolittle and Professor Henry Higgins. How she could stand to be in the same room with him after the way he's treated her is beyond me. I know it's supposed to be lighthearted and humorous, but I was more offended than I thought I'd be." - Crazy for Cinema (http://crazy4cinema.com/index.html)

"My Fair Lady shows director George Cukor as he nears the end of an illustrious career, and it really shows. Sometimes the story is tortuously slow, and Cukor's plodding direction is much to blame. He rarely uses the camera to help him do the storytelling, preferring instead to plant the camera in the ground and record the events, as if he were recording a stage production. At nearly three hours in length, the film might be best enjoyed in smaller chunks. Despite these complaints, the film is pretty fun, and certainly boasts some great songs...The charisma of the leads, the gratifying (if poorly paced) story arc and the hummable tunes allow us to get past some of the film's cinematic weaknesses." - Dan Jardine, Apollo Movie Guide (http://apolloguide.com/index.shtml)

AWARDS AND HONORS

My Fair Lady was filmed for $17 million and broke even with U.S. grosses of $34 million. International sales brought the gross to $72 million (almost $500 million in contemporary dollars), generating healthy profits for Warner Bros. It was the fourth highest-grossing film of its year, behind first place winner Mary Poppins.

My Fair Lady was the big winner at the 1964 Academy Awards®, taking eight Oscars®: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Rex Harrison), Best Cinematography, Best Score, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design and Best Sound. It also was nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Stanley Holloway), Best Supporting Actress (Gladys Cooper), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing.

Conspicuously missing from the film's Oscar® nominations was a nomination for leading lady Audrey Hepburn. Most industry insiders felt that she was being punished for not doing her own singing and because of the negative publicity generated by producer Jack L. Warner's refusal to have Julie Andrews repeat her stage role. It was also widely felt that Andrews' Oscar® that year for Mary Poppins was partly a consolation prize for her having lost the lead in My Fair Lady.

Anticipating his Oscar® win, Cukor won the Directors Guild Award.

My Fair Lady also captured the New York Film Critic's Awards for Best Picture and Best Actor and Golden Globes for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Director. The Hollywood Foreign Press even had the good taste to nominate Hepburn for Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy, though she lost to Andrews.

When My Fair Lady was released in Great Britain, it captured the BAFTA Award (the British Oscar®) for Best Picture.

Compiled by Frank Miller & Jeff Stafford