Not to sound ungrateful, as I’m one of Audrey Hepburn’s biggest fans, but how many standard definition releases of My Fair Lady must exist before we get a Blu-ray?  Honestly, Warner Brothers’ comprehensive-and loverly-2004 special edition should have been the end of it, but Warner’s DVD rights lapsed this year, so the special edition is no longer being manufactured.  Paramount’s inexplicable response is to put out a bare-bones single disc version that pales in comparison.
 
My Fair Lady is a musical comedy of manners based (in a watered-down fashion) on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion.  George Cukor directed the 1964 film using the Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe stage production as his source material.  Rex Harrison, in fine form, stars as Professor Henry Higgins, a pompous linguistics professor and confirmed bachelor who makes a bet with colleague Colonel Pickering (Wilfrid Hyde-White) that he can transform Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl, into a society lady within six months.   It is a gorgeous film with extravagant costumes and sets, but nothing shines more than Audrey Hepburn as Eliza.  There was tremendous controversy when the film was made because Julie Andrews, who played Eliza on Broadway, was passed over for the film role in favor of proven box office draw Hepburn.  There was further controversy when producers decided at the last minute to replace Hepburn’s singing with the dubbed-in vocals of an un-credited Marni Nixon.  The controversy faded after My Fair Lady won eight Oscars, though many felt Julie Andrews’s Best Actress win for Mary Poppins that year (Hepburn wasn’t nominated) was a vindication.  Watching the film, it is hard to say that choosing Hepburn was anything but an inspired choice.  She glows and has you rooting for Eliza every step of the way.
 
Watching Higgins and Eliza spar as he tries to train her to speaking properly is a delight.  They light up the screen and are both clearly having fun.  The gentle satire of high class society is amusing and I love the pokes at middle-class morality as personified by Eliza’s father.  What My Fair Lady is most remembered for, though, besides the oh-so fun music, is the romance between Higgins and Eliza.  While their spark-filled, contentious relationship is a joy to watch (Rex Harrison is excellent at playing pompous and clueless while remaining somehow likeable) I never understood or believed in the ending.  The Eliza I watched during the film wouldn’t have come back.  She would have lived her own life, remaining friendly with Higgins but not moving back in with him.  Regardless, My Fair Lady works too well on too many levels to quibble about the ending.
 
Because this is such a visual film, I’m sorry to say that the video is too soft and the colors are too washed out.  After watching this version, I re-watched the 2004 release and was amazed at the difference in quality.  My Fair Lady was beautifully restored in 1994 and both Warner and Paramount transferred from that restoration, so I’m not sure what went wrong, but Paramount’s video is dull and flat compared to the Warner version.  The audio, though adequate, has also suffered.  The music sounds okay, but it lacks the richness of the Warner release and in a musical, you need that richness.  For extras, Paramount has included some of what appeared in the special edition: audio commentary with singer Marni Nixon, art director Gene Allen, and the restoration producers; a radio interview with Rex Harrison that plays over lobby cards and poster; two trailers: one from 1964 and one from the 1994 re-release; six vintage featurettes which include Oscars and Golden Globes footage and video from the film’s premiere; and a “Comments on a Lady” bit which is Martin Scorsese and Andrew Lloyd Webber talking about the film.  My favorite features, again holdovers from the special edition are the Audrey Hepburn-sung versions of "Show Me" and "Wouldn't it be Loverly."  Hepburn's voice is pretty in its own right and I think her lack of polish when compared to Nixon would have better-suited Eliza.
My Fair Lady, despite its ill-fitting ending, is a wonderful movie for the whole family and it epitomizes the 1960s “Big Hollywood” picture, so if you don’t own it and you just want a serviceable copy of the film, this version is fine.  Otherwise, try to get your hands on a copy of the 2004 special edition or hold out for a Blu-ray version