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"My Fair Lady" Blu-ray November 15th (1 Viewer)

Ronald Epstein

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Greg,


What an utterly fascinating read.


Thank you so much for that history.
 

GMpasqua

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O'Toole played Henry Higgins in "Pygmalion" on Broadway during the 80's opposite Amanda Plummer (I believe that version was filmed for cable) I think Margo Kidder did the version tapped for tv.


The word around town was that O'Toole was terrible in the role - hard to believe, but the word of mouth was not kind
 

David Weicker

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I've always heard the "How old ____ ____?" "Old ___ ____ fine, how you? attributed to Cary Grant (its listed that way in one of my copies of Halliwell's Film Companion). And Grant also turned down both Harold Hill and Henry Higgins in almost identical ways (thank goodness) David
 

marsnkc

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GMpasqua said:
O'Toole played Henry Higgins in "Pygmalion" on Broadway during the 80's opposite Amanda Plummer (I believe that version was filmed for cable) I think Margo Kidder did the version tapped for tv.


The word around town was that O'Toole was terrible in the role - hard to believe, but the word of mouth was not kind
I had a tape of that, so bad that I copied over it, but wish now I hadn't. Tried to find a copy a couple of years ago but no joy. Not sure when it happened, but at some point in his career O'Toole decided that simply shouting a role was a sign of good acting. It was a Johnny-one-note performance - literally one note in this instance - that came across as anger more than frustration. Normally I would excuse the shouting as a hang-over from his stage performance, but he's been on that kick for decades now, in movies unrelated to the stage. In any case, he of all people should know the difference between the two mediums. (It just occurred to me that he pretty much lost 'it' after his near-death illness in the early '70s, but this may have just coincided with an ever-growing ego and a fatal contempt for directors).
 

marsnkc

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David Weicker said:
I've always heard the "How old ____ ____?" "Old ___ ____ fine, how you? attributed to Cary Grant (its listed that way in one of my copies of Halliwell's Film Companion). And Grant also turned down both Harold Hill and Henry Higgins in almost identical ways (thank goodness) David
Happens all the time, David. Grant could have stolen it from Harrison (I still have the book, buried somewhere) or vice versa, or each may have stolen it from someone else entirely. I have a copy of a Charlie Rose interview with O'Toole, where the actor amusingly says he gets his exercise by walking in the funerals of friends who exercised - with no attempt at attribution to its inventor... one George Bernard Shaw! Grant was smart not to put himself in the position of being compared to Harrison, whose performance is one of genius, in my opinion.
 

Ethan Riley

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GMpasqua said:
Less than 6 degrees - George Bernard Shaw's "Major Barbara" the film which stars Rex Harrison playing opposite Wendy Hiller (Eliza Dolittle in the 1938 film version of "Pygmalion") - with Stanley Holloway and Marie Lohr (She played Mrs Higgin's in the 1938 film) also produced and directed by Gabriel Pascal (who added the Ballroom scenes, the bath tub scene and the happy ending to the 1938 film which were also in the 1964 film)


I wonder if anyone could have guessed at the time what would lie ahead - when the original film Eliza would be paired up with the next film's Henry Higgins with the screen's next Alfred P Dolittle, with the original screen's Mrs Higgins


Hiller and Harrison make for an interesting couple - I wonder if anyone ever spliced their film scenes together to have them playing opposite each "The Rain in Spain Stay's Mainly on the Plain"


Even stranger - Major Barbara also stars Deborah Kerr who's voice double in "The King and I" and "An Affair to Remember" (Marni Nixon) would be Audrey Hepburn's voice double in My Fair Lady


seems like Shaw was keeping an eye on everything
It is all kind of spooky! I suppose my personal connection to all this is that I did see Harrison live, performing this role. If I hadn't, I think the degress of separation would work thusly: I once met Lucie Arnaz. Lucie Arnaz is the daughter of Lucille Ball. Lucille Ball was good friends with Barbara Pepper. Barbara Pepper was in the movie of "My Fair Lady!" Anybody else have a "six degrees" connection to "My Fair Lady?"
 

MatthewA

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Originally Posted by Ethan Riley



It is all kind of spooky! I suppose my personal connection to all this is that I did see Harrison live, performing this role. If I hadn't, I think the degress of separation would work thusly: I once met Lucie Arnaz. Lucie Arnaz is the daughter of Lucille Ball. Lucille Ball was good friends with Barbara Pepper. Barbara Pepper was in the movie of "My Fair Lady!"

Anybody else have a "six degrees" connection to "My Fair Lady?"


I have fewer degrees than that. I met several people involved with the film at its 75 Years of Oscar Screening: Gene Allen (production designer, whose autograph on the programs they handed out hangs proudly over my bed), John Alderson (who played Alfred Doolittle's friend Jamie) and Dinah Anne Rogers (the blonde chambermaid in the bath scene, who also appeared with Julie Andrews in Star! and was an uncredited townsperson in the Disney film Pete's Dragon [she said you would never be able to find her in it if you tried]). I also met, ironically enough, the great Richard M. Sherman, that year's Best Song Oscar Winner for the film's biggest competitor that year, Mary Poppins (his brother Robert was not there). He signed someone's program; I heard him saying "now I have to get Alan Jay Lerner to sign a Mary Poppins program." Know-it-all that I am, I pointed out why that can never be.
 

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Regarding the 1981 revival of "My Fair Lady", didn't Rex Harrison gush to the press something along the lines of that, with Cheryl Kennedy in the role, that audiences were finally going to see "the real Eliza"? I'm sure Julie Andrews would have loved reading that.... :rolleyes:
 

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marsnkc said:
Continuing the six degree/coincidences theme here, particularly as it relates to MFL and Lawrence: I knew Brian Desmond Hurst, one of the many casualties of aborted Lawrence productions. He was set to direct a 1938 version - to star one Leslie Howard! - and was actually on a sea-plane ready to take off for the Middle East when word came from Korda that the British Governor of the area he was to film in refused permission for 'large gatherings of Arabs' (this long before social media... ; ) )
In the mid-50s Brian Desmond Hurst directed a rather feeble movie called The Black Tent which has a few plot points in common with Lawrence Of Arabia. For example, an upper class, well educated Englishman travels across the desert on a camel guided by an Arab.
 

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Amazon has the MFL Blu-ray up for pre-order (though they list the wrong OAR) $20.99
 

Robert Harris

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Originally Posted by Paul Rossen




For the roadshow Super Panavision showings the OAR would be 2:20

If the 35mm IP that we produced in '94 is used, the AR would be closer to 2.3+.


RAH
 

marsnkc

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Robin9 said:
In the mid-50s Brian Desmond Hurst directed a rather feeble movie called The Black Tent which has a few plot points in common with Lawrence Of Arabia. For example, an upper class, well educated Englishman travels across the desert on a camel guided by an Arab.
Barrie Maxwell over at the digital bits has a lot to answer to my bank manager for. He turned me on recently to VCI's ongoing releases of cleaned-up/remastered British gems. No masterpieces, any of them, but they're like catnip to me. Prices run in the $14 - $18 range. As luck would have it, the ones I've been buying have mostly been at the highest end of the scale, including The Black Tent, coincidentally scheduled for a widescreen release on the 20th. (WW2 story filmed, topically, in Libya!). So thanks for exacerbating the gold outfllow, Robin, though you did warn that it's 'feeble' (a reviewer at Amazon rates it 'mildly entertaining'). The gem Brian will mostly be remembered for is the Alastair Sim 'A Christmas Carol - aka Scrooge'. VCIs purchased so far include Candlelight in Algiers (Mason); The Malta Story (Guinness - another of Brian's); Tiara Tahiti (Mason) and Sea of Sand (Attenborough). Sadly, this last starts as widescreen then defaults to 4:3. Does anyone know if they've zoomed in or opened it up for the full frame? (If that makes sense - my technical knowledge/ vocabulary is zero. I don't know one matt from another, hard, soft or open!). Apologies for using up MFL space on this, but have to take advantage whenever presented.
 

marsnkc

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classicmovieguy said:
Regarding the 1981 revival of "My Fair Lady", didn't Rex Harrison gush to the press something along the lines of that, with Cheryl Kennedy in the role, that audiences were finally going to see "the real Eliza"? I'm sure Julie Andrews would have loved reading that.... :rolleyes:
With all due respect to Audrey Hepburn and Julie Andrews, Cheryl Kennedy was the best prepared of the three going into that role. In an ironic reversal of what their characters had to endure, Audrey and Julie had to be coached to speak and behave like Cockneys, and the compressed training shows in the movie and clips I've seen of the stage production. Neither actress is totally comfortable in those segments despite, in Audrey's case, having the full support and attention of the 'woman's director', Cukor. Hepburn is my all-time favorite female star, and I wouldn't trade her for anything, but she didn't have the massive range or stage experience of a Dench, Mirren or Blanchett that allows them to take on a variety of roles with comparative ease. Greg's problem (#80) with Julie in the romantic stakes is mind-bendingly evident in the bedroom scene at the beginning of Torn Curtain. Torquemada never imagined the cruelty Hitchcock visited on us with that particular strip of celluloid.
 

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marsnkc said:
Barrie Maxwell over at the digital bits has a lot to answer to my bank manager for. He turned me on recently to VCI's ongoing releases of cleaned-up/remastered British gems. No masterpieces, any of them, but they're like catnip to me. Prices run in the $14 - $18 range. As luck would have it, the ones I've been buying have mostly been at the highest end of the scale, including The Black Tent, coincidentally scheduled for a widescreen release on the 20th. (WW2 story filmed, topically, in Libya!). So thanks for exacerbating the gold outfllow, Robin, though you did warn that it's 'feeble' (a reviewer at Amazon rates it 'mildly entertaining').
Don't let me discourage you too much. The Black Tent is visually first class. I believe - I might be wrong - it was filmed in Vista Vision and when I've seen it, the movie has always had very clear and colorful images. I hope for your sake that VCI have sourced their DVD from good elements.
 

Garysb

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Its funny that I wish they were producing a big box set for MFL. Not that I would want it, its just that I would think Paramount was making an event of this release. . It makes me think this is just a blu ray of the single disc DVD with little work done to it. Hope I am wrong, but this seems like the least hyped release of a classic motion picture on blu.
 

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Garysb said:
Its funny that I wish they were producing a big box set for MFL. Not that I would want it, its just that I would think Paramount was making an event of this release. . It makes me think this is just a blu ray of the single disc DVD with little work done to it. Hope I am wrong, but this seems like the least hyped release of a classic motion picture on blu.
I tend to agree. Regardless of what some people think of the film (I do think it's a bit static, over-reverential to the stage version and Audrey isn't up to the material in the first half), it was the most eagerly anticipated Hollywood release since Gone with the Wind, was the motion picture event of 1964, took a good share of the Oscars that year and has been an event-film ever since. I do think it warrants the same treatment given GWTW, The Sound of Music and the forthcoming Ben-Hur. I'm glad I kept the laserdisc boxset.
 

Ethan Riley

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marsnkc said:
With all due respect to Audrey Hepburn and Julie Andrews, Cheryl Kennedy was the best prepared of the three going into that role. In an ironic reversal of what their characters had to endure, Audrey and Julie had to be coached to speak and behave like Cockneys, and the compressed training shows in the movie and clips I've seen of the stage production. Neither actress is totally comfortable in those segments despite, in Audrey's case, having the full support and attention of the 'woman's director', Cukor. Hepburn is my all-time favorite female star, and I wouldn't trade her for anything, but she didn't have the massive range or stage experience of a Dench, Mirren or Blanchett that allows them to take on a variety of roles with comparative ease. Greg's problem (#80) with Julie in the romantic stakes is mind-bendingly evident in the bedroom scene at the beginning of Torn Curtain. Torquemada never imagined the cruelty Hitchcock visited on us with that particular strip of celluloid.
I did see Cheryl in the role. As I implied in an earlier post, she left almost zero impression on me. I dunno; I did see it on a Wednesday--maybe she was saving the good stuff for the weekend. But the audience only seemed to respond to Harrison and was generally polite to the rest of the cast. They all came to see Rex. So did I. I also recall nodding off for a few minutes in the middle of Act 2 lol
 

GMpasqua

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Originally Posted by Rob_Ray

Originally Posted by Garysb [url=/t/313919/my-fair-lady-blu-ray-november-15th/90#post_3846533]

Its funny that I wish they were producing a big box set for MFL. Not that I would want it, its just that I would think Paramount was making an event of this release. . It makes me think this is just a blu ray of the single disc DVD with little work done to it. Hope I am wrong, but this seems like the least hyped release of a classic motion picture on blu.

I tend to agree. Regardless of what some people think of the film (I do think it's a bit static, over-reverential to the stage version and Audrey isn't up to the material in the first half), it was the most eagerly anticipated Hollywood release since Gone with the Wind, was the motion picture event of 1964, took a good share of the Oscars that year and has been an event-film ever since. I do think it warrants the same treatment given GWTW, The Sound of Music and the forthcoming Ben-Hur. I'm glad I kept the laserdisc boxset.




Compared to Wendy Hiller's film Eliza, Audrey Hepburn is a much better guttersnipe (Wendy's a bit soft and refinded) PlusAudrey pulls off the Ascot scene extremely well. The only thing I find at fault with her in the first half is having to sing "Wouldn't it be Loverly" in Marni Nixon's voice - which is a bit too sweet.
 

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