My Fair Lady - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of My Fair Lady or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to My Fair Lady

[lynn]

George Cukor asked Production Designer Gene Allen to direct the second unit for the Ascot scene.

[jesus]

The title of the movie appears nowhere in the dialogue nor any of the song lyrics.

[lynn]

George Cukor and Cecil Beaton took a lavish approach to this movie's set design. In a departure from standard Hollywood practice, rather than building cobblestones for the Covent Garden streets from a single mold, they had each stone made individually. Art Director Gene Allen, a frequent Cukor collaborator, used several coats of paint on the buildings to create the illusion that they were hundreds of years old.

[kristina]

Audrey Hepburn's character's name is Eliza Doolittle. Three years after this movie came out, Sir Rex Harrison played the title character in Doctor Dolittle (1967).

[lena]

Cecil Beaton's inspiration for the library in Professor Henry Higgins' home, where much of the action takes place, was a room at the Château de Groussay, Montfort-l'Amaury, in France, which had been decorated opulently by its owner Carlos de Beistegui.

[ava]

Jeremy Brett (Freddy Eynsford-Hill), during his stint on this movie, was never able to visit the beach or stay out too long in the sun because Producer Jack L. Warner wanted him to remain pale like his character in the movie.

[michele]

Alfred P. Doolittle (Stanley Holloway) said he's been left four thousand pounds sterling per year. Assuming that this movie is set in 1912, this is equivalent to four hundred forty-eight thousand eight hundred eight pounds sterling in 2018, or approximately five hundred seventy-two thousand three hundred twenty dollars at the end of 2018.

[carla]

Although her singing was dubbed by Marni Nixon, Audrey Hepburn's singing does actually appear in the form of the first verse of "Just You Wait, Henry Higgins". However, when the song heads into the soprano range (one minute and sixteen seconds in), Nixon takes over vocals. Hepburn sings the last thirty seconds of the song as well as the brief reprise. She also sings the sing-talking parts for "The Rain in Spain". Overall, as Hepburn reportedly said, about ninety percent of her singing was dubbed. That was far more than what she expected, as she was initially promised that most of her vocals would be used. According to Nixon, Hepburn was upset that she could not play the role vocally, and always blamed herself for that.

[claude]

Thanks to Director George Cukor's efficiency, shooting was completed in less than four months. Shooting started in August 1963 and ended in December.

[melinda]

Warner Brothers had tried to keep the dubbing of Audrey Hepburn's singing a secret, but when the movie opened it was hard not to notice it. The Publicity Department then issued a statement that Marni Nixon had only done half the singing, which triggered an angry denial from the dubber's husband. The secrecy triggered a backlash against Hepburn's performance, with gossip columnist Hedda Hopper writing, "With Marni Nixon doing the singing, Audrey Hepburn gives only half a performance." Warner Brothers countered, "I don't know what all the fuss is about. We've been doing it for years. We even dubbed the barking of Rin Tin Tin."

[kylie]

This was Warner Brothers' first Best Picture Oscar winner since Casablanca (1942). It would be another twenty-five years before it had another Best Picture statuette with Driving Miss Daisy (1989).

[claude]

When Audrey Hepburn entered the set for the first time in Eliza's gown for the ball, she was so beautiful the crew and the rest of the cast stood silently gaping at her, then broke out with applause and cheers.

[beth]

Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner had originally wanted their musical to be titled "Fanfaroon".

[maureen]

The role of Eliza Doolittle was originally played on Broadway by Dame Julie Andrews. However, she was denied the role because Producer Jack L. Warner didn't think she was "known" enough as a movie actress. Many felt that this snub, as well as Audrey Hepburn's singing being dubbed, led to Hepburn's not being nominated for the Best Actress Oscar nomination.

[steve]

At Audrey Hepburn's insistence, Director George Cukor shot all of her scenes in sequence so that she could grow into the role and hold her own against Sir Rex Harrison and Stanley Holloway, who had both done the play for several years. It also allowed her to do the most difficult scenes first, those before Eliza's transformation, while she was still fresh.

[alyssa]

One of eleven American musicals to win Best Picture: 1) The Broadway Melody (1929), 2) The Great Ziegfeld (1936), 3) Going My Way (1944), 4) An American in Paris (1951), 5) Gigi (1958), 6) West Side Story (1961), 7) this movie, The Sound of Music (1965), 9) Oliver! (1968), 10) Amadeus (1984), and 11) Chicago (2002).

[charlie]

Jeremy Brett, who celebrated his 30th birthday during filming, was very surprised to learn that all of his singing was to be dubbed by a forty-three-year-old American named Bill Shirley, especially since his own singing voice at that time was remarkably good.

[brent]

When Audrey Hepburn (Eliza Doolittle) was first informed that her voice wasn't strong enough and that she would have to be dubbed, she walked out. She returned the next day and, in a typically graceful Hepburn gesture, apologized to everybody for her "wicked behavior".

[tom]

Many of the Ascot Gavotte fashionable ladies of the chorus also were barmaids and pub customers in the "I'm Getting Married in the Morning" number.