The Problem With My Fair Lady's Ending (And How To Fix It)

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J. Draper

J. Draper

Күн бұрын

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@ticketmanager7940
@ticketmanager7940 4 жыл бұрын
I recently saw a community theatre production of MFL and the actress playing Eliza was already on stage, seated in Higgins’ chair, partly in shadow when he enters. Not noticing her, he plays the recording & when it stops, Eliza continues with the “I washed my face...” line. Higgins turns and shows a slight affront to her being in his chair. He asks where his slippers are & Eliza lifts her skirt slightly to show she is now wearing them. He smiles & nods, as if to say “Well played.” Lights fade...
@JDraper
@JDraper 4 жыл бұрын
Okay, this is my favourite.
@Dinostudio-x6y
@Dinostudio-x6y 4 жыл бұрын
I like the 2001 finish with Jonathan price. When Eliza turns off the phonograph, Henry says the crown phrase about the slippers and stands up, folding his hands on his chest. Eliza copies his pose and facial expression, after which both laugh. Curtain
@cturtleGA
@cturtleGA 3 жыл бұрын
I love it!
@lmatlock7969
@lmatlock7969 3 жыл бұрын
@@Dinostudio-x6y YES! Like an insde joke!
@lmatlock7969
@lmatlock7969 3 жыл бұрын
THIS ENDING!!! This is the one I want!
@tinymxnticore
@tinymxnticore 4 жыл бұрын
In the original, Eliza never loses sight of her initial goal: refining herself so she can open a flower shop. She becomes independent and self-possessed, and along the way meets a gentleman who enthusiastically adores her. What more could you ask for in a happy ending?
@riverbanzachamploo9725
@riverbanzachamploo9725 2 жыл бұрын
Perfect.
@therewillbecatswithgwenhwyfar
@therewillbecatswithgwenhwyfar Жыл бұрын
Great comment!
@singingway
@singingway Жыл бұрын
The play ends differently than the movie
@LadyWervyn
@LadyWervyn Жыл бұрын
Yes! And Higgins just laughs at the idea of her marrying Freddie, and that's the end. I love the original ending!
@barbaramelone1043
@barbaramelone1043 Жыл бұрын
I don't remember Eliza necessarily being "independent." Shaw says that neither she nor Freddie knew much about handling a business, and so Colonel Pickerington supported them quite a bit. But Eliza and Freddie both worked, and kept their marriage going, so there's that.
@mollymarjorie9495
@mollymarjorie9495 Жыл бұрын
The first time I saw My Fair Lady, I was upset that Eliza went crawling back to the jerk, rather than hooking up with the completely genuine guy who actually loves her, so it's nice to learn that Shaw felt the same way, even if he didn't win out.
@meinhartfrancois
@meinhartfrancois Жыл бұрын
I was at university when I saw the Audrey Hepburn version for the first time. The dress she wears to the ball is one of the lodestones of what I find beautiful! My impression of Freddy was that (she found) he's completely vapid, you know? At the races, he likes the look of her, in her super tight dress & then he sniggers at her "new small talk", even though she doesn't know what she's doing & he only catches half of her meaning... isn't that a useless compliment? And then in "words words words" he hardly offers any rebuttal, right? He literally can't keep up with her because he's trapped behind some railing! I always felt that the best ending would have been Eliza as a kind and elegant companion for Lady Higgins, who enjoys genteel events and dignified entertainment.
@dyutibasu4541
@dyutibasu4541 Жыл бұрын
@@meinhartfrancois coming in very late to this conversation apparantly, but I feel like in that era it wouldn't be practical since as a lady companion, she would be dependent on an old lady who may not have the legal means to write her into the will and even if she does may choose not to. Marriage to Freddy would just be financially stable while allowing her to have the independence she needed. In today's day and age, maybe she could go on to become a tutor herself. 😊
@meinhartfrancois
@meinhartfrancois Жыл бұрын
@@dyutibasu4541 I totally see your points : working as a tutor would be better, or maybe running her own flowershop (if she miraculously finds the starting captital)
@MiljaHahto
@MiljaHahto Жыл бұрын
​@@meinhartfrancoisStaying with Lady Higgins would have been a good option - but not permanently. Lady Higgins would have found him a better husband than her own son, or Freddy..
@Neville60001
@Neville60001 Жыл бұрын
@@dyutibasu4541 , according to the afterword to _Pygmailon_ by Shaw, Freddy was as poor as Eliza was, only _appearing_ to be rich; his mother and he only got by on charity from friends of his mother. After he and Eliza married, they had to struggle for a while, but eventually they were able to set up a flower shop, and seel flowers, which is what Eliza always wanted to do.
@rachelwharton4245
@rachelwharton4245 Жыл бұрын
I saw My Fair Lady as a young teen, and all I knew was that the ending filled me with rage. I had felt such a sense of triumph when she left him, only for it all to come crashing down. Now, as an adult, I appreciate that I can actually unpack all that 😅
@scasey1960
@scasey1960 Жыл бұрын
Spoken as a true feminist where male and female relationships serve up our Orwellian destiny.
@lh8593
@lh8593 Жыл бұрын
@@scasey1960 God forbid a woman wants to be treated with kindness, respect and courtesy. The point is that imbalanced relationships are failed relationships. Both sides must give to each other and value each other. This provides a stable nurturing homelife for children. Domestic violence even if it is only verbal takes us to an Orwellian future.
@jojo-pk
@jojo-pk Жыл бұрын
​@@scasey1960 relationships are way better if the partners see eye to eye. Of course it takes 2 adults to do that.
@tomireland3644
@tomireland3644 Жыл бұрын
@Rachel Wharton - 100% the same for me. I watched it as a teen and absolutely *detested* that last minute reversal but wasn't really able to articulate more than that it didn't make any sense to me when the guy had been so obviously awful to her constantly. It's a pleasant surprise to know that the original author thought the same
@HollowGolem
@HollowGolem Жыл бұрын
@@tomireland3644 Thankfully, the gradeschool teacher who had us read _Pygmalian_ made a point to talk about the changes in the ending with us, so we got to consider the politics of it (and we all came out of the movie thinking the ending was profoundly irrational)
@RevolutionUtena
@RevolutionUtena Жыл бұрын
I remember as a teenager snorting at Eliza going back to Higgins and my mother saying dismissively "well in the original she ends up with FREDDY" as if it was obvious that was a worse choice and meanwhile I was like "But Freddy LIKES her. He's kind of a fop but he's a NICE one." We were definitely at a stalemate so I'm glad to see a video that agrees with me!
@WrestlingErnestHemingway
@WrestlingErnestHemingway Жыл бұрын
The "white picket fence" and they live happily ever after ending is what most simpletons want in stories. The movie dealt with the realities of human male & female bonding. Shaw's version was a yawner imho. Facts are most women dont' "fall in love" nor "respect" with weak minded men like Freddy. They usually go with the stronger more realistic men that keep things real. Instead most of the women in here want a fake Shaw's version of the with picket fence & they live happily ever after ending of BS. Smh at the simpleton's who totally missed the point of this most cleverly made musical version and it's ending's message thoughout the entire movie. It kept life's realaities & the human nature of the male & female bonding correctly to suit each other's differences in check.
@marvelousmissmysie4837
@marvelousmissmysie4837 Жыл бұрын
​@@WrestlingErnestHemingway Jesus, who hurt you?
@ILoveYou-rv3pd
@ILoveYou-rv3pd Жыл бұрын
@@WrestlingErnestHemingwaywtf are you talking about? 😂
@readfamilylearner
@readfamilylearner Жыл бұрын
Ya, I like her solution at the end. Now if only the Freddy character was shown to have a touch more depth, so it's clear that he does actually respect Eliza and loves her fully, not just in a simple, love-sick way.
@pechaa
@pechaa Жыл бұрын
@@WrestlingErnestHemingway The world is what we make it. If you chase after the kind of women who are only attracted to abusive men, then that is all you'll see in the dating pool. But there are many good women who are looking for men who treat them with respect and kindness. Such men expect to be treated with genuine respect and kindness in return (not out of fear). Such men are the true strong-willed ones, the kind that can form a mutually loving marital bond that withstands all the vicissitudes of life. As a teenager I was attracted to abusive men because it was all I knew from home life and from depictions in movies like the Aubrey Hepburn version in this KZbin video. I got smart and grew up just in time to partner with a wonderful man who has been my husband for more than two decades now. His strong character is no less an inspiration to me because it is paired with unwavering support from him. He is stalwart, steady, and unwavering in the face of the inevitable pressures that we face from the world outside our family. Abusive men crumble and dissemble at the first moment of adversity. They can't support their families emotionally because they are the main blade cleaving the family. If the alternative to them is "weak-willed," I'll take that any day -- and all the days of my life till death do us part.
@gengis737
@gengis737 Жыл бұрын
Shaw was such a visionary man that he anticipated the proper ending 80 years before we could understand it.
@samuellawrencesbookclub8250
@samuellawrencesbookclub8250 Жыл бұрын
Perhaps it is an overstatement to call a man who advocated eugenics a visionary.
@spaghettipastasaucyboi
@spaghettipastasaucyboi Жыл бұрын
@@samuellawrencesbookclub8250 a visionary but only for a few opinions cause the other ones are pretty bad
@vlad5042
@vlad5042 Жыл бұрын
@@samuellawrencesbookclub8250do u need to have a gotcha lmao can u not just take the point that theyre making
@phantomkate6
@phantomkate6 Жыл бұрын
​@@samuellawrencesbookclub8250 Sir/Ma'am, Reddit's that way 👉
@msecujski
@msecujski 11 ай бұрын
@@samuellawrencesbookclub8250 Just because eugenics is not popular at the moment, doesn't mean that someday it won't be.
@tremorsfan
@tremorsfan Жыл бұрын
What I love about the George Bernard Shaw is that he lived to the age of 94 and didn't even die of old age. He died falling off a ladder trying to prune an apple tree. Which begs the question of how long he would have lived if he hadn't decided to trim that tree.
@deniseengle4269
@deniseengle4269 Жыл бұрын
This is exactly the kind of thing I like...
@srothbardt
@srothbardt Жыл бұрын
The real question is whether he would have written another play, perhaps similar to that show about the two old guys/actors who live together.
@rubaiyat300
@rubaiyat300 Жыл бұрын
Unfortunately that tree had it out for him and had plans to strike that very night.
@TristanMorrow
@TristanMorrow Жыл бұрын
If he'd been harvesting his ghoughpteighbteaus, he'd have been much closer to the ground and much safer. (Yes, I know the direct Shaw attribution is likely not correct, but true or not it remains a whimsical part of his legacy)
@RAFMnBgaming
@RAFMnBgaming Жыл бұрын
What does that go down on the death certificate as? death by falling or death by tree?
@amandavigue3857
@amandavigue3857 Жыл бұрын
Shaw wrote an essay explaining what happened to his characters after the play. It is included in some editions of Pygmalion. Eliza did marry Freddie. She got her flower shop, too. She and Freddie were poor, but respectable. Throughout, Shaw maintained that Higgins could only truly respect one woman -- his mother.
@andyharman3022
@andyharman3022 Жыл бұрын
I thought it was made clear in the movie that his mother despised him when he took Eliza for her debut at Ascot, and his mother said "Henry, what a disagreeable surprise."
@lysanamcmillan7972
@lysanamcmillan7972 Жыл бұрын
@@andyharman3022 She wasn't proud of how he turned out. She clearly tried her best considering her treatment of Eliza. For her son, he insisted on becoming a jackass but saw in turn that he got his spine from her. This makes for a dynamic where Henry likes his mother's company but she's had it with his for decades. Very Shavian.
@judychurley6623
@judychurley6623 Жыл бұрын
Not poor. They struggled and got better at it. They got help from the major. All remained friends, in Shaw's postscript.
@daledrinnon7307
@daledrinnon7307 Жыл бұрын
@@judychurley6623 Cool. I could go with that. And actually my favorite number from the movie was "Just you wait, ;enry 'iggins"
@jennywren1420
@jennywren1420 Жыл бұрын
Freddy was a simpleton and dull as dust. Life with him would have killed all pleasure and growth for Eliza. Maybe (in the movie, anyway) Higgins' last remark was a way of covering from Eliza how much he had missed her. But she didn't have to marry anyone. If Pickering could be a longtime guest in the household, why not Eliza? Of course, the whole thing is a charming fiction, so maybe Eliza and Higgins could have married and accommodated to each other's (somewhat altered, I'd hope) personalities. Or a marriage of convenience of sorts. Not at all unheard of (though I'd like to dream that they could love each other, eeach in her or his own way, even if that's my pipe dream).
@aeolia80
@aeolia80 Жыл бұрын
I did linguistics in uni, and even though I came from a theatre background this one thing I did not know till I started in my undergrad. The voice on the phonograph in the movie helping Eliza with her sounds is a recording of a real phonetics professor at the time, a British guy teaching at UCLA that wrote the intro to phonetics text book that most students still use to this day. He was the linguistics consultant on the set too. Peter Ladefoged
@Ratigan2
@Ratigan2 Жыл бұрын
I love word nerds
@paulsutton5896
@paulsutton5896 Жыл бұрын
People should study REAL subjects at university.
@markmh835
@markmh835 Жыл бұрын
@@paulsutton5896 -- Uh-huh. And phonetics is a "real subject."
@gufu21
@gufu21 Жыл бұрын
Peter Ladefoged! I did indeed use his phonetics text book when I studied linguistics about 10 years ago.
@charlesgantz5865
@charlesgantz5865 11 ай бұрын
Ask the thousands of students in grade school taking a speech class to remedy some speaking difficulty, or an actor studying how to speak with an accent different than their own if phonetics is a "real subject."@@markmh835
@Nothing_Israel
@Nothing_Israel Жыл бұрын
The “Galatea!” ending works perfectly for modern audiences if they add a scene where Higgins foreshadows it by recounting the story of pygmalion to a friend.
@HenryThomas-vc2wy
@HenryThomas-vc2wy 22 күн бұрын
I love this idea
@colleenmarin8907
@colleenmarin8907 Жыл бұрын
As a child, I saw Pickering and Higgins as 'consummate bachelors' without a hint of romantic tendencies towards the 'fair sex', so I assumed she came back to discuss her future business prospects with Pickering, and Higgins was pleased that he hadn't ruined their friendship. As an adult, I see the 1950s ending as Eliza coming back to teach him manners much in the way he had taught her phonetics, in addition to what I thought when I was a kid
@angelawossname
@angelawossname Жыл бұрын
Yeah I always thought Pickering and Higgins ended up together.
@srothbardt
@srothbardt Жыл бұрын
Very good points.
@Donnagata1409
@Donnagata1409 Жыл бұрын
@@angelawossname Reasonable.
@jeffhreid
@jeffhreid Жыл бұрын
Exactly. Eliza brings as much to the relationship as Henry. People can change, it’s the very soul of the story
@DiegoBosch90
@DiegoBosch90 Жыл бұрын
@@jeffhreid glad to see some people understood the film. Eliza denies any love feelings, higgins do the same, who are we to say it is a romantic feeling if they clearly deny, and also they never shown any thing on this way... through the film? wtf, people doesnt understand the concept of friendship...this film is a master peice cause of that , it denies any no sense and unjustified romance...the final is brilliant for me...open final (but it excludes any romance between both).
@markthompson112
@markthompson112 Жыл бұрын
I played Higgins last year and we found the solution in playing Higgins like a tired toddler throughout Act 2, irrational, emotional (all the things he accuses women of being as I was being dammed if I was ever going to validate any of the things Higgins says). For the 3 parts of "I've grown accustomed to her face", the first was played disdainful and bitter, section two was callous and wicked but section three was sobering; done like it was the most truthful thing he had ever spoken. We went out of our way to demonstrate that Higgins was basically showing himself his true colors and coming to realization that, in the same way he and Pickering had had an effect in Eliza, so too had she had an effect on him and that he needed to change. My Higgins had a meltdown, sobbing as the recoding played, real ugly, honest, cry. When she comes back in, she sat next to me on the couch and I choked out a quiet "Eliza?". I put out a hand, she takes it, I go to say something and nothing come out. I try again, nothing. I try one more time only for an errant thought to cross my mind. "Where the devil are my slippers?" asked in full and complete earnestness. She laughs, I realize I said the quiet part out loud and groan/laugh/cry and the lights fade to two friends unsure but hopeful for the future laughing at the dumb thing Higgins just said. That final laugh of the two of us really uplifted that final music, it makes it a grand, hopeful, raw and honest ending. One that says, we don't know what's next, but things will be better and in my opinion is far more satisfying ending.
@JBearwa
@JBearwa Жыл бұрын
Thank you for sharing something that was done professionally and also very personal. I truly would’ve enjoyed seeing this performance to feel what my reaction of your emotionally revealing ending would’ve left on me.
@markthompson112
@markthompson112 Жыл бұрын
@@JBearwa if I could, I'd share it in a heartbeat, but copyright and all that. I was very proud of the work we did and I wish we'd have been able to share it with more people
@socratesrocks1513
@socratesrocks1513 Жыл бұрын
That matches my interpretation. The point being made in the musical is that they've educated each other. She's become a lady, yes, but he's realised that, for all his blustering, he's only been a bachelor because no woman was strong enough to stand up to him. There's a lot of self-delusion in HIggins' character. He was really looking for someone like his mother who, we see in the play, is a tough lady. She knows what he's like, is mostly willing to tolerate his childish behaviour until it gets completely out of hand, at which point she slaps him down, but she does love him despite it all. That is what Eliza has become at the end. She knows where he keeps his ties, what size gloves he needs and how he likes them -- not just the rough, thin leather, but lined with something soft. For all his show, Higgins is the same. Rough on the outside, but he is, in many ways, a child looking for someone who will accept him as he really is, and Eliza's the first to do it because she's the first to live with him long enough to know the real man. She has learned a great deal from him, but she's learned enough from Pickering to be more than just Hggins' creation. If she were just that, they couldn't possibly be together. Instead, she knows his mother well enough to go to her place when Higgins become insufferable, is welcomed ("I was happy to have her") and Mrs Higgins probably explained some truths about her son. She also probably explained to Eliza that the only way she'd make him realise what he was doing would be by taking his toys away and letting him stew, once he understood why. ("Without You") It takes him a while as he tries to hold on to the shell he's created to protect himself but, in the end, he has to admit to himself that she's cracked that shell and, if she leaves him now, he'll be weaker. These are two very strong people, but they know each other's weaknesses. That makes them stronger together. If Higgins is looking for someone like his mother, Eliza could be argued to be looking for the best parts of her father. Not the violence or the drunkenness, but the honesty (and Doolittle is nothing if not remarkably honest about himself, his position, and the games he plays to keep going, "I'm one of the undeserving poor, that's what I am!"). After the ball, Higgins' raises his hand and she goads him to strike her -- something she's suffered many times before. He proves himself the better man by not doing that. He's says she has struck him and wounded him to the heart. She now knows that he can drink without going so far as to become a drunkard and he's not a physically violent man. After he's gone, she digs in the fire ashes to rescue the ring that, we're told, he gave her in Brighton. She contemplates it, and then puts it on the mantlepiece. He's not passed all her tests, but she's not given up on him... yet! She also, by now, knows that a lot of his offensive comments are a defence mechanism. Higgins is old enough to have felt attraction to women and, probably, been rebuffed, and so he pretends not to want them as its less painful. Instead of HIM being rejected, he's the one doing the rejecting. It's HIS choice. HE'S not an insufferable ar$e, THEY'RE not good enough for him. The scene at Mrs Higgins' house is her making it clear to him that she will NOT be his servant. If he's to have a chance with her, he needs to accept that she is a strong woman who has earned his respect. Again, like a child, Higgins admits it while insisting on taking the credit. That's when she walks out. He's admitted that she's the 'consort battleship'. Now he needs to recognise that this makes her his equal, not his creation. Thus she leaves him to stew, telling him she's leaving for good. Will he get it? Accustomed to Her Face is his turn around: the recognition that she's changed him and the thought of carrying on without her is far from pleasant "I was serenely independent and content before we met. Surely I could always be that way again... and yet..." The only problem is that she doesn't hear this realisation... unless she was quietly following and watching him. If she was, then this is when she realises he's got it and that's why she returns so quickly. He's finally passed the test. This is why their getting together at the end is satisfying to the audience. She was looking for a father figure, he was looking for a mother figure. Freddy would be a child to her, doting on her every wish. That might be satisfying short term, but just as she doesn't want to be Higgins' servant, so she wouldn't be able to tolerate a man who became hers. Their relationship simply wouldn't last and she knows it. She doesn't want to control someone or be controlled BY someone. At the end, Higgins knows he can play games of dominance and she'll accept them playfully but, if he pushes too far, she'll slap him down and put him in his place (just as his mother does). They'll have rows loud enough to lift the roof in private. In public, she'll correct his more childish behaviour with a look, and he'll nudge her if her social roots start to show, and together they'll be each other's bulwark against the world. THAT'S why it works.
@Nannyj9007
@Nannyj9007 Жыл бұрын
Best ending offered so far. I would have loved to see that!
@rachelwharton4245
@rachelwharton4245 Жыл бұрын
That’s the best take on the ending I’ve ever heard
@rhov-anion
@rhov-anion Жыл бұрын
When my family watched this when I was a kid, I cried out at the end, "Ewww, she hooks up with the MEAN OLD MAN?" My mother told me, "No, she's just visiting him as her former teacher." So I honestly didn't realize this was supposed to be a ROMANTIC ending. I haven't seen the musical since moving out of the house, but I rather like my mother's interpretation. She DID make it on her own, and she's only visiting him for tea.
@stuffchat
@stuffchat Жыл бұрын
There is actually no indication that she came back to marry him. Probably she just came to make friends again and end on a good foot, maybe to live there for a while seeing as she's been living there for months anyway and hasn't moved out yet.
@VictoriaForSale
@VictoriaForSale Жыл бұрын
I said kinda the same thing and asked, "why she's coming back? He treats her badly" and my mother answered "because she loves him and love means accepting the flaws of the loved one. She accepted him as he is" I must say this lingers still in my mind because it's so true. We all have flaws and if we love someone we accept certain flaws. The question is if he realized after losing her how much she meant to him and started to change some of his mannerisms but the movie leaves this open.
@sarasamaletdin4574
@sarasamaletdin4574 Жыл бұрын
That’s what I thought too.
@rhov-anion
@rhov-anion Жыл бұрын
@@VictoriaForSale There's loving flaws, and there's tolerating abuse. My husband has to be told to do simple chores multiple times until I'm nagging him like his mother. That's a flaw, and I love him despite it. My sister's husband punched a hole into the wall when he was mad at her and mocked his daughter so much as a small child, she stopped speaking for a while. That's abuse, yet she refuses to leave him, even to protect the kids. Big difference.
@VictoriaForSale
@VictoriaForSale Жыл бұрын
@@rhov-anion I agree with you. That is why I said if he realizes he has to change his mannersims
@grutarg2938
@grutarg2938 Жыл бұрын
Another possible ending: While out walking Henry Higgins stops into Eliza's flower shop. He doesn't know it's her shop but he hears her speak from behind the flowers and recognizes her voice. They talk briefly, she sees him out, and locks up for the night. The camera stays in the shop with Eliza as she walks upstairs to her living space above. A reprise of "All I Want is a Room Somewhere" plays in the background as she sits in her enormous chair and watches Henry walk away down the street. The problem with everything I've seen is that Eliza never gets a room of her own. In every version she is seen only in the space Henry Higgins owns and controls. That's why the scene in his mother's house is so important, it's now a space owned and controlled not by Henry, but by another woman. It's a step in the right direction, but it still is closely tied to Henry Higgins and is not Eliza's own. To move from there back to Henry's office just doesn't work on a symbolic level. She needs to end in her own space.
@oliviaknight1123
@oliviaknight1123 10 ай бұрын
I completely agree!! Yes, she wanted a room, a space of her own. It's so sad that she doesn't ever achieve that. I believe you'd have written the perfect ending ❤
@grutarg2938
@grutarg2938 10 ай бұрын
@@oliviaknight1123 Thank you so much!
@nancyanderson5310
@nancyanderson5310 7 ай бұрын
Yes yes yes! A GREAT ending. A GROWNUP ending. Sane! I can feel her breathing freely as the man “with no feeling heart” in him goes back to his lair. FREEDOM! Yah gotta love it!
@nancyanderson5310
@nancyanderson5310 Жыл бұрын
YOU MADE MY DAY! I am 85 years old and that ending galls me ALWAYS! You did it! You made it real, human, sane. As a battered woman myself, Julie, Nancy and Eliza gave me mere acceptance of the era-specific reality, but never any hope. I got out the hard way - left my kids and lived as a pariah from then on. My kids had food, clothing, shelter and a step mother who made a great wage. My sons got college, my daughter got to cheer them on, then got out and wrestled horrifically because she was drop dead gorgeous and got hooked into Hollywood. Thank you, thank you! Sanity is such clean air.
@JaneNewAuthor
@JaneNewAuthor 10 ай бұрын
I'm 70, my mother loved the movie and had the record. I never liked either ending. Even in my early teens I thought she must have had other options.
@wherefancytakesme
@wherefancytakesme 7 ай бұрын
Nancy's arc always broke my heart in Oliver. It's tragic (and is by no means glorified imo): I think that As Long As He Needs Me portrays the mentality of some women who are manipulated and conditioned to stay. "But deep down he loves me-- and who else would love _him?"_ And she's killed in the end anyway, because Bill is a monster. That song makes me cry every time thinking of the real life situations like Nancy's. I'm glad to know your story turned out much better.
@leecarlson9713
@leecarlson9713 Күн бұрын
I too, left an abusive husband- but mine did it emotionally and verbally. When I left, I was literally fighting for my sanity, and was in no shape to care for my children. Luckily, he married a woman who was the best mother my kids could ever have had. She prepared them for the real world, and they are all productive members of society. But they decided two years ago, that they no longer wanted me in their lives. This is both a burden, and a very freeing experience. I am, and always will be their mother, whether they acknowledge me or not; but I no longer carry around the horrible guilt I felt for over 42 years that I left them to be raised by their father. When their father and I divorced, we agreed to never speak ill of the other person to the children. I have no idea if he has kept that bargain, but I can honestly (and proudly) say that I have. Unfortunately, that means my children have no idea what my reasons were for “abandoning “ them. I have written a letter, telling my side, and told the executrix of my will to send it to them when I am dead. I may change my mind, and never let them know. But I have never been happy with the ending in the movie, or the 1956 play, until today. Good for Eliza, if she does go back to Higgins because he needs a strong woman to take him down a notch on occasions.
@keithcurtis
@keithcurtis Жыл бұрын
Our local dinner theater(!) fixed this ending considerably, without changing a line of dialog, but only adding two bits of choreography. When Higgins is singing his final song, and walking through the city, he comes across a Cockney flower girl and buys a bunch of violets. He tosses coins to her, like in the fist act, but although they scatter as before, he unconsciously bends and helps her gather them. He sees her as a person. When he delivers the final "where the devil are my slippers" line, she grabs them off the floor and is about to toss them at the back of his head, just before he slouches down and tosses the flowers over his head to her. She drops the slippers, catches the flowers, tableau. It's not perfect, but it immeasurably improves the scene by keeping Eliza fierce, and showing emotional growth and acknowledgment of his past carelessness in Higgins
@jwf2125
@jwf2125 Жыл бұрын
Could be. You're making obvious the character development that some of us have already inferred from the current (MFL) version.
@JaniceinOR
@JaniceinOR Жыл бұрын
@@jwf2125 I might change my mind on a careful rewatching, but I never saw evidence of Higgins becoming less misogynistic and classist, just realizing that he'd rather have Eliza around as his student and doormat than for her to leave.
@WrestlingErnestHemingway
@WrestlingErnestHemingway Жыл бұрын
Not needed. The movie nailed the ending perfectly. He learned his lesson & excpted her & repsected her for who she was. As he says in the movie, "I like you this way!" Then the entire thing about it being in a play format is, MOST actors can never express what the movie showed in Rex Harrison's face when he was about to open his door. Realizing he lost her. That one small bit of his expression is what won him the Academy Award for best actor. Most actors in plays can't propley do that or express or show that in their face. Dootlittle & Eliza both came together respecting one another for who they were. This is the main point of the movie that most simpleton's don't seem to understand or get about the movie's true real male/female bonding relationships in real life. The ending makes the perfect sence for a realistic ending. To go and change that imo after the musical being one of the most clever writtn musical & movies ever is pure blasphemy and modern day "political correctness wokeness" at it's worst. A case of the mondern day simpleton's not being able to handle the truths in life. Smh. Shaw's version & ending was nothing but the typical boring white picket fence ending. Most women would never respect or fall in love with a smitten SIMP like Freddy.
@vlad5042
@vlad5042 Жыл бұрын
@@jwf2125theres no real development for higgins. to the very end he shows no sign of becoming less selfish or respecting eliza any more. in his iconic supposedly romantic final song he spends most of it just resentfully fantasizing about her miserable life without him.
@Lou-Lou8343
@Lou-Lou8343 Жыл бұрын
@@WrestlingErnestHemingway absolutely agree! Why would Freddy ever be a good alternative???. A lazy, good for nothing, silver spooned simp is “good enough” if … he’s nice to you!!! I would never want that for my daughters or grandchildren. So no one likes the song Prof Higgins sung at the end. He doesn’t sound “changed” or contrite enough. Was he supposed to suddenly become icky sweet and “All hail Eliza” like simpleton Freddy? In what world would that have sounded genuine ? I saw prof H’s strides as huge but in keeping with his to reticence to move on from bachelor-hood or anything showing loving emotion. He was all academia , very cold. Eliza had a profound and life changing effect of him. Love had a profound effect on him. Shaw didn’t believe in either. Shaw condemned her to unsteady Freddy and poverty but at least she got a few pats on the head now and then. Freddy was not her equal in any true sense but Shaw thought he was good enough for the likes of her. Who’s the real misogynist here? Shaw wins the prize with all the “woke” lemmings on this comment page. “People see what they want to see” and “misery loves company” comes to mind. “What do people want to see happen” … says a lot about them. “Modern sensibility” doesn’t constitute right or righteous sensibility.
@erubin100
@erubin100 3 жыл бұрын
I choose to believe Henry has gone insane and is actually hallucinating Eliza came back. It's more satisfying than the alternative.
@catherinerosa644
@catherinerosa644 3 жыл бұрын
I've always believed that, and it's seriously the perfect ending. She went away to live her life, we don't know if she married Freddie or not, it doesn't matter. She sang her last song about how she can stand on her own, and so she does. Higgins is clearly upset, he listens to her recordings and imagines her return. But she never really returns. And eventually he gets used to being alone again. In my head she opens a successful business (a flower/tea shop?). Maybe they run past eachother on the streets sometimes, or bump into eachother at some social event, or Higgins sees her shop and smiles inwardly. That's how I always saw the ending, and I refuse to believe anything but.
@jyan466
@jyan466 2 жыл бұрын
That's what I thought was the ending
@mohammedsaud145
@mohammedsaud145 2 жыл бұрын
Same here
@markarmage3776
@markarmage3776 2 жыл бұрын
@@catherinerosa644 That song is pure delusional. Only idiots would think that passing off at that one dance is enough to blend in to the aristocratic life. It's just a dance, and Higgins tailored her to it. Higgins solo song put it nicely, it's quite obvious her life is going to fail miserably without his help. People like to dream but it's quite clear what will happen if she tries to "make it on her own".
@Kelaiah01
@Kelaiah01 2 жыл бұрын
@@markarmage3776 Except you're missing one key detail: Eliza said that she was going to offer herself as an assistant to "that brilliant Hungarian" (forgot his name), the one who made a living off of blackmailing people, and supposedly teach him Higgins' methods. What's more, that guy told an entire court of people that Eliza was a Hungarian princess... when in reality she's just a common flower girl. Eliza would have him over a barrel with that information: she could utterly humiliate and ruin him by revealing his blunder. Therefore, he'd be the one being blackmailed for a change. In conclusion, Eliza does indeed have what it takes to make it on her own.
@technicolorstatic
@technicolorstatic Жыл бұрын
I always imagined a last scene in a busy bustling flower shop with Colonel Pickering dropping in to visit Eliza and Freddie, and then Higgins steps in and delivers the "I washed my hands and face before I came" line to her, a way of asking forgiveness.
@muurrarium9460
@muurrarium9460 Жыл бұрын
Nice one :)
@amelguoc4682
@amelguoc4682 Жыл бұрын
I like that idea!
@davidannderson9796
@davidannderson9796 Жыл бұрын
Wonderful!
@dandooshnanoosh
@dandooshnanoosh Жыл бұрын
WTF? What is this man-hating barbarianism? The only thing Higgins owes her is a pat on the back and a congratulations on a job well-done.
@danielsmith9814
@danielsmith9814 Жыл бұрын
I really like that!
@abigaylebonham4510
@abigaylebonham4510 Жыл бұрын
I think it would be clever if the movie ending was kept and Eliza’s reaction to the “wear the devil are my slippers” line was changed. Like imagine Eliza decided to come back to just see how Higgins would react, maybe hoping she could reconcile with him and give him another chance; only to be greeted with that line and after he says that to her she just sighs and turns back around and leaves for good.
@tyrant-den884
@tyrant-den884 Жыл бұрын
why would she ever give an absolute bellend like him another chance?
@monicanlamppost
@monicanlamppost Жыл бұрын
This one.
@archivist17
@archivist17 Жыл бұрын
This would be the most elegant.
@WrestlingErnestHemingway
@WrestlingErnestHemingway Жыл бұрын
Another one who obviously misses the point of the ending & movie. He wasn't going to change his personailty or being for any woman. He realized & thought he lost her and I like to think he learrned from that. And she excepeted him for who he was just as much as he appreciated her for who she was. Why on earth do most simpltons miss this in the ending? SMH. It keeps the dynamics of love & the natural human bonding of males & female relationships in reality. The Shaw's version was the white picket fence fantasy ending made for simpletons and the movei ending made a point & added actual "love" in it & very cleverly & clearly.
@paulsutton5896
@paulsutton5896 Жыл бұрын
Do you mean: "where"?
@hrani
@hrani Жыл бұрын
I went to see the play (translated to Finnish, it was interesting what dialect and pronunciation choices they made) and the ending was one where Eliza takes off, marches off stage and is gone, leaving a slightly incredulous, slowly more and more distressed Higgings behind. Curtains. I was quite pleased!
@abbyk.6410
@abbyk.6410 3 жыл бұрын
As a kid watching this hundreds of times, I thought she just visited Higgins like you would visit a father you had a falling out with. I thought she had married Freddie.
@marilynsmymother711
@marilynsmymother711 3 жыл бұрын
I guess I felt the same. I’d never seen Henry and Eliza as any sort of romantic pair. This is one of my favorite movies, and for some reason I’ve always thought that Henry and Eliza maintained a friendship. I always thought of it as a mentor/mentee relationship. Henry is comfortable with Eliza, and Eliza makes life comfortable for Henry. I didn’t realize that they were meant to be in a romantic relationship in the end.
@premanadi
@premanadi 3 жыл бұрын
@@marilynsmymother711 I think your reading of it is just as plausible. If she did stay with him, it would probably be to look after his household, not as a romantic partner.
@aragorniielessar1894
@aragorniielessar1894 3 жыл бұрын
Yeah i kind of agree with that, it make.
@TaniaArpaAndTakaMoritaForever
@TaniaArpaAndTakaMoritaForever 3 жыл бұрын
Same! haha For kid me, her getting together with old man Higgins made no sense at all
@davidallen508
@davidallen508 3 жыл бұрын
In the original “Pygmalion” she does end up marrying Freddie and Higgins is left roaring with laughter ; not the stuff of musical comedy.The ending of “My Fair Lady” would have been better handled by Julie rather than Audrey.
@ivarhusa454
@ivarhusa454 Жыл бұрын
I did so enjoy this explanation of the history of my fair lady. I could not help but recall the movie with Michael Cain and Marsha Mason, Educating Rita. When I saw 'Rita's' ending, I practically cried with happiness. She kept her independence, asserting that she could now live in whichever world she chose, academic or 'pub'. That was the happiest ending I could imagine. It seems I have the same modern sensibilities as our modern London guide. Thanks again for this lesson.
@theresabradley4716
@theresabradley4716 Жыл бұрын
Michael Caine and Julie Walters.
@AthyDuGard
@AthyDuGard Жыл бұрын
That's such a great film.
@davidwright8432
@davidwright8432 Жыл бұрын
In a way, Shaw's ending with Eliza fully self-realized, but Higgins as the trigger of that transformation, would be most satisfactory to present audiences. Every parent - the better ones anyhow - have both a regret at the 'growing up' of a deeply beloved child - and the realization that in that growth and emancipation, is their true success. Possibly with just a little twinge of melancholy for their undoubted loss. At least that's how it felt to me, seeing Someone fly joyously free. Wonderful! But I really miss that impish kid ...
@dreadpirate2432
@dreadpirate2432 Жыл бұрын
I played Eliza in My Fairy Lady, and I had always been uncomfortable with the ending. At the end, when Eliza comes back and Henry says "Where the devil are my slippers?" I played it angry, and as if we were going to get into another argument. The other actor was very good, and played "I've grown accustomed to her face" in a way that suggested he'd learned some humility. The idea (for me) was that these were both imperfect people who enjoyed bickering with each other and challenging each other. They would continue to bicker and fight and challenge each other (probably never getting married), but they could continue their relationship and perhaps become better people through their friendship. He would be humbled by the wit of a "common flower girl", and she (as she states in her 'I want' song) having someone's head resting on her knee. She thinks (in the beginning) she wants a tender soul who takes good care of her, but when Freddy presents this, she realizes that's not what she really wants. What she wants is connection, and through My Fair Lady she comes to realize that she is an equal to Henry Higgins--she is intelligent, and clever, and able to battle wits with him at the end. In my head-canon ending, he comes to realize this too, and they live (perhaps not happily), but understandably? ever after?
@Harrydewulf
@Harrydewulf Жыл бұрын
I love this analysis. I was always uncomfortable with the way that Henry Higgins didn't show... that mixture of surprise and pride that a teacher has when their student surpasses expectations and perhaps, surpasses them. I always felt that both Eliza and Pickering were better people than Higgins, and hence, that Eliza is the only hero of the piece. I would love to see an ending where Higgins feels more like a proud teacher or proud parent; I don't begrudge any parent their pride at the realization that their child no longer needs them. As a parent, some of that was you. But the idea they would end up together has always been, as the kids say, ick.
@Kelaiah01
@Kelaiah01 3 жыл бұрын
Personally, I would have had it so that when Eliza comes back, Freddie is with her, and after Higgins says his slippers line and covers his face, Pickering comes in and happily embraces Eliza and Freddie, all three of them pantomiming their future plans as the music plays. This would show that Eliza is going to go through with marrying Freddie, but she's still going to be apart of Higgins' and Pickerings' lives.
@Checkmate1138
@Checkmate1138 3 жыл бұрын
Ah, but what about Higgins? You said "all three of them". I assume you mean Higgins would join the three of them in rejoicing their future plans?
@Kelaiah01
@Kelaiah01 3 жыл бұрын
@@Checkmate1138 Nope, I imagined Higgins just sitting there in his chair, hat covering his eyes, but his smile would be visible. He's slumped in relief, for once content to sit aside and let others make their own plans.
@Checkmate1138
@Checkmate1138 3 жыл бұрын
@@Kelaiah01 I like it :) 👍
@Kelaiah01
@Kelaiah01 3 жыл бұрын
@@Checkmate1138 Thank you very much! :D
@brxzbze
@brxzbze 2 жыл бұрын
I thought of a fix to the Bartlett Sher ending where it's clarified that Eliza and Freddy just happened to be passing by and heard the voice recording playing from outside, so Eliza went back in to check, but never planned to go back to Higgins (and I guess when she leaves she goes with Freddy). Yours works better, honestly, since we never really know what happens to Pickering, do we?
@mistydreamz
@mistydreamz 2 жыл бұрын
This is news to me. It never occurred to me that they were supposed to end up together. I honestly thought her returning meant that she didn't want their friendship on such a bitter note, but rather they have a proper respectful good bye before they go their own ways.
@tinymxnticore
@tinymxnticore Жыл бұрын
The triumphant music as he smugly leans back in his chair that kind of solidified how I interpret the end of My Fair Lady. It's worth noting that the slippers line was made up by Shaw as a compromise. It's intentionally vague so that audiences can interpret it how they wish.
@LadyWervyn
@LadyWervyn Жыл бұрын
I like this ending! I never saw it that way, but I will remember this when I watch it again!
@macmachine
@macmachine Жыл бұрын
That's the genius of Lerner & Lowe's upgrade. Higgins learns to love for the first time.
@Ocker3
@Ocker3 Жыл бұрын
Doesn't Eliza have a line about staying and "not wanting you to make love to me, but more friendly like"
@LadyWervyn
@LadyWervyn Жыл бұрын
@@Ocker3 She definitely does! It goes by kind of fast, I think people focus more on the line in the same part where she says she’s come to care for him, context be danged!
@DG-gx4sg
@DG-gx4sg 4 жыл бұрын
I never thought Eliza was attracted to Higgins one bit. I saw him more as her fatherly figure. That's why the ending almost made me throw up. Wished she just moved on and went her own way.
@suebob16
@suebob16 3 жыл бұрын
Eliza becomes aware of her changing feelings towards Higgins during the song I Could Have Danced All Night when she finally conquers her enunciation problems. Plus during their final conversation together I believe Eliza admits to Higgins that she had come to care for him, but they were too busy arguing for the words to sink in at the time. That was as close to expressing her romantic feelings as it got.
@spiritualanarchist8162
@spiritualanarchist8162 Жыл бұрын
What the ending needs is Eliza throwing a slipper full force , hitting Higgins in the head 😂
@WrestlingErnestHemingway
@WrestlingErnestHemingway Жыл бұрын
Then he laughs and says, "Sit down & have a seat you beautiful guttersnipe." And she does with a smile. 😁😂😉
@Ratigan2
@Ratigan2 Жыл бұрын
OMG YASSSSSSS
@kikidevine694
@kikidevine694 Жыл бұрын
Or just slapping him across the face with them
@RamblingSailors
@RamblingSailors Жыл бұрын
I'd pay to see that. She slowly comes back, wanting to give him another chance, he completely misreads, says "where are my slippers!?" and utterly blows his chance; she shakes her head like "what was I thinking?" throws the slippers at the back of his head and fully walks out. Henry kicks himself, as he will do forever. Curtain.
@frankharr9466
@frankharr9466 Жыл бұрын
I like that. :)
@historyismyplayground1827
@historyismyplayground1827 Жыл бұрын
Shaw was a man ahead of his time. The times have finally come to a point where his original ending would be acceptable, and the true happy ending is not a forced “romantic“ one.
@sarahp7855
@sarahp7855 4 жыл бұрын
I suffer from the Mandela Effect when it comes to this film, because I loved watching it as a child, but I clearly remember Higgins being a father-figure to Eliza and I remember her leaving with Freddie at the end. I was quite shocked to watch it again as an adult and realize that she ended up with Higgins. I still can’t accept that ending. Their relationship just doesn’t read as romantic to me in any way, so my kid-brain must have edited my memories of the film to make more sense. So happy to watch this video and find out that maybe my false memories of the ending had a source!
@megwyn1611
@megwyn1611 4 жыл бұрын
That's what happens in the play
@jacinpickledoge8545
@jacinpickledoge8545 4 жыл бұрын
Yeah. In the original play, The Pygmalion, she leaves as a sort of equal to Henry Higgins.
@premanadi
@premanadi 3 жыл бұрын
I don't even think that the musical implies for sure that they will be a romantic couple. It's just as easy to see it as implying that she will remain with him as some kind of companion/housekeeper/secretary. Which is also very unsatisfactory. Nor should we assume that the arrangement would last.
@richardmayora1289
@richardmayora1289 2 жыл бұрын
@veevyo It all depends on the casting. This lousy LC production cast them as the same age range and so romance was very possible.
@harshmnr
@harshmnr 2 жыл бұрын
@@premanadi That's what I was going to say but actually I see them as friends (a very weird friend relationship, but friends of a sort). But that's what I love about My Fair Lady is that the ending is so open ended and there are so many different interpretations that can be "correct". ~:~
@MiriamMillen
@MiriamMillen Жыл бұрын
Thank you for this wonderful and informative video! My take - Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) was not someone who could easily change, and the last song was basically him fighting with himself because the revelation that he loves Eliza is deeply disconcerting. He never thought he could feel vulnerable or lonely and when he says, "I've grown accustomed to her face", what he really means is, "I love her and I can't imagine my life without her". To play down his feelings, even as he muses to himself is not at odds with his character. When he says "Eliza", it's almost breathless, as he realizes that he has been given this extraordinary gift and almost lost it because of his arrogance. When he asks for his slippers, it's almost in a playful way, and I think it's obvious that Eliza knows that she can certainly indulge him, but if she told him to "Get his own damn slippers, and while he's at it, to bring her some tea", I think he would have absolutely given in rather than risk losing her again. Or, perhaps I'm just perceiving this because that is what I want it to be. I do agree that Higgins is misogynistic, arrogant, controlling, and selfish, and the age difference is a bit cringe, although, not completely outside the realm of reality. I'm not altogether convinced that Eliza's love for him isn't a bit of Stockholm Syndrome mixed with daddy issues, although I believe she is genuinely fond of him. Anyway, that's my two cents. Thanks again for this great video and I definitely want to learn more about George Bernard Shaw now!
@WrestlingErnestHemingway
@WrestlingErnestHemingway Жыл бұрын
Excellent anology I totally can agree with. This is how I look at it as well. 👍
@Checkmate1138
@Checkmate1138 3 жыл бұрын
How about, for the happy ending, they try that ending bit that George Bernard Shaw suggested? Eliza leaves, to go off with Freddie. Higgins sings "I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face" but contemplates that he his proud of Eliza, now seeing her as an equal, not someone he looks down at. He then goes out onto the balcony, sees Eliza and Freddy heading out in the car, and he exclaims "Eliza Doolittle!" and waves at her smiling. Eliza and Freddy both look up and beam up smiling and waving back. Another option: All the same, but instead, copying the 1938 alternate ending, Higgins goes out after singing his last number, onto the street. Presumably some time has passed, and he chances upon Eliza and Freddy successfully running their shop, booming with business. There he exclaims "Eliza Doolittle!" or even "Eliza Doolittle! Where the devil are my slippers?" though it is obviously in jest. The three meet each other's gazes and smile and laugh at seeing each other again, like old friends. In both ideas (where this is the happy ending), both characters get what they want or needed -- Eliza and Freddy live happy and independently in their life, while Higgins learns a bit of a life lesson and learns to respect and treat Eliza as an equal and friend.
@angelawossname
@angelawossname Жыл бұрын
This, but where we also acknowledge the queer coding that Shaw insinuated about Higgins and Pickering. Higgins sings his final song to Pickering and Pickering consoles him.
@rfresa
@rfresa Жыл бұрын
Yeah, I don't see why he can't still sing the last song, and then see her in her flower shop and acknowledge that she doesn't need him anymore, which means he succeeded.
@cabbage-soup
@cabbage-soup Жыл бұрын
i don't know, i feel like it'd be nice if the ending focused on eliza and her successes, rather than on higgins, his sense of superiority, and his (dubious) personal growth
@DaveLH
@DaveLH Жыл бұрын
I can imagine it ending kind of in the way "Educating Rita" (a play/movie that is often compared with "Pygmalion") ends -- With Eliza recognizing that she and Higgins are temperamentally incompatible, yet Eliza is grateful for all he's done to change her life. And so they part amicably, ending with Eliza (just as Rita does in her movie) looking at Higgins intently, and then saying, simply, "Thanks."
@jonathanjappe7
@jonathanjappe7 Жыл бұрын
My favorite story about the movie "My Fair Lady" is that when my mom went to see it in theaters, she accidentally left at intermission and was disappointed they didn't sing any of the songs from the b side of the album.
@AthyDuGard
@AthyDuGard Жыл бұрын
😂 That sound like something my mum would do.
@vully70
@vully70 3 жыл бұрын
I once saw a Berlin production where - after Higgins asked smugly for his slippers - Eliza threw them in his face and they started arguing wildly while the curtain fell. At the time I hated it but today I think it‘s great.
@giggle_snort
@giggle_snort Жыл бұрын
LOL!!!! Now THAT'S a memorable ending!
@blooncrazy
@blooncrazy Жыл бұрын
My favorite production ended with the usual song, the usual return, the usual smug line from Higgins, but when Eliza hears Higgins asking about the slippers, she see a shoe and throws it at him. Higgins, completely dumbfounded, throws the shoe back at Eliza. The set had been progressively filled throughout the performance with books representing the amount of learning Eliza was gaining resulting in piles of books everywhere, and as she dodges the flying shoe, she grabs a book and throws it at Higgins. Higgins returns with another book. Eliza throws a book. Higgins throws a book. Books fly. Actors laugh uproariously and the curtain falls. Eliza has returned but only as the equal that Higgins had intended. The image of two perfectly matched experts in phonetics - two sides of the same coin - leads us to imagine that, rather than offering herself as an "assistant to that brilliant Hungarian", she is able to begin teaching on her own. Pygmalion has succeeded. Galatea has become alive. Perhaps they might share offices, but never abodes again...
@maz.s
@maz.s 4 жыл бұрын
I saw the Lincoln Center show. It was my first time seeing My Fair Lady. The vibe I got was that Higgins and the Colonel were an old married couple squabbling over what to do about their adopted daughter.
@richardmayora1289
@richardmayora1289 2 жыл бұрын
I guess you saw Lauren Ambrose? I did not believe he found her appealing for a single second. She was so charmless.
@christinepaige2575
@christinepaige2575 Жыл бұрын
I saw it too…was disappointed. It seemed too much like a self-conscious exercise in political correctness, between the cross-dressing Cockney chorus folk and Eliza’s bizarre exit through the fourth wall, which the audience was left to figure out for ourselves other than it seeming clear that Higgins was being rejected. It was a treat to get to see Diana Rigg, though.
@Ocker3
@Ocker3 Жыл бұрын
Higgins and the Colonel are two old Confirmed Bachelors, which some read as implying they're quietly gay. Being language and culture experts certainly would be an acceptable occupation for such men, and would explain the strapping young men coming for lessons?
@angelawossname
@angelawossname Жыл бұрын
When I read the original GBS play I just kinda assumed that Pickering and Higgins got together. It was certainly coded that way.
@MelissaThompson432
@MelissaThompson432 2 күн бұрын
I never quite made that work for me. I decided that Higgins must either be asexual or have the "gentleman's" habit of paying for his companionship, discreetly. My take on Higgins is that he's exceptionally good at compartmentalizing; to him other people only have dimension sufficient to allow them to fill the role he has alloted to them. Eliza will always be coarse; sex workers will never be companions; the gentry must be respected, but with as much quiet contempt as you wish to privately feel. His mother is the repository of as much affection as he can muster. This is the part of Higgins that I always felt must be somewhat autobiographical of Shaw. Except that Shaw was in the theatre world and arguably had more friends than Higgins. And he had at least enough understanding of compassion and empathy to use Higgins to display a lack of them. And cause Pickering to possess them.
@vannasilver
@vannasilver 2 жыл бұрын
I remember seeing that film as a kid and thinking Henry Higgins was a bully. Thank you for this insight into all the characters and history
@LindzTheLooneyOfLondon
@LindzTheLooneyOfLondon Жыл бұрын
I have only just come across your channel and am as a fellow British history lover in love with it. I found this expecially interesting, I think if I were to tackle this musical I would turn Higgins into a fatherly role, which shows a man unacustom to sharing his life with others become a substitute father for a child whose own parent is wayward, neglectful and often absent. Pickering in this scenario becomes his teacher, breaking down what is expected of a father to mold a child for a better role in society in terms of emotions, ethics and relationships. This would thus show at the end of the film his realisation that she was a daughter rather than experiment and has impacted his life far more deeply than he lets on. This allows for the song 'acostom to her face' to remain but in the guise of a guardian or parental look back rather than that of a lover. I think this way the age gap issue is less of an issue, the roles of the men become more parental than pervy and the outcome of her leaving is her growing up and establishing a life of her own but never truly loosing his paternal influence. It also allows for the fetch me my slippers attitude to move from misoginistic and become a parental order/request. I also like this approach to it as it allows Higgins to express his doubts about her relationship with Freddie, as it becomes more a parental concern than a stag rutt! I feel that to put the characters in a more family dynamic in which the father creates his daughter to be the best and most desirable he can fits Shaws over all take of the story, and shows the growth of the main characters rather than returning them to a state possibly no better than they started. Whilst I love the Rex Harrison film I was always left with questions about Freddie and how Eliza threw everything away to be nothing more than a maid or kept woman. Changing the dynamics of the relationship between them allows today's audience to feel forfilled that she's leaving to continue growing, with a family to return to when needed. It also shows growth of Higgins rather than putting effort into showing him get lessons in how to treat others beyond clinical distain and allows him to form a meaningful and far less creepy relationship. On rethinking this I realise I'm describing the three men and a baby/ little lady films but in a more grown up scenario! This all said put into a period context we seem to accept and forgive more that today we find disturbing and unacceptable, and we love it and hate it at the same time. Thank you so much for your content x
@michaelbenenson
@michaelbenenson Жыл бұрын
A wonderfully comprehensive and empathetic commentary. I saw the Covent Gdn production with Harrison, |Andrews, Hyde White and Holloway - and come the "slippers" line, Harrison had his |Higgins deliver the line ironically, self-derisively. I think that's a key to a complementary ending for our age - 2023 - that heart and head are put into the scales, so that Eliza prospers 'intellectually' (head) and, reciprocallym, Higgins prospers emotionally in valuing the heart. I hear John Donne agree!!!!
@venake1646
@venake1646 4 жыл бұрын
This video is amazing! I watched My Fair Lady for the first time yesterday and felt very surprised and disappointed by the ending. The fact that Shaw didn't intend for them to end up together makes a lot of sense. Great work! :)
@chrism_9
@chrism_9 2 жыл бұрын
Watching My Fair Lady all my life, I've never interpreted its ending as Eliza and Professor Higgins becoming a couple. And why would I? The story offers zero indication that there's anything romantic between the two characters. The age difference alone would be enough to rule it out, but Higgins makes it abundantly clear that he's a bachelor for life, while Eliza makes it abundantly clear that she's done putting up with his ill-mannered temperament. Whatever relationship they end up having will be on Eliza's terms, as she's clearly transcended Higgins by the end of the story. Higgins needs Eliza, if for no other reason because he's "used to" her, while Eliza doesn't *need* him at all. I see her returning to him not because she's dependent on him, but because she's merciful. Higgins is a deeply flawed character, but despite all of his shortcomings, he *did* help her to improve her lot in life. I think she recognizes that and is grateful. I mean, Eliza's father contributed much less to her well being than Higgins does, and even HE gets a "good luck" from her at the end of his arch. All of this said, there's no doubt in my mind she ends up marrying Freddie. She's a young woman with a new lease on life. The world is her oyster. There's absolutely no reason someone in her position would end up marrying their curmudgeonly father figure who's set in his ways. If Hollywood wanted us to think that's what happens at the end, they did a HORRIBLE job conveying it.
@christinepaige2575
@christinepaige2575 Жыл бұрын
I really like your thought that Eliza returns to Higgins because she is merciful. This honors the transformational role he has played in her life, and creates the potential for her to play a transformational role in his. Imo, the story is DOA if there is a permanent parting of the ways between the two of them at the end.
@stuffchat
@stuffchat Жыл бұрын
Personally I just thought she came to live there as a friend, as she had been there for months anyway and hasn't yet moved out. Not sure why so many just assume her few seconds of being back means they then marry or something.
@GuapoJhimi
@GuapoJhimi Жыл бұрын
I never, for a moment thought they DID NOT wind up together. Of course they did. I don't see any other reasonable ending.
@tomshea8382
@tomshea8382 Жыл бұрын
Higgins HAD made it clear he was a lifelong bachelor, but then he sings, literally, "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face," which is called (checks notes) "character development." This was a 50s musical. Of course they end up together. Shaw made it clear they didn't, and Lerner thought Shaw was wrong, but the source material is strong enough that it can be examined in many ways.
@DiegoBosch90
@DiegoBosch90 Жыл бұрын
Congratulations. We can discuss why exactly she came back, in some way I agree she was merciful and also cause she cared for him, he was like his family and also colonel was... this colonel is very important too. BUt what I cant discuss is the romance. THere is not romance lol, they clearly said it was friendly feeling in the hosue of the mother...the story as you said offers zero indication...and if this wasnt enough, they deny it, in their words (not mine).
@premanadi
@premanadi 3 жыл бұрын
I totally vote for the sad ending. Just have him sing "I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face" and end it there, with a short musical coda (which is how the film soundtrack album ends). He is left to regret what he has lost. Not everything in life has a happy ending.
@jamesdiaz9078
@jamesdiaz9078 3 жыл бұрын
I agree that not everything is a happy ending but the tone of the whole musical/movie is happy I feel like if they were going to end the movie with her coming back to him it should have been a final sad but cathartic moment where she talks to him and shows that his feelings of emptiness are because hes acted like a douche the whole time, maybe in that moment when hes sitting in the chair he talks to her and he realizes that ending on a happy note maybe with freddie at the doorway watching and supporting her for reaching out to help him. Idk just kinda how i felt about it
@RaymondHng
@RaymondHng 3 жыл бұрын
I was fours years old when I heard the London cast recording. And I really thought he sang "I've thrown a custard to her face".
@premanadi
@premanadi 3 жыл бұрын
@@RaymondHng Now THAT would make a great ending to the show!
@primercapitulo1109
@primercapitulo1109 3 жыл бұрын
​@@jamesdiaz9078 People have to take into account the time and how societies behaved at that time. It is easy to criticize in 2020. If we had lived that moment we would have behaved the same.
@jamesdiaz9078
@jamesdiaz9078 3 жыл бұрын
@@primercapitulo1109 i dont think that would make the ending more sensible if you want my opinion.
@scottadler
@scottadler Жыл бұрын
I imagined an ending in which Eliza returns to Higgins, but much later, expecting her first child. She seeks penmanship lessons so that she may compose cards for bouquets of roses. The scene takes only a few minutes, but we see that Higgins is devastated that he has indeed lost her, yet is delighted that Galatea has come to life.
@Apledore
@Apledore Жыл бұрын
I grew up watching this movie, and was startled in college to hear someone call the relationship between Eliza and Higgins "romantic." I had never even seen romance as a possibility between the two. My own interpretation of the ending was that she had felt - having put him in his place - that she could return as an equal, and be treated as such. His final line I took as a joke he invited her to enjoy, indicating that he intended to treat her as someone on equal footing (since he had realized that he actually cared if she was around). But it was always as good friends that I saw them moving forward. And I never took Freddy's infatuation seriously. To me, he was just there to show that she had other options, if she wanted them. But he was always beneath her, because he was a silly, inexperienced little boy. Interesting to know that the movie ending was pieced together with the stipulation of no new lines. Explains why it's a bit abrupt!
@decusq
@decusq 4 жыл бұрын
When i first saw this movie on DVD as a kid the ending really never struck me as romantic because it felt too prideful for me. If i wanted to change the ending it would have to be an ending that gives both of them closure on their time together yet allows them to appreciate the others happiness. What if Eliza does marry Freddy they run a flower shop together and one day Higgins comes into the flower shop to purchase flowers for a possible romance of his own. He talks to Eliza about their time together and how it taught him that even he is in need of female companionship and has found a woman to challenge his intellect and says he'd like to order a dozen roses to court her and ELiza says "In your case better make it two."
@emilymcallister9885
@emilymcallister9885 2 жыл бұрын
When I first watched My Fair Lady years ago I didn't understand why she chose to return to Henry. I'm glad to hear that wasn't the original ending.
@crewmatewillthrowthesehand7600
@crewmatewillthrowthesehand7600 Жыл бұрын
This just shows that no matter the time period, from this to twilight, every generation had a phase of liking male leads with red flags
@sheribarnett3180
@sheribarnett3180 Жыл бұрын
I like the updated delivery of the last line. I took it as she says her line as “this is who I used to be” and he responds in kind.
@alexinitalics188
@alexinitalics188 Жыл бұрын
I recently went to see My Fair Lady with little prior knowledge of the story and I honestly assumed the ending was Higgens' imagination as he's listening to her voice on the recording, especially with how she walks off the set at the end
@markarmage3776
@markarmage3776 Жыл бұрын
@darkwood777 Or maybe a more down to Earth ending, where the little girl prepped for by Higgins realize that she has no clue of how to make it out in the big bad world and come back. Keep it real, homie, your little delusions are adorable.
@alicequayle4625
@alicequayle4625 Жыл бұрын
​@@markarmage3776she's a pretty tough cookie growing up on the streets of Central London.
@hollybigelow5337
@hollybigelow5337 Жыл бұрын
I watched a version of this play once live. They didn't change a single word, but they changed the meaning completely. When Higgins tells Eliza to "fetch his slippers," she walks over like she is being perfectly obedient. Then she grabs the slippers and throw them at Higgins. Higgins then gives a smile that perfectly shows that mix of the fact that he is proud that she has basically become his equal, and he even looks excited to basically renegotiate a new relationship with the new Eliza in the future. Of course, in that version, in the worst abuses Higgins played them off in a way that you never knew exactly how serious he was, anyway. But he showed genuine emotion saying he missed Eliza. It was all in body language and facial expressions, but it is clear that Eliza being willing to walk out woke him up and made HIM grow, too.
@95goldenbird
@95goldenbird 3 жыл бұрын
I watched My fair lady with my mom tonight and we both were a bit confused by that ending. I was so into Freddy and Eliza ending up toghether!!! I couldn't belive she chose Higgins instead. So I've been making some research for the last hour and was shocked to read that in Pigmalion she marries Freddy... It's so... UNFAIR (haha) that they changed that in the movie adaptations. Somehow I ended up finding this video and I loved it so much, thank you for making it, I've learned a lot and it helped me being less angry for this 😂♥️ Greetings from Spain where the rain stays mainly in the plain ✌️
@Isabella66Gracen
@Isabella66Gracen Жыл бұрын
I think you've got it!
@Lasciatemi_Guidare
@Lasciatemi_Guidare Жыл бұрын
I’ve always loved My Fair Lady. Chicago’s Lyric Opera did a production a few years ago, with IMO a brilliant ending. After the final “slippers” line in the script, Eliza snaps her fingers and the set becomes more femininely decorated. She takes a seat next to Higgins and starts enjoying some chocolates. I thought that was a brilliant way to give them a happy ending while showing they found a more balanced relationship. Also no Irish ghost is gonna tell me who to ship!
@giraffesinc.2193
@giraffesinc.2193 Жыл бұрын
I had always wondered why GBS wrote that postscript, and do appreciate the explanation! As for why audiences would want Eliza to be with Higgins, it is quite simple. Before the late 70s or so, a romance novel usually involved a girl 'taming' an irascible man, who comes to love her and also (of course) provides amply for her. That fantasy has mostly died out but it is still present to a degree. 'Princesses' (or shop girls) used to require rescuing; now they rescue themselves.
@colleen4ever
@colleen4ever Жыл бұрын
But she didn't tame him. He treated her exactly the same way at the end!
@toshomni9478
@toshomni9478 4 жыл бұрын
Higgins could still realize he's in love with Eliza and also that they can't be together. There's no need to cut any songs.
@brxzbze
@brxzbze 2 жыл бұрын
Yeah, I think the moment when he realises he's in love is too good of a character beat to leave out.
@kobaltkween
@kobaltkween 4 жыл бұрын
The ending with Freddy is more romantic, not less, because he cares for her. But everything from Wuthering Heights to Twilight has taught us that real men are a-holes who control, stalk, and belittle their women, and caring, supportive men are boring and weak. If you really want to make it better, make Freddy's character show the kind of strength that would make him able to become a successful tradesman at her side. Show how he sees her not just as a lady, but a whole person. If he's her endgame, make his passion clear.
@kobaltkween
@kobaltkween 4 жыл бұрын
@@kaleytaber9237 So much to unpack. So first, you're just wrong about nice guys. The guys who tend not to get girls are guys who aren't actually nice, but judgmental alpha types who lack confidence. Every happy, pleasant nice guy I've known has had no problem at all finding someone to be with. Including introverts. As the geek daughter of a geeky father who grew up going to events with his geeky co-workers and socialized with geeks as from a child to an adult, I can tell you that while women are socialized to see manipulation as interest and abuse as need, actually decent guys who adore and worship their women have zero problems getting women. Just as an example, I have a good friend who's a pale, thin, not tall programmer. He's goofy, geeky, and looked like a late teen without his beard when he met a woman who was tall, intelligent, good with finance, and used to do some modeling. They now have four kids, have been together more than a decade, and I don't think I've seen him get upset with her once. And just a bit before he started dating her, he was with a gorgeous petite woman. All of my female friends have spent time either dating sweet introverts or crushing over them. Second, most women want a mentor to just be that. Sure, some will go for the whole teacher thing, but most women who do whatever it takes to get knowledge they need from a misogynist don't give them their true selves let alone see them as romantic. They play dumb and subservient to get what the instruction they need. I watched this again and again in grad school. From random professors to Eric Raymond, fellow women automatically stroked men's egos to their faces, and made their opinion of their posturing clear when it was just us. The problem with the entire narrative is that it's not Eliza's story. It's the douchebag whose ego she needs to stroke's story. He's the main protagonist, and it's his skewed and inaccurate perspective we share. And that might work if he had an arc. But he doesn't change. She does. We see Freddy like you describe, because we share the perspective of the one character who doesn't actually understand people, let alone affection. And because we focus on his efforts, not Eliza's life as a whole, most want the obvious payoff of him getting rewarded. If we followed her perspective, I doubt we'd think of him as much at all. And yes, he is a bad guy. We just aren't shown any of the actual consequences of his cruelty, or we're shown them from his perspective. As foolish, hysterical outbursts. The narrative allows us to ignore the harm he does as much as he does. But he's cruel, arrogant, ignorant of anything outside of his privilege, and has pretty much nothing to give as a person outside of his money and what knowledge he already gave her.
@jonathanbuzzard1376
@jonathanbuzzard1376 Жыл бұрын
@@kobaltkween The problem with that assertion is that research shows that women only find between 5% and 20% of men attractive depending on the study. So unless you claim that 80% of men are judgmental alpha types for which you have no evidence, then your anecdotal evidence is just that anecdotal.
@tinymxnticore
@tinymxnticore Жыл бұрын
I absolutely agree with you about the original ending, but as a fan of the Brontës, I don’t thing that’s the point of Wuthering Heights. Cathy and Heathcliff are both selfish people who make each other worse, and I don’t think Emily ever intended for them to be aspirational. They’re toxic soulmates who end up haunting the moors because of their refusal to change. Much like Shaw’s work, it’s the audience who wants to see the asshole win, and the ending is usually interpreted through that lens.
@kobaltkween
@kobaltkween Жыл бұрын
​@@tinymxnticore I kind of get what you're saying, but I generally find that a cop out. Like rape revenge movies that still shoot the assault from the perspective of the rapist and spend tons of time on the abuse and damage and few minutes on the revenge. There's no point to Wuthering Heights at all if the story has no appeal, and there's absolutely no story without their toxicity. So sure the author can _say_ she's not endorsing that behavior, but what she is doing, pretty much by definition of the genre, is romanticizing and dramatizing it.
@tinymxnticore
@tinymxnticore Жыл бұрын
I'm confused at how much unpleasantness you can take in a narrative, or what exactly Emily Brontë would have had to do to adequately frame Cathy and Heathcliff's toxic romance, aside from telling the entire story from the perspective of bystanders who disapprove of their relationship, and explicitly saying that their souls are damned...both of which she does. I won't address the comparison to rape revenge films, since I've never watched that genre in my life and can't begin to address it.
@bombshellmusical9566
@bombshellmusical9566 Жыл бұрын
I never saw their relationship as romantic, even in the film, they always seemed much more like a father & daughter. Especially because he refers to her as a child so often. That’s another possibility of a happy ending, for Higgins to say to her that as his “creation” she’s like a daughter to him. That way she can marry / have a career and their relationship can continue as an adult woman would keep in contact with her father.
@elizabethscott3048
@elizabethscott3048 Жыл бұрын
Thank you for the excellent review both for My Fair Lady & the other musicals. You were very fair in your comparison of each production. I appreciate all of the effort you put forth. 👏🏻
@cpm9747
@cpm9747 Жыл бұрын
I can't help but be an unrepentant fan of the romantic pairing ending. The age gap, the class gap, these are obstacles to be overcome that make the pairing more romantic for me and those of like mind. In my case, what the ending really needs (and maybe a bit of the middle needs) is to show Higgins learning the hard way that being a jackass to everyone all the time could cost him something precious, something he doesn't realize is precious until its gone, and then he has to do something to earn her return. He has to (dramatic reverb) commit. And not just commit by proposing to her, but commit by acknowledging how difficult a person he is, how wonderful she is for putting up with him and for maturing herself as she clearly has done, and perhaps most importantly, he needs to commit to working on himself so that he can be a man worthy of her love and affection. In short, Higgins needs a character arc, and I don't think that would be really all that hard to do. Two, maybe three extra scenes, you could keep Accustomed to Her Face, maybe expand on it with an additional verse that takes notice of her as more than a pretty and familiar face, as a whole person. Maybe even finish up with a new song, a duet and a big happy wedding scene. It is some very significant changes, but it is also what the story needs in order to appeal to a modern audience's sensibilities about equality and personal growth, and I think, if done right, such a version could easily rival, perhaps even surpass, the 1964 version in popularity.
@wartgin
@wartgin Жыл бұрын
As I mentioned below another comment, I think this is why I still like the story. I've filled in his character arc myself.
@vlad5042
@vlad5042 Жыл бұрын
exactly my problem. id be so down for them to be together if the movie threw me a bone at any point and suggested him learning the error of his ways and becoming better but to the last moment hes such a prick.
@Norikosama562
@Norikosama562 3 жыл бұрын
If I were rewriting the ending, i would still keep all the same dialogue and only make a few changes to help the audience infer some new information. I'd still have Eliza come back to see Higgins (after some implied time had past) but only to pay him for his teachings like she promised in the beginning. She'd be in the scene holding her gloves and the money (possibly some flowers as a gift to imply she has her flower shop) and the audience can see she's wearing a wedding ring, implying that she married Freddy. Then they could part ways as friends and equals.
@Abbiecantfail
@Abbiecantfail 4 жыл бұрын
i thought i was the only one what thought the ending didn't make sense also love the vid
@musicallydisneyamvs6731
@musicallydisneyamvs6731 4 жыл бұрын
Dido
@emilyhua5045
@emilyhua5045 4 жыл бұрын
thank you for making this! this was one of my favorite movies as a child. I grew up poor and somehow at a very young age, had some sense of sadness I'd leave my community behind, and not belong truly in any world. I love the musical and costumes, but yes, even as a kid, I hated the ending. I wanted her with freddy.
@insidethegardenwall22
@insidethegardenwall22 3 жыл бұрын
Insightful comment! I’d like to think that the community you left behind will always be a part of you but the world you’re in now is your true calling.
@btlcici18
@btlcici18 Күн бұрын
I always thought the back of the hat shot was to imply that Eliza wasn’t really there, more “in the back of Higgins’ mind” and that’s why she’s always blocked behind him.
@mjwemdee
@mjwemdee Жыл бұрын
I really enjoyed this. A thoughtful, thorough analysis, with a tentatively offered solution to a perceived weakness at the end of the story. And a fair-minded judgement on the nature of musical theatre and its development since the 1950s. Well done!
@ladylandlubber499
@ladylandlubber499 3 жыл бұрын
Freddie only cares about her because of her beauty and perceived status. Right at the beginning of the film he knocks her over and barely helps before leaving her in the mud to find a taxi. Eliza does go to his mother but she also completely dismisses her even though Freddie ruined the flowers she was going to try sell. Henry Higgins is the only character in that film who isn't immediately dismissive of her. He shows her what he was writing at the beginning and considers teaching her before there was really anything to gain and gives her a handkerchief to dry her eyes "Or any other part of your face that feels moist" If you say Colonel Pickering treats her better then watch the film again and see how he treats her situation like a game and doesn't really care. Even when she's gone missing he calls up an old friend and chats for a while with no sense of urgency while Mr Higgins is getting dressed in a panic. He's also the one who started the whole "you did it" nonsense. Mr Higgins dismisses the congratulations multiple times but Colonel Pickering and the staff just keep going. The only time he says that 'he did it' is after she tells him to go to "Hartford, Hereford, and Hampshire", but you can see how proud her is of HER. I think the real problem with the ending is miscommunication with a modern audience which is really rather ironic considering the films focus on communication. People don't tend to take kindly to abrasive, blunt people even if their actions show they are truly kind.
@chuangweiping
@chuangweiping 3 жыл бұрын
A very perceptive comment. So few mentions of Freddy knocking over Eliza when all versions accentuated Feddy's memorable callousness. GBS intended to show a "before" caricature of Freddy who treated Eliza like dirt under his feet. Higgins generously compensates her and she could go home in a taxi like a lady. The movie gave clues that drilling was not without reasonable breaks. Higgins bought Eliza a ring when they went to Brighton. Eliza rescues this sentimental ring from the fireplace. Eliza does not mention Freddy when she says Higgins and Pickering are the only people she can go to. Eliza confesses that she had come to care for Higgins but Higgins does not have a way with words with women. We are not told if she actually married Freddy. With all these nuances in the book and the movies, the 1964 ending was rational.
@jwf2125
@jwf2125 Жыл бұрын
Hear, hear!
@jwf2125
@jwf2125 Жыл бұрын
@@chuangweiping Absolutely right.
@crowfaerymori
@crowfaerymori 4 жыл бұрын
As a child, I cried when she went back. I felt it was wrong. Glad I wasn't alone!
@epaddon
@epaddon 3 жыл бұрын
If you felt it was wrong, then stick to a production of "Pygmalion" and leave the greatest of musicals alone.
@steamboatwill3.367
@steamboatwill3.367 3 жыл бұрын
@@epaddon ) so stick with original and not the musical version that ruined ending?
@epaddon
@epaddon 3 жыл бұрын
@@steamboatwill3.367 Leave the artistic work of Lerner and Loewe alone.
@steamboatwill3.367
@steamboatwill3.367 3 жыл бұрын
@@epaddon ) then shouldn't they have left the artistic work Shaw alone?
@a.westenholz4032
@a.westenholz4032 Жыл бұрын
So did I. Well maybe I didn't cry but I definitely felt it was all types of wrong. Just why would she after having said all that, gone off with Freddy, just magically appear for no reason? What had Higgins said or done to make her want to come back since that scene or Freddy done to change her mind? If it was Freddy it would make more sense for Eliza to return to Mrs. Higgins where she was staying before- and we know what Higgins himself did, nothing much, certainly not as far as Eliza knew, just moaned about how he had gotten used to having her around to HIMSELF. So why would she go back after just having having walked out on him so emphatically (and having chosen to marry Freddy) shortly before? It hadn't been more than an hour or two. I felt that ending NEVER made sense. Not as a child or as an adult. It totally ignores the characters and betrays the plot, to achieve this superficial romantic ending.
@bobashby3106
@bobashby3106 Жыл бұрын
About the ending: Higgins is in his study, listing to the recording. Eliza comes in. "Eliza, where the devil are my slippers?" (perhaps Henry delivers the line as in the 2018 clip in the video). The props crew has pre-set the slippers between Henry's chair and Eliza's position when she enters. She points to them. The two go to the slippers together, Henry perhaps kneels to get them while Eliza watches, getting closer to him. The "romantic" ending is preserved, while we see that Henry, after all, has learned something and come to realize that he cannot simply be a domineering jerk. How do we get there? First, by understanding that there is sexual tension between the two. Shaw was notoriously skittish about sexuality, but it is implicit in the Henry/Eliza relationship. There was a lovely moment in a Stratford (Canada) production of MFL some years ago when, during "Rain in Spain" Henry lifts Eliza down from the sofa and there's a brief, but intense, look between them. What is it? Neither one really knows. Henry - confirmed bachelor. Eliza, with her lower class prudery (e.g., her disapproval of her father's relationship with his partner), are as inexperienced in sexual feelings as can be. But sexuality can be a strong pull even if unrecognized and unexpressed. Where does it some from? Henry is the smartest person Eliza has ever met. Eliza, accent and all, is the smartest person Henry has ever met, even though because of his class prejudice he doesn't realize it for a long time. That mutual, whip-smart intellectual electricity can readily lead to an attraction that neither can ignore, deny it though they might. It is something she can never get from an amiable twit like Freddy, and deep down she knows it, which is a plausible reason for her to come back at the end of the show. And who is Henry? Suppose we play him as someone who is so in love with his ideas, living so much in his head, that he genuinely lacks awareness of others around them and their interests and feelings, often manifesting as being an emotionally abusive jerk.His mother adores him -- the Henry-Mrs. Higgins relationship is one of the most important in the show -- while being utterly realistic about his blind spots. And at some level, Henry lives afraid of things, parts of his humanity, that he cannot understand. His nastiness is a defensive wall. But his getting to know Eliza begins to chip away at that wall, and he can't deal with it. I'd like to see "A Hymn to Him" played not simply as a mysoginistic rant, but as something close to a panic attack. A woman like Eliza gets inside that wall, and it terrifies him. So when it comes to the "Without You" scene, he already has some, not yet articulated, sense of how much he needs what he has with her - consort battleship and all -- which he finally articulates in "Accustomed to Her Face" which, if the actor is any good, is about a lot more than familiarity. He has learned some sense of what it means to be on a path to becoming fully human. Which is why at the ending, as I see it, he goes to meet Eliza halfway at the slippers. This reading gives Henry an actual character arc, the absence of which is a major flaw in most productions.
@Foxhillstacey
@Foxhillstacey Жыл бұрын
Higgins, the self described permanent bachelor is perhaps not interested in women romantically. However, he is very fond of Eliza and values her. I see her negotiating to be his secretary/personal assistant because she is now strong enough to put him in his place as well as organizing the household. I think they both care for each other very much, but I never thought there was an actual romance.
@KateSannicksLerner
@KateSannicksLerner Жыл бұрын
I thoroughly enjoyed your analyses of the book, play, and films. You hit the nail on the head. I watched the musical with my mom (as a six-year-old child), and I enjoyed it without understanding it. I watched it again in my 30s, 40s, and 60s, and in each of those decades, I became less satisfied with the ending. Your "fix" is excellent, and I hope someone takes you up on it!
@maceomaceo11
@maceomaceo11 3 жыл бұрын
"Where are my slippers?" Seems to be the hang up here. For whatever reason people either consciously leave out the last time the slippers were brought up or just don't connect it. The previous scene involving slippers and Henry and Eliza involved her throwing them at him and ultimately leaving Henry's home. Establishing her independence and she can survive on her own. Henry is acknowlidging he knows Eliza may very well throw those slippers at anytime. A metaphor that the relationship (which in my view is platonic, mentor/student) is equal, since he stays true to himself as well.
@angeleagodwin3669
@angeleagodwin3669 3 жыл бұрын
I always thought he was being flirty by playing at his old gags for giggles. It's kind of like self deprication.
@TSIRKLAND
@TSIRKLAND Жыл бұрын
I read a novel that imagined life after "My Fair Lady," called "Wouldn't It Be Deadly," by D.E.Ireland. Eliza has attempted to go into business as an elocution coach. But surprise- the new mentor she has taken up with, a former pupil and sometime rival of Higgins, is found murdered: now it's a whodunnit, and the characters have to go around finding clues and proving their innocence, etc. There is also a thread that follows Higgins' history with a certain woman, and an affair they had some years ago... It was a very interesting novel. Apparently one in a series of whodunnits featuring the M.F.L. cast...
@WrestlingErnestHemingway
@WrestlingErnestHemingway Жыл бұрын
They already have one just as bad of a thought actually made into a movie. It's called "My Fair Zombie". LOL
@esiodena1
@esiodena1 3 жыл бұрын
Higgins is unapologetically crass. Eliza says she doesn't care about the way he speaks to her as long as he doesn't run over her. He is unpredictable and exciting and his experience with women fleeting. He never had a woman around him for so long, he is a serious work in progress. Eliza sees the real him. The lovely analytical wall he surrounds his heart with. She actually made him feel and he's confused and lashes out. She sees his vulnerability and chooses to stay with him to round his edges. She's confident in her own abilities and self- worth now and knows he'd be crushed without her. They've both come to care for each other yet he's still to stubborn to admit it. It's why his mother supports her. She knows Eliza is exactly what he needs in his life right now. At least that's how I've always interpreted the ending.
@QueSaisJe11
@QueSaisJe11 3 жыл бұрын
Tia: that's an extremely interesting interpretation! Hard for me to square Shaw's version of "socialism" with the ending! Of course, the tangled history of adaptations to stage & screen muddle the "original intent" of Shaw the author! The casting of Eliza presents a whole different if related set of issues, Audrey Hepburn vs Julie Andrews I like both, for very different reasons, but for my money, Audrey is the ideal choice, I just don't like the ending & can't reconcile it with what I perceive as GBS's "enlightened views" of women!
@appa609
@appa609 3 жыл бұрын
interesting symmetry. So you think in the end she sets about training him to be a better gentleman?
@jwf2125
@jwf2125 Жыл бұрын
Yep, well said.
@josephmiceli274
@josephmiceli274 9 ай бұрын
I NEVER regret watching any of your well thought out, entertaining videos. Thank you so much!
@christopherlundgren3499
@christopherlundgren3499 Жыл бұрын
I would just like to say (I'm an American, of course), "Thank you". That was a most stimulating and thoughtful "review/analysis", "comment", on a great story/play/musical. You were witty and charming and approachable. I loved every minute of it. And, if I may add, that hat looked very fetching on you :-)
@Gold-kb1ws
@Gold-kb1ws Жыл бұрын
The Greek story has different endings that we don’t always hear about. I did not know until recently too. In one version, the women asked the goddess to bring the statue to life teach the man a lesson. Once she is alive - she cannot be what he imagines her to be anymore. The statue coming to life was his punishment for treating women badly in this version.
@spiritualanarchist8162
@spiritualanarchist8162 Жыл бұрын
The Greek version ended with our living statue throwing a wooden sandal at the man's head teaching him some humility in the process😉
@rgnyc
@rgnyc Жыл бұрын
@@spiritualanarchist8162 - So the last line "Galatea, where the devil are my sandals?" could conceivably precede that bit of business. I like it!
@spiritualanarchist8162
@spiritualanarchist8162 Жыл бұрын
@@rgnyc That's what I imagine my girlfriend to do if told her 'Where the hell are my slippers !' ' But maybe i'm just a pushover ;)
@TheBioramax
@TheBioramax Жыл бұрын
I had the same feeling about the ending of 'My Fair Lady' until a few years ago. After watching the movie, I went back and watched the last few scenes again, then watched the final scene. It was something subtle. She is a towring, fully mature flower (the flower motif of her costumes coming to fruition). She takes two steps, then stops. She does not get his slippers, and the expression of her face is not a woman with romatic love. She is looking down at him. Yes, he is sitting there with his hat over his head (he is still asleep, not awakened), but he was happy to hear her. His smile is not about winning. It was not the look of a man who had won. It was the look of releif. The smile on her face is that of a mother looking at a child. There has been a shift in their power dynamic. She learned how to be a woman not only from Col. Pickering, but also from Mrs. Higgins. And from Mrs. Higgins, she learned how to manage Henry. (He turned Eliza into the only woman he respected, his mother). One night after watching the movie, I came up with my own version of the post-show story. As various characters say at the end, what will he do without her, or that Eliza would know; afterall, he is a child. Eliza marries Freddy, but instead of a Flower Shop, she becomes the secretary for Prof. Higgins and Col. Pickering. From the outside it would appear she is in a subservient relationship, but she knows how to manage these two men; it would be a more equitable arrangement between them. But that is my fantasy about how the story continues. (One problem I always had with Shaw's post was that Eliza and Freddy kept going back to Col. Pickering for money; no, Eliza would be a savy busineswoman).
@Pww642
@Pww642 3 жыл бұрын
What if Eliza delivered the line, “Where the devil are my slippers?”
@montecarlo1651
@montecarlo1651 Жыл бұрын
Very interesting review of this subject Ms Draper. I really enjoy your other work too and have referred it to my friends on numerous occasions. On this subject, there is an elephant in the room: class. A lot of cultural works, arguably all, are made by bourgeois people. They reflect bourgeois sensibilities and characterize them as if true, in every sense. What Shaw did in this play is to essentially, though perhaps unwittingly, recreate the original story: he created Eliza Doolittle. He gave her agency, independence of spirit and a separate life, however he remains her creator, the character cannot escape this truth. Consequently, the idea that, with some polish, someone as raw as Eliza Doolittle could actually successfully cross the class boundaries on a permanent basis is highly dubious. By opening Eliza to a world she can never fully enter is to wound her in perpetuity. She is now stuck. Higgins has made her return to her own class painful for now she sees its many problems from the bourgeois perspective and yet she can never enter bourgeois society without being a perpetual actor in her own life, she lacks authenticity, through no fault of her own. Really looked at from Eliza's position, the story is more akin to Shelley's Frankenstein. Higgins has made a monster that can never be accepted. This reflects not one jot on Eliza, it does reflect very severely on Higgins. It is likely that Shaw was influenced by the Womens Movement, notably suffragists, of his time when giving Eliza/Galatea a perspective and agency. In doing so however, he did not free himself from being Higgins/Pygmalion, nor perhaps could he, any more than he could free himself from his class. The hidden biases in bourgeois works is, to someone like me, from a working class origin, infuriating. A strong argument can be made that working class women have as much or even more agency than working class men, certainly much more than bourgeois or upper class women. The working classes are all relatively powerless in comparison with those other classes and survival requires all parties working themselves to the bone to survive, let alone succeed, the latter may not even be possible. The biggest burden to working class women of Shaw's time, in addition to the burdens of their class that required perpetual work, was their additional enslavement to fertility - the constant pregnancies. Oh the happy lot of a woman who could not have lots of children! As for Higgins, I was gratified to see that Shaw loathed a romantic outcome for him and the 1938 film was, in my view, the most faithful to the idea Shaw had in mind about Eliza, at least up to the point when she left with Freddie. Indeed the best option for a real Eliza, accepting that marriage was the desirable option (which it isn't necessarily for women), was to marry a Freddie who (a) loved her (if that is possible in the short time he knows her) and (b) he steps down, closer to her class, as she steps up slightly to shopkeeper class. Arguably Freddie has the harder time in this scenario than Eliza would but at least Eliza is not irreparably damaged by that swine Higgins. By any standards, marrying Higgins is a disaster for Eliza. She would trade some material comfort for all agency in her life. She would become a type of Stepford wife. To someone as vital and alive as Eliza Doolittle, that is a horror beyond imagination.
@KiKi-gp7kp
@KiKi-gp7kp Жыл бұрын
I know this is 2yrs old but I just found your channel. This has been one of my favorite movies since I was a kid. But in my mind, I always hoped Eliza and Higgins remained acquaintances and that she gave him heck (got some of her own back anyway) and reformed his character in return for reforming her language and etiquette. Not necessarily a romantic future. I do adore the idea of her leaving though, I wish it had ended that way. . .Anyway, job well done J. Draper! I thoroughly enjoyed this video and will probably be watching it over again. Thank you for taking the time to create it!
@rhyscrowley266
@rhyscrowley266 Жыл бұрын
I think from reading the comment section we can see how this ending is rewriting itself. I never assumed that there was a romantic element to her reappearing. I thought she had taken pity on him and chosen to forgive him despite him not learning. Like how we look after our parents in their old age even if they don't appreciate it. It seems to be that most younger people never saw this in a romantic context
@Julesb2183
@Julesb2183 Жыл бұрын
It's still awful that she's going back to an abuser.
@katrinemyra2678
@katrinemyra2678 3 жыл бұрын
While I agree with all this, I have to say that, to me, Higgins genuinely has come around at the end of the 1964 musical. I always read the last scene as him falling back into an old line because he's still too repressed/vulnerable to express his real emotions, but that Eliza sees this; sees him for who he really is. There can be no real understanding between them until/unless Higgins comes to terms with his myriad issues, but, well, there's the possibility there? That's how I see the ending; not that she's come back to him and they'll get married and now everything is fine, just... there's a possibility for something.
@AlexDiesTrying
@AlexDiesTrying 2 жыл бұрын
Exactly. He's genuinely happy that she's back but he can't yet let go of his protective armor. It has served him too well in the past. And she doesn't fetch his slippers either. She does what he won't dare: approach him. It's like she has already learned a bit to look beneath the surface of him. And to be fair: He, too, has worked his butt off to give her something that he deems supremely precious.
@alicemerray
@alicemerray Жыл бұрын
This is what I have also assumed.
@laurend9829
@laurend9829 4 жыл бұрын
I too had mixed feelings about the ending, if only because in the film adaptation, Audrey Hepburn was so young, beautiful, and her charismatic self, and Rex Harrison was an exacting, rude Higgins - and supposedly, he was a bit difficult in real life. EVEN though I like his role and how he played him - it worked, his grumpiness did - the ending with the 'where the devil are my slippers?' seemed to suggest he didn't really learn anything, about how to treat a woman with respect, let alone show gentle affections. (Or if he did, he'll have a hard time admitting it.) I think the final lines could be played in a way that showed more equality between them. And perhaps if Higgins had been played by an actor closer in age to Hepburn, it would've worked. I'm focusing on the film, as I've never seen the show live or really any other versions, except for snippets - but I will say the most recent one that had Henry Haden-Patton - be still my heart! I could definitely see Eliza falling for him. He also has a much more cheery air about him. Last note: I was IN LOVE with Freddie in the film. Could Jeremy Brett be any more gorgeous? Dear god. He's also a bit of a rarified film type: the non snobby aristocrat. Maybe he's too much of a Prince Charming for Eliza, though. She's had a rough life, so in some ways, Higgins is more fitting for her fighting spirit? Either way, I love the show!
@zimnizzle
@zimnizzle Жыл бұрын
I always appreciated the complexities of the ending - and the believability of it. Human relationships are complicated and difficult to define. I never needed Eliza and Prof. Higgins to fit neatly into a box. Whatever they are - friends, family, etc. - there is certainly a depth of feeling that is magnetic and irrefutable. I appreciate that, and I think it is what makes their relationship throughout the story so compellingly touching.
@mikejames4540
@mikejames4540 Жыл бұрын
A thought-provoking and intelligent reading of the different versions and an interesting apology for the 1950s. Also, carefully researched and presented. Thank you!
@EveryFairyDies
@EveryFairyDies Жыл бұрын
I watched the Rex Harrison/Audrey Hepburn version of My Fair Lady almost obsessively as a kid/teen. I always thought the ending implied they were just platonic friends who lived together, much as I have been living with my bestie and the very idea of us being in a relationship makes us both shudder with horror. I never read it as romantic.
@Genevieve1023
@Genevieve1023 Жыл бұрын
Me too. I thought his love interest was Coln. Pickering.
@lysanamcmillan7972
@lysanamcmillan7972 Жыл бұрын
She was smiling at a friend in Higgins, not a lover. Hepburn was a marvelous actress. If it was love she wanted to project, you'd see it. A consort battleship doesn't fall in love with another ship in the flotilla.
@DiegoBosch90
@DiegoBosch90 Жыл бұрын
@@lysanamcmillan7972 exactly. I agree. Dont forget She denies it .. She clearly said it just was a friendly feeling. In the house of her mother. Seems many peoplke didnt see the mothers scene? How can you say it more clearly? The only thing I am not completely sure is why "I could have danced " sounds romantic (although it is not the only interpretation, it also fits with other kind of feelings) . She was not in love of him, as she admitted lately (iwhat i did , it was not for the taxis, but cause we were passing a good time together i ended caring for you ...firendly) so it means she just saw him as a friend by the time she sang it (after 4 months in the house). I think it just reflects the joy for having achieved the ianguage skills that she was delaying in achieving (4 months without the results) and the recognition in form of a dance from the professor. I mean this explanation of I could have danced all night fits the real ending of the film. But maybe there is another explanation for the romantic hint of this song?
@Bropann
@Bropann 3 жыл бұрын
How about an ending where she doesn't choose either one of them? She would be REALLY declaring her independence, her transformation into Galatia.
@brxzbze
@brxzbze 2 жыл бұрын
Her going with Freddy is essentially that though. Freddy basically supports her in everything, so she's kind of just using him as a social ladder, though not in a bad way as she clearly appreciates him too. I think I recall it being discussed somewhere in the stage show (it's really long and I don't know it that well, so pardon me if I'm wrong) essentially saying that since Freddy absolutely adores her she'll be free to do what she wants.
@tinymxnticore
@tinymxnticore Жыл бұрын
@@brxzbze Also worth noting, there was a lot of stigma towards "spinsters" at the time, and an ending where Eliza was unattached would have been interpreted as an indictment of her character and a reflection on her values. Giving her a husband (who wasn't Higgins!) was George Bernard Shaw's way of affirming to the audience not only that she'd be OK, but that she was a good person "deserving" of happiness.
@pendlera2959
@pendlera2959 Жыл бұрын
@@tinymxnticore That's a really good insight.
@reginaromsey
@reginaromsey Жыл бұрын
Eliza has no money of her own. How is she to continue to exist? Jobs for women at the time were not CEO’s or hired for well paying jobs, particularly with no job training. Unless Professor Pickering adopts her or funds her alone or Mrs Higgins, Henry’s mother, takes her for training as a maid 🎉she is without resources. Of course if she hangs on for another five years or so she could get a job in an armaments factory with a steady paycheck that might rent her that place somewhere out of the cold night air with one enormous chair to sit and possibly sleep in. The Working Girl is at least thirty to forty years away for the unskilled.
@todortodorov940
@todortodorov940 Жыл бұрын
I would prefer one where she choses both of them.
@marguaritetherese3156
@marguaritetherese3156 Жыл бұрын
I never bought the romantic relationship, so I'm feeling very smug now that I know it was never meant to be!
@GinervaWeasleyPotter
@GinervaWeasleyPotter Жыл бұрын
When I first watched my fair lady as a child, I didn’t think her return was romantic. I thought she’d come back to forgive him for being so rude and to continue her life by working with him on other clients. I imagined her showing him a kinder way of educating people and learning from her own experiences. Their relationship just always felt more mentor-mentee, and now she had graduated and found herself, so time to work with him as an equal. It was only when I talked to my grandma that I realised it was meant to be romantic
@geosutube
@geosutube Жыл бұрын
Thank you, Ms Draper. Loved your critique. My parents, lovers of theater and musicals ( a bit less, however) played the Rex Harrison performance often in the decade following its first appearance, and we children know the performance by heart, but we youngsters rejected completely the strutting arrogance of the Higgins character, and always laughed loudly at the impossibility of such a person actually existing today. We took the musical as a well acted critique of outdated social habits, while still liking the music. The most appreciated part was the assumption that a man could really change a woman.
@WillScarlet16
@WillScarlet16 3 жыл бұрын
The debate's gone on so long it seems like a disservice by now to put on ANY definitive ending, to say Eliza ends up with Higgins or not. The best ending I've seen was in a production directed by Matthew Bourne - after Higgins asks "Where the devil are my slippers?" he and Eliza stand staring daggers at each other. He crosses his arms, she does the same. He puts his hands on his hips, she does the same - and in the few seconds before the curtain falls they both burst out laughing. That's what I call a perfect, ambiguous ending. It doesn't answer the question, even though it hints at something positive, but nothing is definitively stated.
@jwf2125
@jwf2125 Жыл бұрын
I think this would show that he does realize she is his equal, and it would highlight the fascinating challenge each sees in the other. As for the age difference, that's nobody's business but theirs.
@jenniewilliamsmural
@jenniewilliamsmural 4 жыл бұрын
What a lovely critique and I love your glamorous set & costume. I'm glad Shaw tried so hard to keep Eliza free, and I'm glad of attempts to rework and agree with you. And - it's a great play, film and history. Thanks! Warm regards Jennie
@acasualcactus5878
@acasualcactus5878 Жыл бұрын
I saw a production where he “heard” Eliza come back into the house, said “get me my slippers”, and she threw them into his face from offstage and they began arguing like wild parrots as the curtain fell.
@spiritualanarchist8162
@spiritualanarchist8162 Жыл бұрын
Really ? I was just writing comments about it should end with her throwing a slipper at his head, but I guess someone came up with something similar already. 😂It intuitively feels far more satisfying .
@cdgross
@cdgross Жыл бұрын
@@spiritualanarchist8162 I can see her threatening to throw them but not actually doing so.
@WrestlingErnestHemingway
@WrestlingErnestHemingway Жыл бұрын
Lame. Political correctness woke really dumb ending. Smh at the simpleton's wanting to change everything. Reality hurts "feelings" more than fantasy does though. Weak minded generation of today. Sadly imho.
@lysanamcmillan7972
@lysanamcmillan7972 Жыл бұрын
What you said about "The Rain in Spain" sequence drives home what I think Eliza really wanted from Higgins. A friend to match her collegial relationship with Pickering. But as opposites attract, the font of loving kindness shacked up with the sourest milk in the dairy. And Eliza had too much self-respect to stay barring a clear demonstration that Higgins saw his own flaws. I now have an image of the ending being Higgins doing "Accustomed to her Face" (did you know Lerner and Loewe wrote it specifically for Rex Harrison because his range was abysmally small? They stuck it square in the middle of his capabilities, which was about six notes) followed by his going home to his gramophone. He's listening to his recording, Eliza steps in and announces herself, and he asks for his slippers. She finds them rapidly, as she always did, and throws them into his lap. She repeats her line from earlier about him never getting a moment's peace with them, only now it's with contained misanthropic annoyance instead of deep, fresh pain. She's tired of his shit. She sounds like his mother. That is when he sits up, his hat restored to the top of his head as he stares at Eliza's face. He half-whispers in awe, "Galatea." She restrains herself to a small smirk before she sweeps to a nearby table, picks up a pair of her gloves, and waves to him by waggling them in the air before she leaves again. Henry bellows for Pickering as the curtain falls.
@andreapandypetrapan
@andreapandypetrapan 6 ай бұрын
Dear JD, Another wonderful discussion. May I offer my at times light-hearted tuppence? Eliza and Higgins are both very driven, and idealising, and ambitious and opinionated characters. One predominating contrast is between Higgins' abstract masculine intellectualism and concomitant boyish condescension, and Eliza's womanly emotional maturity, and sensuous depth, and warmth and humanity. She seeks (amongst other matters) true love and mutual adoration; and illustrates time and again the limitations of the infantile egomania and essentially empty abstractionism of Higgins. His damned and intentionally crass, self-conscious, male rudeness! And yet, there is a supreme, evolving, ever-permeating, furnace energy of love and growing respect between them! Thus one clear dramatic theme or trajectory, is that Eliza always did have the intrinsic existential depth and power of a woman, and she in fact brings enlightenment to the aetiolated, boyish, emotionally immature Prof. Of course, the ironic and supercilious Higgins cannot help his compulsive behaviour, and throws down the gauntlet once again at the end, though with much self-mockery, "Bring me my slippers!". In fact, neither Higgins nor the patriarchal gods nor even GBS can create a woman. For we are supremely self-sufficient, and indeed we are the free-standing and more evolved and wonderful species Femina sapiens. Whose goddesses are Gaia and Kali Ma and Athena and Aphrodite and Isis and Nut and Ma'at and Hathor and Sekhmet! But this dialectic between womanly and masculine powers, between formal coldness and control, and our superior profound womanly wisdom, blended with sensuous and communicative and romantic and erotic warmth, and of course our goddess life-creative and life-protective powers (of which men are always envious to the point of sick-greenness) - that is an eternal Yin Yang and hopefully mostly creative struggle. No doubt, there is a lot more in the play and film, set in High Imperial Edwardian Indo-Anglo London, capital of the World (pro tem). About class politics, and crushingly low expectations and life expectancy if you lived in Bethnal Green or Poplar or Bow, as opposed to South Ken and Mayfair. What it is to educate yourself and transform your self, at the expense of disassociation between phases of ones being (a point made brilliantly too in "How Green was My Valley"). Also on the contrast in modes of affection and love. Colonel Pickering of the Indian Army has a lot more gentlemanly manners and respect, but love does not "set fire upon the wings of heaven storming ecstasy" merely at the prompting of kindly schoolmasterly respect. Although the still and evermore hypocritical Jane Austin reading English might like to think so - that indeed is another target of GBS's satire. Somehow, it seems improbable that Eliza and the Colonel are ever going to get hot and sticky on the rug in front of a fireplace in Wimpole Street; or somewhere in a room with icons of Kali and Durga, in a Bombay backstreet! In Puccini's la bohème, Mimi falls in love with a nasty, masculine, heterosexual, guilt-tripping dickhead, but he is an Italian lover, not a schoolmasterly Dr Chasuble from Wilde's "Importance of Being Earnest". The film ending simply IS the most romantically and psychodynamically correct, for the romantics amongst us who believe "Amor Vincit Omnia", even if it is within the clichéd, dreariness of monoamorous, bourgeois, patriarchal-capitalist heterosexuality. One of the many irremediable (and also tell-tale) faults in heterosexuality-heteronormativity is, I politely submit (oh do you Dr Andrea?), that bonkers patriarchal social-relations are trying to force we witty adult women to operating simultaneously on four different interpersonal psychodynamic planes: (i) can I improve and educate this boy-man I have encountered, into someone more admirable and more my equal, especially in the eyes of my love game competitors, commentators and unsympathetic critics, and also make love with him? (ii) can I find a heterosexual man, off the shelf, who is indeed emotionally mature, and as much on my psycho-social wavelength as my sisterhood (as if)? (iii) can I find a blokie who is a "senatorial elder", and maybe a witch-doctor too, whom I can also make love with? (iv) is this 23rd pair (X,Y) creature a representative of the patriarchal gods, whom I can tuck into my vagina, and get some divine semen, in the style of a painting by Klimt. Can I f*ck the Olympian gods? Can I become Athena, or indeed Isis, or even Sekhmet? If I really wanted too! "Quelle surprise!" No such male hominid ever has or ever will exist! Hence, by the iron logic of heterosexual cutesy-cutesy monoamoury, the system is paradoxical, and moreover most men are written-off as junk, patent junk in the great Darwinian mate-selection game. How sad, yet how true! At a deeper level, well understood by Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism, transcendental ecstatic erotic love may well be incompatible with bourgeois liberal individualism. I believe Dr Rachel von Wagner (as I love to call her) was forever grappling with that point in "Tristan und Isolde", and "The Ring", and in her projected Buddhistic work, "The Seekers". Which BTW she didn't write, because she was wasting her time building that temple to her dirigiste production aesthetics, a sacred place called Bayreuth. I mean, is there only ever one theatre in the whole world worthy of producing Wagner? Rather stupid, for such a genius. I find it illuminating to model Higgins as a very Shavian and (as you nicely observe) contrarian "ironic mask" or cypher, who is constantly parodying his own misogynistic folly. Despite another underlying trajectory in the drama, whereby the more he altruistically liberates Eliza from her objectively impoverished socio-economic chains, and gives her new potential dreams, the more in fact he truly loves and admires and adores her. In part, he has indeed remade our dear Eliza. As we all do, for those to whom we truly altruistically dedicate our energies of "other-regarding love", rather than staging a cheap pharisaic performance. In part, he would no doubt self-mockingly say, like Michelangelo, has he not, in some degree, "remade her" ab initio? He has helped her escape from being a slave within her stone prison block of Lisson Grove Lingo and ha'pennies for flowers! Yet what could be more noble, one might well ask, especially amidst the disgusting crushing contempt for female existential being under Edwardian patriarchal-imperialism (a world right now brimming with psychopathic phallocratic nuclear weapons, and rape and murder, and trillions spent on male weaponry), than to dedicate ones mercurial, mischievous, Loge fires, and fleet Ariel-like inherent genius to, in fact, assisting a woman's heart and soul and her truest genius take flight? To flip the question - can I as a woman, inherently do that much, but with greater integrity or moral worth than Prof Prick Higgins, simply because he is merely a blokie? Deep, deep issue, there! After all, all of our hearts are poisoned by the pig-swill of patriarchy, on this sacred planet of Gaia, polluted by woman-hating, nature-hating male psychopathology. By patriarchal-capitalist imperialism, and extractive capitalist factories. Naturally, quite a lot of the above presumes there is a robust coherence and objective truth within sex-and-gender dimorphism, of hominids expressing one or other dyadic gendered forms, under the umbrella of a unified species called Homo sapiens. Does that species even exist, or is it mere patriarchal bio-ideology? It can never be doubted that women exist, in our total biological-psychical-social and collective being, as expressed in many varying beautiful anthropological settings. Our glorious species Femina sapiens really exists, for we are the daughters and handmaidens of our goddesses and Mother Nature! But how easy, how tempting it is, to reconstrue men as nasty parasites, evolutionary dead-ends, sustained only by our richer emotional energies, and belonging to a rival species called Vir sapiens. Yuk. Of course, if you fancy an even more radical-feminist twist, remake the lucky Higgins and Pickering into women. Colonel Henna Pickering (Retired before she was dismissed) is a Hindu scholar, and an Indian Independence campaigner from Calcutta; and Professor Henrietta Higgins is an "Annie Bessant" style firebrand and socialist unionist. An atheistic propagandist and purveyor of mass contraception, a dazzling public speaker, but perhaps a bit cold in her abstracted romanticism. Hopefully more of a Marxist theoretician than a Marie Stopes eugenicist. She wouldn't have wanted to bump into that despicable racist Mr Churchill. Who would? They all three live very boisterously and happily ever after, as polyamorous WHLW (women who love women) on Wimpole Street, or maybe even somewhere bigger, on Queen Annes Gate in South Ken. Because Eliza gets a job as a radical feminist Darwinian researcher at the Natural History Museum. Their ample 5 story stuccoed house (no servants of course) becomes an outpost of Women's liberal-bourgeois suffrage, and poly sisterhood, and also Marxist agitation, and Indian Independence! Now that I can go for that! Especially because they can spend many nights making love and debating theoretical tensions, and reading Freud's "Three Essays [1905]". "My Fair Lady" meets "Desert Hearts". Oh yes please! But I think even GBS might have had difficulty with radical anti-colonialist, polyamorist, WHLW sex-and-gender politics, intermixed with Marxism, and playful larky, deliciously romantic-eroticised womanly love, at least on the stage of the Haymarket. Maybe in Paris? I don't think heteronormative Hollywood makes such films even now! I expect Shaw would have preferred to write about Futurism and Italian Fascism, from a Wagnerian perspective, whilst wearing jauntily his Top Hat! Love andrea
@naly202
@naly202 Жыл бұрын
No way! I've always loved this movie and its ending. I mean i first saw the movie when i was 5 and fell instantly in love with its glamour, its songs and characters. Higgins has always been one of my favourite characters (dunno why) and i was overjoyed that she returned. "Accustomed to her face" was my favourite song. Well... that until i experienced a silly infatuation for an older man who was just as jerklike as Higgins, and one day he went abroad and i never saw him again. (I was heartbroken for months, i can't believe how stupid i was) Then, the song "Without you" gained a new meaning and its rightful place as my new favourite : " You dear friend who talk so well, you can go to.... Hartford, Hereford and Hampshire !!!"
@vacafuega
@vacafuega Жыл бұрын
Aww, my dear youtube commenter. You're not stupid, you were trusting and hopeful, and that's something you can value and work to protect. He was a mean jerk who should have been kind to your feelings, it's entirely on him.
@SadisticSenpai61
@SadisticSenpai61 Жыл бұрын
I almost feel like "I've grown Accustomed to her Face" needs a slight re-write. One where he acknowledges her as a daughter figure and that he's proud of what she's become and that he wishes she still needed him. I think that kind of edit would change the implied dynamics of the ending itself - one that shows there is no kind of romantic feelings between them, that the dynamic of their relationship isn't like that at all. Then when she comes back, it's not because she left Freddie, but rather a daughter returning to visit her father. Although, I think a good response to him asking for his slippers would be, "Have you tried looking at your feet?" Cuz him already wearing his slippers would imply that time has passed while he was singing the song.
@DiegoBosch90
@DiegoBosch90 Жыл бұрын
I think Accustomed to her face is not romantic. Lerner said it had to be a lvoe song without being a love song...if it was a romance he just would have said it was a love song. He just realises she was like a family member and he has the nostalgy since she is gone. I never though about this in terms of romance, I never seen this film as a romance between both. I even doubt she marries Freddy, but we can debate about Freddy. About the romance between higgins and eliza then we cant debate. Both admitted friendly relation intentions in the house of the mother. End of the story. Is their words.
@SadisticSenpai61
@SadisticSenpai61 Жыл бұрын
@@DiegoBosch90 I didn't say it was romantic. But it does very much remind me of the melancholy of a divorced misogynist missing his ex-wife. He misses her, but he still ducking hates women! I only meant to clear up the ambiguity where the song is unclear as to exactly why he misses her and exactly how he feels about her. And I think that clarity is needed specifically because our culture likes to assume romance between any man and woman that aren't related, but grow close to each other - no matter how very much _not_ romantic their relationship is depicted. And with him having been her teacher _and_ being like 30 years older than her, it does make sense that a father/daughter relationship might make itself known. We're also used to seeing "distinguished older gentlemen" and very young women being put in romantic relationships by Hollywood - although it doesn't happen as much these days as it used to. And frankly, that's a particularly gross image that needs to die. Cradle-robbing is not cute or romantic!
@DiegoBosch90
@DiegoBosch90 Жыл бұрын
@@SadisticSenpai61 for me It wasnt romantic and I understood it in terms of friendship or family feelings cause of the context of the film. When something is ambiguous then context decide. It could be less ambiguous? yes...,but i think It is more poetic this way. I like the song. I think the problem is What you mentioned ...is the fault of the audience...they need to explain anything in terms of romance...cause they cant think out of It. It is a extremely inteligent film...but most of people just make a shallow interpretation of It... So is kinda great ...they made money with them but also created something great. Anywsys is great to read people like you that understoond the real feelings of Higgins...
@WrestlingErnestHemingway
@WrestlingErnestHemingway Жыл бұрын
I dissagre with this "rewrite" thought of an ending. He might have been a bit older than her but the thought of it being a daughter-father relationship like thing is disgusting to me a thought like that. He was a grown mature man that already established what & who he was. He fell for who she was and it confused him. Any oldr man in his right mind would fall for a "lady" who he relized she was from the time he met her. He learned as the time he spent with her. So many people in here I think totally missed the message of the ending of the movie. And IDC abotu Shaw's typical fantasy ending that was white pickey fence fantasy junk. The movei keeps the complexities of real life realtionships & love regardless of age. Cease this detestable booohooing of politcal correctness of the modern age wanting to be woke & change real life situations into what they think is "right or wrong". Them both being father-daughter like makes me sick to my stomach. NOoooooo, NO NO!!. lol
@SadisticSenpai61
@SadisticSenpai61 Жыл бұрын
@@WrestlingErnestHemingway Ah yes, isn't being awake terrible? No, you'd much rather go back to sleep and continue your gross pedophile-adjacent dreaming. A 50 year old and a 20 year old is _never_ romantic or cute. It's _always_ exploitative. And Higgins' dynamic with Eliza is very much exploitative and borderline abusive - or it would be if they were in a romantic relationship. Higgins absolutely would need to do a complete 180 in how he treats Eliza in order for it to be anything even approaching a healthy relationship (whether it's a familial relationship or romantic). He's a terrible person and he treats her horribly. But why exactly would them having a familial relationship make you "sick to your stomach?" Perhaps you're a 50-something who's hoping to catch a 20-something girlfriend? The fact that she's young enough to be his daughter is kinda the entire point - and people generally aren't attracted to their own children, you know? And those that end up in relationships with people their children's age... Well, there's a reason our society looks down on the them and have for much longer than "political correctness" was even a term used by people that want to be proudly and openly rude (and often racist as well) to everyone around them and not have to face any social consequences for it.
@ScarletSerenade
@ScarletSerenade Жыл бұрын
I adore My Fair Lady. I’ve watched it endlessly since I was a little girl and can say the lines along with the actors, inflection and all. My parents raised me on musicals and this has always been a favorite. So, of course, I asked my boyfriend to watch it with me a few months ago. As we got closer to the end, he started asking, “Wait, are they going to end up together?” And it was literally the first time I had ever asked that question. I genuinely never considered any romantic implications because OF COURSE she can’t marry Higgins. He’s a narcissistic jerk who wouldn’t know how to truly cherish her as Freddy did. I always assumed they just made up as friends and she still married Freddy. (Also, my boyfriend hated the ending for the same reasons.) I’d become so accustomed to the beats and pivotal moments in the story, I forgot to question the ending altogether because… that’s just how the story ends. I love your analysis here because it’s been on my mind for the past few months and I literally did not think to look for any video essays on it.
@anna_in_aotearoa3166
@anna_in_aotearoa3166 Жыл бұрын
12:20 No matter what else, I am 10000% with G.B. Shaw on his frustration about this one!! 🤬 And it's completely alive and kicking TO THIS DAY no matter how much of an a$$hat the 'hero' in question is... Pretty much every Harrison Ford film vehicle I've ever seen, for example?
@chrissyr8387
@chrissyr8387 Жыл бұрын
I think theres a satisfy ending. Henry Higgins after singing accustomed to her face gies to the study and listens to the record. His mind wonders. He imagines the epiloge of Eliza opening her shop. Having high clientel in the fanciest shop in town. There's no Freddy in the image. Just Eliza. The scene goes back to higgins. Eliza gramaphone line plays and the record stops. He smiles a tear in his eye. His last words are. If a line can be changed " Best to you my Galatea. " If not. "Eliza" smiling with pride he stands up and walks off stage " Now where the devil are my slippers" With this ending Eliza is content her future bright ahead of her. Higgins is left with the last line but he's left with bittersweet pride. Pride in the Lady he created and the woman she had become.
@brendanmaher-bourke8217
@brendanmaher-bourke8217 3 жыл бұрын
I just watched the BBC Play of the Month production of Pygmalion from 1973. I’ll never be able to watch My Fair Lady again. I believe that Shaw’s intention was to show how flawed the men of the time were and how a man’s lack of appreciation for a woman that he loves can lead him to spend the rest of his life alone. It’s a morality tale about sexism and a classist society. Both the men love Eliza for who she really is and not for what they trained her to be.
@richardmayora1289
@richardmayora1289 2 жыл бұрын
It will be your loss to not see the most acclaimed musical of all time. It stands on it's own and it is foolish to make comparisons with the source material.
@jwf2125
@jwf2125 Жыл бұрын
@@richardmayora1289 Brendan wrote that he'd never watch MFL "again". That said, I agree that it's possible to appreciate both versions.
@weipingchuang1515
@weipingchuang1515 3 жыл бұрын
Freddy is very superficial and does not deserve Eliza. Freddy literally runs over Eliza like a motorbus at Covent Garden without a second look or apology. Only much later on does he become neurotically infatuated with a more elevated Eliza. Freddy blew his genuine "love at first sight" as he cannot even remember he ran into Eliza before. Evocative of "SABRINA" where David hardly took notice of Sabrina until she came back posh and "improved" from Paris. Both Freddy and David are jerks for their attitudes to women based on appearances. The metamorphosis theme must have been in traditional folklore before Ovid took credit for it. As you correctly pointed out, they were classically love stories. GBS wanted to put his eccentric stamp on his novel, which we know runs against collective human romantic intuition that Eliza and Higgins will get together eventually. Audiences know from their own experience that any relationship with Freddy will not last. A possible sequel to My Fair Lady is where the Galatea character sculpts Higgins into a true gentleman. Thank you for your educational post.
@suebob16
@suebob16 3 жыл бұрын
In the 1995 version of Sabrina with Harrison Ford, the film made David a more sympathetic character. He had been a playboy, but once he started dating his future fiancee Elizabeth he realized he had deeper feelings for her than any previous woman. And it scared him, so he did turn towards Sabrina when she returned from Paris. At least he tried but was kept from doing so thanks to sneaky intervention from older brother Linus. Elizabeth was given more of a backstory. Despite coming from a wealthy family she has her own career as a doctor. She comes across as caring and not shallow. David meets up with Elizabeth towards the end of the film, presumably to talk about what had happened while she was out of town and to affirm that they still had a future together.
@kahkah1986
@kahkah1986 Жыл бұрын
yup, that is how I would see it myself; that Galatea will sculpt the sculptor, not that she will choose the lesser individual to control
@sierotkamarysia4199
@sierotkamarysia4199 Жыл бұрын
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