In George Cukor's 1964 filmed version of Alan J. Lerner and Frederick Loewe's 1956 My Fair Lady, Audrey Hepburn does a phenomenal job acting her role of Eliza Doolittle. My Fair Lady is a film version from George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play, Pygmalion. My Fair Lady is a musical, and I think that the music adds to the film. The music keeps the movie upbeat. Some of the songs are funny, and I think they add liveliness to the story. In the play and the film, Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) takes on a bet to turn Eliza, an ordinary flower girl, off the street into a lady who could be passed off as a duchess.
Eliza undergoes a huge transformation. She not only learns how to speak like a lady; she learns how to behave properly. In the film, Audrey Hepburn transforms from a common girl into an elegant lady. In fact, in the film version, she dances with the Prince and is thought to be the Princess of Hungary. I thought that Audrey was very appropriate for this role. Eliza was portrayed as an elegant and charming lady. At the ball she really did look and act like a true princess. This is a lesson that Eliza learns from the process of her transformation. Eliza learns that what makes one a lady is the way she is treated. She learns to act like a princess, and she will be treated as one.
However, one character, Henry Higgins, just cannot seem to grasp this concept. Despite all of her hard work and the fact that she performed perfectly and won his bet for him, Higgins just cannot find it in himself to treat Eliza as a lady. Eliza has proven herself as a lady, and Higgins refuses to acknowledge the facts. This is the reason I enjoy
the ending of the play Pygmalion because Eliza does not go back to Higgins. In the play, Eliza is going to marry Freddy and soon Higgins will realize the errors of his ways. I think this is the only way for Higgins to learn his lesson.