Movies from the Heart—My Fair Lady

Yes, it’s true, as I said a couple of weeks ago, it seems like Audrey Hepburn was in every great romantic-esque film of the 60s! And My Fair Lady [1964] by Alan Jay Lerner, is no exception.

A little aside… There was a controversy about casting Hepburn in the film. Julie Andrews had done the play on Broadway—to great acclaim—and, of course, her singing voice was top notch. Hepburn, though we heard her sing in Moon River, and we knew she could sing, DID record all the songs for My Fair Lady but the powers that be thought her voice not strong enough, so they had her dubbed. Critics pointed this out, of course. And when the Academy Awards came around, Hepburn was nominated for My Fair Lady—as she was superb—and Andrews was nominated for Mary Poppins. Though Andrews won, it was often thought that the win was more of a compensation for her not getting to play the lead in My Fair Lady.

Hmmm… can people in Hollywood be so shallow? I’ll let you answer that.

In any case, the iconic musical was brought to film. In case you haven’t seen it, here’s the trailer.

The film was adapted from the musical and the musical was adapted from the George Bernard Shaw play.

Now, if you’re trying to get an original musical off the ground as a film—good luck to you. It is virtually impossible. Of course, next week one could be bought and defy that prediction. But, trust me, it’s very hard to get a musical made as a film, let alone an original musical.

Maybe that means, if you’re drawn to musicals, you should begin by writing a play, working on it in a workshop format at your local community theatre, and then trying to get interest in it from a producer/director/studio to adapt as a film. But even then, it’s a long haul.

But getting any film produced is a long haul!! So my advice—work on what you love. And if it’s musicals, then go for it.

And one of the best things you can do is to study musicals you love—and if My Fair Lady is not your cup of tea, look for something that is and study how the story integrates the songs. If you do, you’ll realize that it’s the story that’s important.

For story, don’t forget you can do what Lerner did when he wrote My Fair Lady—you can go to the original work [and many older works are in public domain, so you pay nothing to use them] and think about how you’d structure it to add the songs.

It’s a truism that for any genre of writing, studying films that you think work well is the window into structuring your own film to work well. So hey, an excuse to sit down and watch lots of musicals!

Next week we’ll talk about How to Steal a Million.

Copyright © Diane Lake

17Mar24

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com