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Oscars Retrospective: My Fair Lady (37th Academy Awards Review)

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I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face~Frederick Loewe, vocals by Rex Harrison - My Fair Lady          True to the zeitgeist of the ongoing British Invasion, My Fair Lady was the third Academy Award winner in a row to be a British tale. Though, unlike Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Tom Jones (1963), My Fair Lady was an American production, it just revolved around a British-set story, perfectly exemplifying the phrase “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” And, like many other classic musicals, it was such a beloved and iconic story that has been parodied and imitated so many times that many may not know that these tropes come from this movie.          Based on a highly successful Broadway musical which itself was based on an earlier play and movie called Pygmalion (play: 1913, movie: 1938) (the title was presumably changed because Pygmalion is a terrible title), My Fair Lady revolves around a phonetics teacher named Professor Henry Higgins (R...
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Success or Snub? My Fair Lady (37th Academy Awards Review Pt. 2)

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To see part 1, click here . The Pink Panther Suite~Henry Mancini - The Pink Panther         1964 may not have been the greatest year for movies but it is a strong contender for possibly being the most iconic year of the 60s in terms of movies. This is going to be a shorter rundown than normal but every movie noted is one of the most quintessential films of the decade.          By this point, the Hays Code was practically optional. It still existed and would provide rules for the studios but if they thought it was more profitable to not follow it, they wouldn’t. Furthermore, the new head of the office, Eric Johnston, was a classic Kennedy liberal and would make more and more exceptions and bending of the rules. The major studios did, on average, stick tenaciously to the Code although it was less because of pressure and more because of mounting costs and the near-bankruptcy of 20th Century Fox after Cleopatra (1963) (not to mention probabl...
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