My Fair Lady

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US 1964, d George Cukor

My Fair Lady should have been Hepburn's finest hour... the culmination of a decade at the top of her profession; another great director (George Cukor); another Oscar (the film won in many major categories)... but somehow it didn't work out that way. With Hepburn replacing Broadway lead/Hollywood nobody Julie Andrews, and with Marni Nixon providing the vocals during Eliza's musical numbers, there was a sense of antipathy towards the actress for the first time in her career. Forty years and two things are obvious: Julie Andrews would have been better in terms of singing her own songs, Audrey Hepburn was better in terms of everything else. The chemistry with Harrison, the comic timing and, of course, the ability to appear even more astonishing a creation than the Cecil Beaton costumes and sets with which she was surrounded.