In London during the year 1912, a crowd is gathering for an opera. A young woman named Eliza Dolittle is trying to sell flowers. She can be loud and annoying at times. She also has a lower-class Cockney accent.

A wealthy scholar of phonetics called Professor Henry Higgins comes across Eliza. He is unimpressed by her way of speaking and thinks that maybe he can help her.

However, Eliza feels that there is nothing wrong with her. She tries to convince that to Colonel Pickering, who has returned from India. But Pickering has come back to England just to meet Higgins. And Higgins thinks that with the right teaching methods, he could make Eliza pass off as a duchess.

Yet Eliza wants to work in a flower shop. She envisions her life after succeeding with that in the song, “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly.”

The next morning, Eliza meets Higgins in his home to be his student. Their meeting doesn’t go very well, even as Higgins outlines his plan. Eliza also can’t control herself at times. When the maids think that she needs a bath and new clothes, she freaks out and is terrified of going into the tub of hot water.

Meanwhile, Eliza’s father, Alfred P. Dolittle, who is a dustman, discovers that his daughter is staying at a different residence for six months. A few days later, he visits Higgins to “protect Eliza’s virtue.” However, what he really wants is some money from Higgins. He gets five pounds.

Later, Higgins has Eliza practice her vowels. But he has her do it for long times. Despite what his maids tell him about that, he refuses to change. It also gets on Eliza’s nerves as expressed in the number, “Just You Wait.”

For a while, Eliza struggles to make progress. But at some point, when reading the phrase, “The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain,” she has improved her pronunciations. She, Higgins, and Colonel Pickering are amazed. She gets so excited about that that she wishes that she could celebrate all night. But it’s 3 A.M. So, the maids have Eliza go to bed.

Some point later; Higgins takes her to the Ascot Racecourse as a trial run. She makes a good impression… until she accidentally says a profane word loudly. That shocks the others.

Eliza also meets this guy around her age, Freddy Eynsford-Hill. He develops feelings for her.

When the time comes, Higgins takes Eliza to an embassy ball. There, she dances with a foreign prince. A former student of Higgins, Zoltan Karpathy, assumes that Eliza is a princess.

However, things start to go downhill after that. All the hard work Eliza has done gets ignored. And all the credit goes to Higgins. This devastates poor Eliza. She breaks down crying and starts to dislike Higgins. If that’s not tough enough, she leaves his home.

Despite the long runtime of this film, it kept my attention all the way through. It’s nearly three hours long, although it does include an intermission. Certain movies did this back in the day until the 1980s.

There were a lot of musical numbers. That was one of the reasons the movie was engaging. It also didn’t lag or rush anything. The pacing was just right.

The characters were also well-developed. Although she was sometimes annoying, I liked Eliza. I admired how she grew and changed throughout the movie.

Her relationship with her father was interesting. He didn’t always treat her like a daughter. But he didn’t mistreat her, either. He was also engaged to a woman who would become Eliza’s stepmother.

Henry Higgins was a gray character to me. He wasn’t always likable. But he wasn’t a jerk, either. I did appreciate it when his servants would advocate for Eliza.

Regardless of the strengths, though, there were some weaknesses. I will admit that I had trouble understanding the characters at times. Some parts were also confusing.

And although this story had a lot of twists and turns, some were unsatisfactory. There were a decent number of loose ends that I wish were resolved.

On the bright side, though, the perks were stronger than the drawbacks.

Overall, I enjoyed My Fair Lady. It was a good movie with memorable musical numbers, characters, and an interesting plot.

One thing to know, especially if you’re a parent, is that although this movie is rated G, it isn’t exactly suitable for little kids. There was some occasional profanity used, such as the D-word. I recommend that viewers be at least 9 and mature for their age.

Anyway, I give this movie 4 out of 5 stars.