My Fair Lady) on DVD

Best Picture Collection - Musicals
An American in Paris/Gigi/My Fair Lady
Actors: Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier, Gene Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison
Directors: George Cukor, Vincente Minnelli
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Kids & Family, Musicals & Performing Arts

G 2003 6hr 43min

An American in Paris — A GI (Gene Kelly) stays in Paris after the war to become an artist and has to choose between the patronage of a rich American woman (Nina Foch) and a French gamine (Leslie Caron) engaged to an older m... more »an. The plot is mostly an excuse for director Vincente Minnelli to pool his own extraordinary talent with those of choreographer-dancer-actor Kelly and the artists behind the screenplay, art direction, cinematography, and score, creating a rapturous musical not quite like anything else in cinema. The final section of the film comprises a 17-minute dance sequence that took a month to film and is breathtaking. Songs include "'S Wonderful," "I Got Rhythm," and "Love Is Here to Stay." Gigi

Vincente Minnelli's 1958 adaptation of Colette's story about a girl (Leslie Caron) groomed as a courtesan--but desired as a wife by a Parisian playboy (Louis Jordan)--won a lot of Oscars®, but it also has the unusual distinction of being an MGM musical shot on location in the City of Lights. What a musical it is (by Lerner and Loewe): Maurice Chevalier and Hermione Gingold crooning "Ah, Yes, I Remember It Well," plus the songs "Thank Heaven for Little Girls," "Gigi," "I'm a Bore," and "She's Not Thinking of Me." Director Minnelli makes a sumptuous, dreamy, almost laid-back affair of it all, and the indispensable cast is forever etched into memory. Hollywood's long-running infatuation with Continental grace and manners, the memory of a much earlier time imported to American movies through such immigrant directors as Ernst Lubitsch, may have finally come to a gentle end with this film. My Fair Lady

Hollywood's legendary "woman's director," George Cukor, transformed Audrey Hepburn into street-urchin-turned-proper-lady Eliza Doolittle in this film version of the Lerner and Loewe musical. Based on George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, My Fair Lady stars Rex Harrison as linguist Henry Higgins (Harrison also played the role, opposite Julie Andrews, on stage), who draws Eliza into a social experiment that works almost too well. The letterbox edition of this film on video certainly pays tribute to the pageantry of Cukor's set, but it also underscores a certain visual stiffness that can slow viewer enthusiasm just a tad. But it's really star wattage that keeps this film exciting, that and such great songs as "On the Street Where You Live" and "I Could Have Danced All Night." Actor Jeremy Brett, who gained a huge following later in life portraying Sherlock Holmes, is quite electric as Eliza's determined suitor. --Tom Keogh

Larger Image

Movie Details

Actors: Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier, Gene Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison
Directors: George Cukor, Vincente Minnelli
Creators: Arthur Freed, Jack L. Warner, James C. Katz, Alan Jay Lerner, Colette, George Bernard Shaw
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Kids & Family, Musicals & Performing Arts
Sub-Genres: Romantic Comedies, Audrey Hepburn, Love & Romance, Drama, Classics, Family Films, Musicals
Studio: Warner Home Video
Format: DVD - Color
DVD Release Date: 03/04/2003
Original Release Date: 12/25/1964
Theatrical Release Date: 12/25/1964
Release Year: 2003
Run Time: 6hr 43min
Screens: Color
Number of Discs: 3
SwapaDVD Credits: 3
Total Copies: 0
Members Wishing: 4
Edition: Box set
MPAA Rating: G (General Audience)
Languages: English

Similar Movies

TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection American Musicals
The Band Wagon / Meet Me in St. Louis / Singin' in the Rain / Easter Parade

NR 2009 7hr 11min

TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection Broadway Musicals
Show Boat / Annie Get Your Gun / Kiss Me Kate / Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

NR 2009 7hr 7min

The Rodgers & Hammerstein Collection [Remastered] (The Sound of Music / The King and I / Oklahoma! / South Pacific / State Fair / Carousel)

The Rodgers Hammerstein Collection
Remastered
Directors: Fred Zinnemann, Henry King, Joshua Logan, José Ferrer, Robert Wise

G 2006 15hr 56min

Similarly Requested DVDs

Scent of a Woman
Director: Martin Brest

132

R 1998 2hr 37min

Cast Away
Full-Screen Edition
Director: Robert Zemeckis

391

PG-13 2002 2hr 23min

Sex and the City The Complete Fourth Season
Directors: Alan Taylor, Allen Coulter, Charles McDougall, David Frankel, Martha Coolidge

2003 9hr 0min

The Lost Boys
Two-Disc Special Edition
Director: Joel Schumacher

258

R 2004 1hr 37min

South Pacific
Collector's Edition
Director: Joshua Logan

NR 2006 2hr 37min

Secret Diary of a Call Girl Season One

NR 2009 3hr 9min

Mad Men Season Four

The Sopranos The Complete Second Season
Director: Allen Coulter Tim Van Patten

NR 2001 11hr 36min

Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves
Two-Disc Special Extended Edition
Director: Kevin Reynolds

225

PG-13 2003 2hr 23min

Mad Men Season Two
Director: Matthew Weiner

UR 2009 0hr 45min

Member Movie Reviews

K. K. (GAMER)
Reviewed on 8/18/2022...

Gigi - A must for musical lovers!

An American in Paris - A classic with really great musical dancing!

Movie Reviews

Always get the original version

Movie Mania | Southern Calfornia | 05/29/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Once again MGM has packaged three great films but in their pan and scan versions. It will be better to get them seperately in the letterbox versions."

My box set has WIDESCREEN versions!

Paul J. Mular | San Carlos, CA USA | 05/20/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am confused by the negative reviews of this box set. I bought this set a couple of years ago and only AN AMERICAN IN PARIS is full frame (as it should be).

GIGI is a two sided disc, pan & scan on one side and 2:33-1 letterboxed on the other side.

MY FAIR LADY is in 2:33-1 wide screen only.

So either the other reviewers forgot to turn the GIGI disc over to watch the wide screen version, or Warner fixed the problem. I am not aware of any full frame DVDs on these titles that do not have the wide screen versions also."

Expected better

J. Ulises Ocampo | 01/09/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"It would have been much better with wide screen presentation, Gigi also lacks quality in soung and the magnificent viewes of Paris are lost. Of the whole collection, An american in Paris comes as the best picture in this format. Not worth the money"