![]() Well, the leading Eliza Doolittle character is very layered, albeit not entirely convincingly, but certain more so than her peers, particularly Doolittle's random romantic admirer, and the thin Henry Higgins character whose background is slim, and whose gradual exposition comes much too late to feel the humanity within the often, maybe mostly unlikable role, which still isn't too much more obnoxious than the extremes in either grating informality and pompous class which exacerbate subtlety issues. Chips" (Forget "West Side Story"! I just had to get that out), or of the delightful "Gigi", but what challenges it right away is the natural shortcomings to its simple premise of good-hearted street trash receiving an education on formality for the potential of a more respectable, better life, because as interesting as this story is, it's thin, like certain areas of the characterization which needs to carry plenty of depth to make up for the lack of depth to make up for the lack of depth to the plot. The film does so many things well, to where it might have achieved the reward value of such epic musicals of its time as "The Sound of Music", or "Goodbye, Mr. So yeah, "A Proper Lady is Born" is plenty decent and all, but it's no more compelling than "A Star is Born", even in concept. For the record, that title is referring to the Pygmalion effect, which states that the greater the challenge, the greater the reactive performance is, although I may only know that because my watching this film and, well, looking into jazz deeply enough to know about Billy Taylor's "A Proper Lady is Born" reflect that I have a lot of time on my hands to look up inconsequential stuff. ![]() Well, this story at least feels kind of thin, because it's so much less convoluted than this film's origin as an adaptation of a musical that is an adaptation of a film that is an adaptation of a play, although we can at least take comfort in the fact that this chain of adaptations is still less confusing than the original property's title, "Pygmalion". I better remember this film if it's going to take three hours to try and burn into my brain, so it's a good thing that these songs are so catchy, because this isn't exactly a complex epic. ![]() ![]() Cukor saw the birth of a star, and now he's back with "A Proper Lady is Born", and if that's not good enough news for you, well, it's even longer! Seriously though, sorry, Cukor, but in 1964, Billy Taylor beat you to an adaptation of "My Fair Lady", although your interpretation quickly drove the "My Fair Lady Loves Jazz" album into obscurity. Lerner and Loewe tried to turn Gigi into a proper Frenchwoman, and now they're trying to turn some Cockney gal into a proper Englishwoman, so they seemed to be as into formal gals as George Cukor was into glamorous gals, though not exactly to be attracted to. ![]()
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