Perfect.

Great comment!

The play ends differently than the movie

Yes! And Higgins just laughs at the idea of her marrying Freddie, and that's the end. I love the original ending!

I don't remember Eliza necessarily being "independent." Shaw says that neither she nor Freddie knew much about handling a business, and so Colonel Pickerington supported them quite a bit. But Eliza and Freddie both worked, and kept their marriage going, so there's that.

Okay, this is my favourite.

I like the 2001 finish with Jonathan price. When Eliza turns off the phonograph, Henry says the crown phrase about the slippers and stands up, folding his hands on his chest. Eliza copies his pose and facial expression, after which both laugh. Curtain

I love it!

@@user-sv5rs1rz2i YES! Like an insde joke!

THIS ENDING!!! This is the one I want!

Then he laughs and says, "Sit down & have a seat you beautiful guttersnipe." And she does with a smile. 😁😂😉

OMG YASSSSSSS

Or just slapping him across the face with them

I'd pay to see that. She slowly comes back, wanting to give him another chance, he completely misreads, says "where are my slippers!?" and utterly blows his chance; she shakes her head like "what was I thinking?" throws the slippers at the back of his head and fully walks out. Henry kicks himself, as he will do forever. Curtain.

I like that. :)

Spoken as a true feminist where male and female relationships serve up our Orwellian destiny.

@@scasey1960 God forbid a woman wants to be treated with kindness, respect and courtesy. The point is that imbalanced relationships are failed relationships. Both sides must give to each other and value each other. This provides a stable nurturing homelife for children. Domestic violence even if it is only verbal takes us to an Orwellian future.

​@@scasey1960 relationships are way better if the partners see eye to eye. Of course it takes 2 adults to do that.

@Rachel Wharton - 100% the same for me. I watched it as a teen and absolutely *detested* that last minute reversal but wasn't really able to articulate more than that it didn't make any sense to me when the guy had been so obviously awful to her constantly. It's a pleasant surprise to know that the original author thought the same

@@tomireland3644 Thankfully, the gradeschool teacher who had us read _Pygmalian_ made a point to talk about the changes in the ending with us, so we got to consider the politics of it (and we all came out of the movie thinking the ending was profoundly irrational)

I was at university when I saw the Audrey Hepburn version for the first time. The dress she wears to the ball is one of the lodestones of what I find beautiful! My impression of Freddy was that (she found) he's completely vapid, you know? At the races, he likes the look of her, in her super tight dress & then he sniggers at her "new small talk", even though she doesn't know what she's doing & he only catches half of her meaning... isn't that a useless compliment? And then in "words words words" he hardly offers any rebuttal, right? He literally can't keep up with her because he's trapped behind some railing! I always felt that the best ending would have been Eliza as a kind and elegant companion for Lady Higgins, who enjoys genteel events and dignified entertainment.

@@meinhartfrancois coming in very late to this conversation apparantly, but I feel like in that era it wouldn't be practical since as a lady companion, she would be dependent on an old lady who may not have the legal means to write her into the will and even if she does may choose not to. Marriage to Freddy would just be financially stable while allowing her to have the independence she needed. In today's day and age, maybe she could go on to become a tutor herself. 😊

@@dyutibasu4541 I totally see your points : working as a tutor would be better, or maybe running her own flowershop (if she miraculously finds the starting captital)

​@@meinhartfrancoisStaying with Lady Higgins would have been a good option - but not permanently. Lady Higgins would have found him a better husband than her own son, or Freddy..

@@dyutibasu4541 , according to the afterword to _Pygmailon_ by Shaw, Freddy was as poor as Eliza was, only _appearing_ to be rich; his mother and he only got by on charity from friends of his mother. After he and Eliza married, they had to struggle for a while, but eventually they were able to set up a flower shop, and seel flowers, which is what Eliza always wanted to do.

I've always believed that, and it's seriously the perfect ending. She went away to live her life, we don't know if she married Freddie or not, it doesn't matter. She sang her last song about how she can stand on her own, and so she does. Higgins is clearly upset, he listens to her recordings and imagines her return. But she never really returns. And eventually he gets used to being alone again. In my head she opens a successful business (a flower/tea shop?). Maybe they run past eachother on the streets sometimes, or bump into eachother at some social event, or Higgins sees her shop and smiles inwardly. That's how I always saw the ending, and I refuse to believe anything but.

That's what I thought was the ending

Same here

@@catherinerosa644 That song is pure delusional. Only idiots would think that passing off at that one dance is enough to blend in to the aristocratic life. It's just a dance, and Higgins tailored her to it. Higgins solo song put it nicely, it's quite obvious her life is going to fail miserably without his help. People like to dream but it's quite clear what will happen if she tries to "make it on her own".

@@markarmage3776 Except you're missing one key detail: Eliza said that she was going to offer herself as an assistant to "that brilliant Hungarian" (forgot his name), the one who made a living off of blackmailing people, and supposedly teach him Higgins' methods. What's more, that guy told an entire court of people that Eliza was a Hungarian princess... when in reality she's just a common flower girl. Eliza would have him over a barrel with that information: she could utterly humiliate and ruin him by revealing his blunder. Therefore, he'd be the one being blackmailed for a change. In conclusion, Eliza does indeed have what it takes to make it on her own.

The "white picket fence" and they live happily ever after ending is what most simpletons want in stories. The movie dealt with the realities of human male & female bonding. Shaw's version was a yawner imho. Facts are most women dont' "fall in love" nor "respect" with weak minded men like Freddy. They usually go with the stronger more realistic men that keep things real. Instead most of the women in here want a fake Shaw's version of the with picket fence & they live happily ever after ending of BS. Smh at the simpleton's who totally missed the point of this most cleverly made musical version and it's ending's message thoughout the entire movie. It kept life's realaities & the human nature of the male & female bonding correctly to suit each other's differences in check.

​@@WrestlingErnestHemingway Jesus, who hurt you?

@@WrestlingErnestHemingwaywtf are you talking about? 😂

Ya, I like her solution at the end. Now if only the Freddy character was shown to have a touch more depth, so it's clear that he does actually respect Eliza and loves her fully, not just in a simple, love-sick way.

@@WrestlingErnestHemingway The world is what we make it. If you chase after the kind of women who are only attracted to abusive men, then that is all you'll see in the dating pool. But there are many good women who are looking for men who treat them with respect and kindness. Such men expect to be treated with genuine respect and kindness in return (not out of fear). Such men are the true strong-willed ones, the kind that can form a mutually loving marital bond that withstands all the vicissitudes of life. As a teenager I was attracted to abusive men because it was all I knew from home life and from depictions in movies like the Aubrey Hepburn version in this KZfaq video. I got smart and grew up just in time to partner with a wonderful man who has been my husband for more than two decades now. His strong character is no less an inspiration to me because it is paired with unwavering support from him. He is stalwart, steady, and unwavering in the face of the inevitable pressures that we face from the world outside our family. Abusive men crumble and dissemble at the first moment of adversity. They can't support their families emotionally because they are the main blade cleaving the family. If the alternative to them is "weak-willed," I'll take that any day -- and all the days of my life till death do us part.

I completely agree!! Yes, she wanted a room, a space of her own. It's so sad that she doesn't ever achieve that. I believe you'd have written the perfect ending ❤

@@oliviaknight1123 Thank you so much!

Yes yes yes! A GREAT ending. A GROWNUP ending. Sane! I can feel her breathing freely as the man “with no feeling heart” in him goes back to his lair. FREEDOM! Yah gotta love it!

There is actually no indication that she came back to marry him. Probably she just came to make friends again and end on a good foot, maybe to live there for a while seeing as she's been living there for months anyway and hasn't moved out yet.

I said kinda the same thing and asked, "why she's coming back? He treats her badly" and my mother answered "because she loves him and love means accepting the flaws of the loved one. She accepted him as he is" I must say this lingers still in my mind because it's so true. We all have flaws and if we love someone we accept certain flaws. The question is if he realized after losing her how much she meant to him and started to change some of his mannerisms but the movie leaves this open.

That’s what I thought too.

@@VictoriaForSale There's loving flaws, and there's tolerating abuse. My husband has to be told to do simple chores multiple times until I'm nagging him like his mother. That's a flaw, and I love him despite it. My sister's husband punched a hole into the wall when he was mad at her and mocked his daughter so much as a small child, she stopped speaking for a while. That's abuse, yet she refuses to leave him, even to protect the kids. Big difference.

@@rhov-anion I agree with you. That is why I said if he realizes he has to change his mannersims

This is exactly the kind of thing I like...

The real question is whether he would have written another play, perhaps similar to that show about the two old guys/actors who live together.

Unfortunately that tree had it out for him and had plans to strike that very night.

If he'd been harvesting his ghoughpteighbteaus, he'd have been much closer to the ground and much safer. (Yes, I know the direct Shaw attribution is likely not correct, but true or not it remains a whimsical part of his legacy)

What does that go down on the death certificate as? death by falling or death by tree?

I'm 70, my mother loved the movie and had the record. I never liked either ending. Even in my early teens I thought she must have had other options.

Nancy's arc always broke my heart in Oliver. It's tragic (and is by no means glorified imo): I think that As Long As He Needs Me portrays the mentality of some women who are manipulated and conditioned to stay. "But deep down he loves me-- and who else would love _him?"_ And she's killed in the end anyway, because Bill is a monster. That song makes me cry every time thinking of the real life situations like Nancy's. I'm glad to know your story turned out much better.

I love word nerds

People should study REAL subjects at university.

@@paulsutton5896 -- Uh-huh. And phonetics is a "real subject."

Peter Ladefoged! I did indeed use his phonetics text book when I studied linguistics about 10 years ago.

Ask the thousands of students in grade school taking a speech class to remedy some speaking difficulty, or an actor studying how to speak with an accent different than their own if phonetics is a "real subject."@@markmh835

I thought it was made clear in the movie that his mother despised him when he took Eliza for her debut at Ascot, and his mother said "Henry, what a disagreeable surprise."

@@andyharman3022 She wasn't proud of how he turned out. She clearly tried her best considering her treatment of Eliza. For her son, he insisted on becoming a jackass but saw in turn that he got his spine from her. This makes for a dynamic where Henry likes his mother's company but she's had it with his for decades. Very Shavian.

Not poor. They struggled and got better at it. They got help from the major. All remained friends, in Shaw's postscript.

@@judychurley6623 Cool. I could go with that. And actually my favorite number from the movie was "Just you wait, ;enry 'iggins"

Freddy was a simpleton and dull as dust. Life with him would have killed all pleasure and growth for Eliza. Maybe (in the movie, anyway) Higgins' last remark was a way of covering from Eliza how much he had missed her. But she didn't have to marry anyone. If Pickering could be a longtime guest in the household, why not Eliza? Of course, the whole thing is a charming fiction, so maybe Eliza and Higgins could have married and accommodated to each other's (somewhat altered, I'd hope) personalities. Or a marriage of convenience of sorts. Not at all unheard of (though I'd like to dream that they could love each other, eeach in her or his own way, even if that's my pipe dream).

I guess I felt the same. I’d never seen Henry and Eliza as any sort of romantic pair. This is one of my favorite movies, and for some reason I’ve always thought that Henry and Eliza maintained a friendship. I always thought of it as a mentor/mentee relationship. Henry is comfortable with Eliza, and Eliza makes life comfortable for Henry. I didn’t realize that they were meant to be in a romantic relationship in the end.

@@marilynsmymother711 I think your reading of it is just as plausible. If she did stay with him, it would probably be to look after his household, not as a romantic partner.

Yeah i kind of agree with that, it make.

Same! haha For kid me, her getting together with old man Higgins made no sense at all

In the original “Pygmalion” she does end up marrying Freddie and Higgins is left roaring with laughter ; not the stuff of musical comedy.The ending of “My Fair Lady” would have been better handled by Julie rather than Audrey.

why would she ever give an absolute bellend like him another chance?

This one.

This would be the most elegant.

Another one who obviously misses the point of the ending & movie. He wasn't going to change his personailty or being for any woman. He realized & thought he lost her and I like to think he learrned from that. And she excepeted him for who he was just as much as he appreciated her for who she was. Why on earth do most simpltons miss this in the ending? SMH. It keeps the dynamics of love & the natural human bonding of males & female relationships in reality. The Shaw's version was the white picket fence fantasy ending made for simpletons and the movei ending made a point & added actual "love" in it & very cleverly & clearly.

Do you mean: "where"?

Thank you for sharing something that was done professionally and also very personal. I truly would’ve enjoyed seeing this performance to feel what my reaction of your emotionally revealing ending would’ve left on me.

@@JBearwa if I could, I'd share it in a heartbeat, but copyright and all that. I was very proud of the work we did and I wish we'd have been able to share it with more people

That matches my interpretation. The point being made in the musical is that they've educated each other. She's become a lady, yes, but he's realised that, for all his blustering, he's only been a bachelor because no woman was strong enough to stand up to him. There's a lot of self-delusion in HIggins' character. He was really looking for someone like his mother who, we see in the play, is a tough lady. She knows what he's like, is mostly willing to tolerate his childish behaviour until it gets completely out of hand, at which point she slaps him down, but she does love him despite it all. That is what Eliza has become at the end. She knows where he keeps his ties, what size gloves he needs and how he likes them -- not just the rough, thin leather, but lined with something soft. For all his show, Higgins is the same. Rough on the outside, but he is, in many ways, a child looking for someone who will accept him as he really is, and Eliza's the first to do it because she's the first to live with him long enough to know the real man. She has learned a great deal from him, but she's learned enough from Pickering to be more than just Hggins' creation. If she were just that, they couldn't possibly be together. Instead, she knows his mother well enough to go to her place when Higgins become insufferable, is welcomed ("I was happy to have her") and Mrs Higgins probably explained some truths about her son. She also probably explained to Eliza that the only way she'd make him realise what he was doing would be by taking his toys away and letting him stew, once he understood why. ("Without You") It takes him a while as he tries to hold on to the shell he's created to protect himself but, in the end, he has to admit to himself that she's cracked that shell and, if she leaves him now, he'll be weaker. These are two very strong people, but they know each other's weaknesses. That makes them stronger together. If Higgins is looking for someone like his mother, Eliza could be argued to be looking for the best parts of her father. Not the violence or the drunkenness, but the honesty (and Doolittle is nothing if not remarkably honest about himself, his position, and the games he plays to keep going, "I'm one of the undeserving poor, that's what I am!"). After the ball, Higgins' raises his hand and she goads him to strike her -- something she's suffered many times before. He proves himself the better man by not doing that. He's says she has struck him and wounded him to the heart. She now knows that he can drink without going so far as to become a drunkard and he's not a physically violent man. After he's gone, she digs in the fire ashes to rescue the ring that, we're told, he gave her in Brighton. She contemplates it, and then puts it on the mantlepiece. He's not passed all her tests, but she's not given up on him... yet! She also, by now, knows that a lot of his offensive comments are a defence mechanism. Higgins is old enough to have felt attraction to women and, probably, been rebuffed, and so he pretends not to want them as its less painful. Instead of HIM being rejected, he's the one doing the rejecting. It's HIS choice. HE'S not an insufferable ar$e, THEY'RE not good enough for him. The scene at Mrs Higgins' house is her making it clear to him that she will NOT be his servant. If he's to have a chance with her, he needs to accept that she is a strong woman who has earned his respect. Again, like a child, Higgins admits it while insisting on taking the credit. That's when she walks out. He's admitted that she's the 'consort battleship'. Now he needs to recognise that this makes her his equal, not his creation. Thus she leaves him to stew, telling him she's leaving for good. Will he get it? Accustomed to Her Face is his turn around: the recognition that she's changed him and the thought of carrying on without her is far from pleasant "I was serenely independent and content before we met. Surely I could always be that way again... and yet..." The only problem is that she doesn't hear this realisation... unless she was quietly following and watching him. If she was, then this is when she realises he's got it and that's why she returns so quickly. He's finally passed the test. This is why their getting together at the end is satisfying to the audience. She was looking for a father figure, he was looking for a mother figure. Freddy would be a child to her, doting on her every wish. That might be satisfying short term, but just as she doesn't want to be Higgins' servant, so she wouldn't be able to tolerate a man who became hers. Their relationship simply wouldn't last and she knows it. She doesn't want to control someone or be controlled BY someone. At the end, Higgins knows he can play games of dominance and she'll accept them playfully but, if he pushes too far, she'll slap him down and put him in his place (just as his mother does). They'll have rows loud enough to lift the roof in private. In public, she'll correct his more childish behaviour with a look, and he'll nudge her if her social roots start to show, and together they'll be each other's bulwark against the world. THAT'S why it works.

Best ending offered so far. I would have loved to see that!

That’s the best take on the ending I’ve ever heard

Perhaps it is an overstatement to call a man who advocated eugenics a visionary.

@@samuellawrencesbookclub8250 a visionary but only for a few opinions cause the other ones are pretty bad

@@samuellawrencesbookclub8250do u need to have a gotcha lmao can u not just take the point that theyre making

​@@samuellawrencesbookclub8250 Sir/Ma'am, Reddit's that way 👉

@@samuellawrencesbookclub8250 Just because eugenics is not popular at the moment, doesn't mean that someday it won't be.

Nice one :)

I like that idea!

Wonderful!

WTF? What is this man-hating barbarianism? The only thing Higgins owes her is a pat on the back and a congratulations on a job well-done.

I really like that!

Yeah I always thought Pickering and Higgins ended up together.

Very good points.

@@angelawossname Reasonable.

Exactly. Eliza brings as much to the relationship as Henry. People can change, it’s the very soul of the story

@@jeffhreid glad to see some people understood the film. Eliza denies any love feelings, higgins do the same, who are we to say it is a romantic feeling if they clearly deny, and also they never shown any thing on this way... through the film? wtf, people doesnt understand the concept of friendship...this film is a master peice cause of that , it denies any no sense and unjustified romance...the final is brilliant for me...open final (but it excludes any romance between both).

Could be. You're making obvious the character development that some of us have already inferred from the current (MFL) version.

@@jwf2125 I might change my mind on a careful rewatching, but I never saw evidence of Higgins becoming less misogynistic and classist, just realizing that he'd rather have Eliza around as his student and doormat than for her to leave.

Not needed. The movie nailed the ending perfectly. He learned his lesson & excpted her & repsected her for who she was. As he says in the movie, "I like you this way!" Then the entire thing about it being in a play format is, MOST actors can never express what the movie showed in Rex Harrison's face when he was about to open his door. Realizing he lost her. That one small bit of his expression is what won him the Academy Award for best actor. Most actors in plays can't propley do that or express or show that in their face. Dootlittle & Eliza both came together respecting one another for who they were. This is the main point of the movie that most simpleton's don't seem to understand or get about the movie's true real male/female bonding relationships in real life. The ending makes the perfect sence for a realistic ending. To go and change that imo after the musical being one of the most clever writtn musical & movies ever is pure blasphemy and modern day "political correctness wokeness" at it's worst. A case of the mondern day simpleton's not being able to handle the truths in life. Smh. Shaw's version & ending was nothing but the typical boring white picket fence ending. Most women would never respect or fall in love with a smitten SIMP like Freddy.

@@jwf2125theres no real development for higgins. to the very end he shows no sign of becoming less selfish or respecting eliza any more. in his iconic supposedly romantic final song he spends most of it just resentfully fantasizing about her miserable life without him.

@@WrestlingErnestHemingway absolutely agree! Why would Freddy ever be a good alternative???. A lazy, good for nothing, silver spooned simp is “good enough” if … he’s nice to you!!! I would never want that for my daughters or grandchildren. So no one likes the song Prof Higgins sung at the end. He doesn’t sound “changed” or contrite enough. Was he supposed to suddenly become icky sweet and “All hail Eliza” like simpleton Freddy? In what world would that have sounded genuine ? I saw prof H’s strides as huge but in keeping with his to reticence to move on from bachelor-hood or anything showing loving emotion. He was all academia , very cold. Eliza had a profound and life changing effect of him. Love had a profound effect on him. Shaw didn’t believe in either. Shaw condemned her to unsteady Freddy and poverty but at least she got a few pats on the head now and then. Freddy was not her equal in any true sense but Shaw thought he was good enough for the likes of her. Who’s the real misogynist here? Shaw wins the prize with all the “woke” lemmings on this comment page. “People see what they want to see” and “misery loves company” comes to mind. “What do people want to see happen” … says a lot about them. “Modern sensibility” doesn’t constitute right or righteous sensibility.

That's what happens in the play

Yeah. In the original play, The Pygmalion, she leaves as a sort of equal to Henry Higgins.

I don't even think that the musical implies for sure that they will be a romantic couple. It's just as easy to see it as implying that she will remain with him as some kind of companion/housekeeper/secretary. Which is also very unsatisfactory. Nor should we assume that the arrangement would last.

@veevyo It all depends on the casting. This lousy LC production cast them as the same age range and so romance was very possible.

@@premanadi That's what I was going to say but actually I see them as friends (a very weird friend relationship, but friends of a sort). But that's what I love about My Fair Lady is that the ending is so open ended and there are so many different interpretations that can be "correct". ~:~

Shakespeare is hated??? I know some people struggle with the language, but given that Shakespeare's plays are performed everywhere, all the time, I'd hardly say they are "hated."

​@@gogreen7794 Totally agree with you here and I love his work. My whole English subject is literally all about Shakespeare, plus we have to perform a play in a few months. I think some people hate him because they can't understand the terms and phrases he uses, but like, simplified versions exist as well...

I guess you saw Lauren Ambrose? I did not believe he found her appealing for a single second. She was so charmless.

I saw it too…was disappointed. It seemed too much like a self-conscious exercise in political correctness, between the cross-dressing Cockney chorus folk and Eliza’s bizarre exit through the fourth wall, which the audience was left to figure out for ourselves other than it seeming clear that Higgins was being rejected. It was a treat to get to see Diana Rigg, though.

Higgins and the Colonel are two old Confirmed Bachelors, which some read as implying they're quietly gay. Being language and culture experts certainly would be an acceptable occupation for such men, and would explain the strapping young men coming for lessons?

When I read the original GBS play I just kinda assumed that Pickering and Higgins got together. It was certainly coded that way.

LOL!!!! Now THAT'S a memorable ending!

My favorite production ended with the usual song, the usual return, the usual smug line from Higgins, but when Eliza hears Higgins asking about the slippers, she see a shoe and throws it at him. Higgins, completely dumbfounded, throws the shoe back at Eliza. The set had been progressively filled throughout the performance with books representing the amount of learning Eliza was gaining resulting in piles of books everywhere, and as she dodges the flying shoe, she grabs a book and throws it at Higgins. Higgins returns with another book. Eliza throws a book. Higgins throws a book. Books fly. Actors laugh uproariously and the curtain falls. Eliza has returned but only as the equal that Higgins had intended. The image of two perfectly matched experts in phonetics - two sides of the same coin - leads us to imagine that, rather than offering herself as an "assistant to that brilliant Hungarian", she is able to begin teaching on her own. Pygmalion has succeeded. Galatea has become alive. Perhaps they might share offices, but never abodes again...

😂 That sound like something my mum would do.

That is a good one tbh

The Greek version ended with our living statue throwing a wooden sandal at the man's head teaching him some humility in the process😉

@@spiritualanarchist8162 - So the last line "Galatea, where the devil are my sandals?" could conceivably precede that bit of business. I like it!

@@rgnyc That's what I imagine my girlfriend to do if told her 'Where the hell are my slippers !' ' But maybe i'm just a pushover ;)

Ah, but what about Higgins? You said "all three of them". I assume you mean Higgins would join the three of them in rejoicing their future plans?

@@Checkmate1138 Nope, I imagined Higgins just sitting there in his chair, hat covering his eyes, but his smile would be visible. He's slumped in relief, for once content to sit aside and let others make their own plans.

@@Kelaiah01 I like it :) 👍

@@Checkmate1138 Thank you very much! :D

I thought of a fix to the Bartlett Sher ending where it's clarified that Eliza and Freddy just happened to be passing by and heard the voice recording playing from outside, so Eliza went back in to check, but never planned to go back to Higgins (and I guess when she leaves she goes with Freddy). Yours works better, honestly, since we never really know what happens to Pickering, do we?

Michael Caine and Julie Walters.

That's such a great film.

This, but where we also acknowledge the queer coding that Shaw insinuated about Higgins and Pickering. Higgins sings his final song to Pickering and Pickering consoles him.

Yeah, I don't see why he can't still sing the last song, and then see her in her flower shop and acknowledge that she doesn't need him anymore, which means he succeeded.

i don't know, i feel like it'd be nice if the ending focused on eliza and her successes, rather than on higgins, his sense of superiority, and his (dubious) personal growth

I can imagine it ending kind of in the way "Educating Rita" (a play/movie that is often compared with "Pygmalion") ends -- With Eliza recognizing that she and Higgins are temperamentally incompatible, yet Eliza is grateful for all he's done to change her life. And so they part amicably, ending with Eliza (just as Rita does in her movie) looking at Higgins intently, and then saying, simply, "Thanks."

The triumphant music as he smugly leans back in his chair that kind of solidified how I interpret the end of My Fair Lady. It's worth noting that the slippers line was made up by Shaw as a compromise. It's intentionally vague so that audiences can interpret it how they wish.

My mum gave me the VHS as a little girl. Audrey Hepburn's My Fair Lady is the only version I have ever seen and I never interpreted the ending as them becoming romantic. I always thought that she ended up with Freddy but saw the relationship with Professor Higgins as an important friendship. He was a jerk but by the end, he gained a respect for her but in a way that's like 'don't tell anyone I have a soft side' with a tounge-in-the-cheek "Where the devil are my slippers?" As I said, I was very young when I first watched it so I could have been off. However, I've shown it to my kids recently and I didn't see it any different as an adult.

I like this ending! I never saw it that way, but I will remember this when I watch it again!

That's the genius of Lerner & Lowe's upgrade. Higgins learns to love for the first time.

Doesn't Eliza have a line about staying and "not wanting you to make love to me, but more friendly like"

Eliza becomes aware of her changing feelings towards Higgins during the song I Could Have Danced All Night when she finally conquers her enunciation problems. Plus during their final conversation together I believe Eliza admits to Higgins that she had come to care for him, but they were too busy arguing for the words to sink in at the time. That was as close to expressing her romantic feelings as it got.

I really like your thought that Eliza returns to Higgins because she is merciful. This honors the transformational role he has played in her life, and creates the potential for her to play a transformational role in his. Imo, the story is DOA if there is a permanent parting of the ways between the two of them at the end.

Personally I just thought she came to live there as a friend, as she had been there for months anyway and hasn't yet moved out. Not sure why so many just assume her few seconds of being back means they then marry or something.

I never, for a moment thought they DID NOT wind up together. Of course they did. I don't see any other reasonable ending.

Higgins HAD made it clear he was a lifelong bachelor, but then he sings, literally, "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face," which is called (checks notes) "character development." This was a 50s musical. Of course they end up together. Shaw made it clear they didn't, and Lerner thought Shaw was wrong, but the source material is strong enough that it can be examined in many ways.

Congratulations. We can discuss why exactly she came back, in some way I agree she was merciful and also cause she cared for him, he was like his family and also colonel was... this colonel is very important too. BUt what I cant discuss is the romance. THere is not romance lol, they clearly said it was friendly feeling in the hosue of the mother...the story as you said offers zero indication...and if this wasnt enough, they deny it, in their words (not mine).

But she didn't tame him. He treated her exactly the same way at the end!

Excellent anology I totally can agree with. This is how I look at it as well. 👍

I agree that not everything is a happy ending but the tone of the whole musical/movie is happy I feel like if they were going to end the movie with her coming back to him it should have been a final sad but cathartic moment where she talks to him and shows that his feelings of emptiness are because hes acted like a douche the whole time, maybe in that moment when hes sitting in the chair he talks to her and he realizes that ending on a happy note maybe with freddie at the doorway watching and supporting her for reaching out to help him. Idk just kinda how i felt about it

I was fours years old when I heard the London cast recording. And I really thought he sang "I've thrown a custard to her face".

@@RaymondHng Now THAT would make a great ending to the show!

​@@jamesdiaz9078 People have to take into account the time and how societies behaved at that time. It is easy to criticize in 2020. If we had lived that moment we would have behaved the same.

@@primercapitulo1109 i dont think that would make the ending more sensible if you want my opinion.

@@kaleytaber9237 So much to unpack. So first, you're just wrong about nice guys. The guys who tend not to get girls are guys who aren't actually nice, but judgmental alpha types who lack confidence. Every happy, pleasant nice guy I've known has had no problem at all finding someone to be with. Including introverts. As the geek daughter of a geeky father who grew up going to events with his geeky co-workers and socialized with geeks as from a child to an adult, I can tell you that while women are socialized to see manipulation as interest and abuse as need, actually decent guys who adore and worship their women have zero problems getting women. Just as an example, I have a good friend who's a pale, thin, not tall programmer. He's goofy, geeky, and looked like a late teen without his beard when he met a woman who was tall, intelligent, good with finance, and used to do some modeling. They now have four kids, have been together more than a decade, and I don't think I've seen him get upset with her once. And just a bit before he started dating her, he was with a gorgeous petite woman. All of my female friends have spent time either dating sweet introverts or crushing over them. Second, most women want a mentor to just be that. Sure, some will go for the whole teacher thing, but most women who do whatever it takes to get knowledge they need from a misogynist don't give them their true selves let alone see them as romantic. They play dumb and subservient to get what the instruction they need. I watched this again and again in grad school. From random professors to Eric Raymond, fellow women automatically stroked men's egos to their faces, and made their opinion of their posturing clear when it was just us. The problem with the entire narrative is that it's not Eliza's story. It's the douchebag whose ego she needs to stroke's story. He's the main protagonist, and it's his skewed and inaccurate perspective we share. And that might work if he had an arc. But he doesn't change. She does. We see Freddy like you describe, because we share the perspective of the one character who doesn't actually understand people, let alone affection. And because we focus on his efforts, not Eliza's life as a whole, most want the obvious payoff of him getting rewarded. If we followed her perspective, I doubt we'd think of him as much at all. And yes, he is a bad guy. We just aren't shown any of the actual consequences of his cruelty, or we're shown them from his perspective. As foolish, hysterical outbursts. The narrative allows us to ignore the harm he does as much as he does. But he's cruel, arrogant, ignorant of anything outside of his privilege, and has pretty much nothing to give as a person outside of his money and what knowledge he already gave her.

@@kobaltkween The problem with that assertion is that research shows that women only find between 5% and 20% of men attractive depending on the study. So unless you claim that 80% of men are judgmental alpha types for which you have no evidence, then your anecdotal evidence is just that anecdotal.

I absolutely agree with you about the original ending, but as a fan of the Brontës, I don’t thing that’s the point of Wuthering Heights. Cathy and Heathcliff are both selfish people who make each other worse, and I don’t think Emily ever intended for them to be aspirational. They’re toxic soulmates who end up haunting the moors because of their refusal to change. Much like Shaw’s work, it’s the audience who wants to see the asshole win, and the ending is usually interpreted through that lens.

​@@tinymxnticore I kind of get what you're saying, but I generally find that a cop out. Like rape revenge movies that still shoot the assault from the perspective of the rapist and spend tons of time on the abuse and damage and few minutes on the revenge. There's no point to Wuthering Heights at all if the story has no appeal, and there's absolutely no story without their toxicity. So sure the author can _say_ she's not endorsing that behavior, but what she is doing, pretty much by definition of the genre, is romanticizing and dramatizing it.

I'm confused at how much unpleasantness you can take in a narrative, or what exactly Emily Brontë would have had to do to adequately frame Cathy and Heathcliff's toxic romance, aside from telling the entire story from the perspective of bystanders who disapprove of their relationship, and explicitly saying that their souls are damned...both of which she does. I won't address the comparison to rape revenge films, since I've never watched that genre in my life and can't begin to address it.

If you felt it was wrong, then stick to a production of "Pygmalion" and leave the greatest of musicals alone.

@@epaddon ) so stick with original and not the musical version that ruined ending?

@@steamboatwill3.367 Leave the artistic work of Lerner and Loewe alone.

@@epaddon ) then shouldn't they have left the artistic work Shaw alone?

So did I. Well maybe I didn't cry but I definitely felt it was all types of wrong. Just why would she after having said all that, gone off with Freddy, just magically appear for no reason? What had Higgins said or done to make her want to come back since that scene or Freddy done to change her mind? If it was Freddy it would make more sense for Eliza to return to Mrs. Higgins where she was staying before- and we know what Higgins himself did, nothing much, certainly not as far as Eliza knew, just moaned about how he had gotten used to having her around to HIMSELF. So why would she go back after just having having walked out on him so emphatically (and having chosen to marry Freddy) shortly before? It hadn't been more than an hour or two. I felt that ending NEVER made sense. Not as a child or as an adult. It totally ignores the characters and betrays the plot, to achieve this superficial romantic ending.

Yeah, I think the moment when he realises he's in love is too good of a character beat to leave out.

As I mentioned below another comment, I think this is why I still like the story. I've filled in his character arc myself.

exactly my problem. id be so down for them to be together if the movie threw me a bone at any point and suggested him learning the error of his ways and becoming better but to the last moment hes such a prick.

A very perceptive comment. So few mentions of Freddy knocking over Eliza when all versions accentuated Feddy's memorable callousness. GBS intended to show a "before" caricature of Freddy who treated Eliza like dirt under his feet. Higgins generously compensates her and she could go home in a taxi like a lady. The movie gave clues that drilling was not without reasonable breaks. Higgins bought Eliza a ring when they went to Brighton. Eliza rescues this sentimental ring from the fireplace. Eliza does not mention Freddy when she says Higgins and Pickering are the only people she can go to. Eliza confesses that she had come to care for Higgins but Higgins does not have a way with words with women. We are not told if she actually married Freddy. With all these nuances in the book and the movies, the 1964 ending was rational.

Hear, hear!

@@chuangweiping Absolutely right.

You are 100% correct. She is there in his imagination. He misses her deeply, and imagines her returning to ease his loneliness.

@@darkwood777 Or maybe a more down to Earth ending, where the little girl prepped for by Higgins realize that she has no clue of how to make it out in the big bad world and come back. Keep it real, homie, your little delusions are adorable.

​@@markarmage3776she's a pretty tough cookie growing up on the streets of Central London.

I always thought he was being flirty by playing at his old gags for giggles. It's kind of like self deprication.

I think you've got it!

Dido

They already have one just as bad of a thought actually made into a movie. It's called "My Fair Zombie". LOL

Tia: that's an extremely interesting interpretation! Hard for me to square Shaw's version of "socialism" with the ending! Of course, the tangled history of adaptations to stage & screen muddle the "original intent" of Shaw the author! The casting of Eliza presents a whole different if related set of issues, Audrey Hepburn vs Julie Andrews I like both, for very different reasons, but for my money, Audrey is the ideal choice, I just don't like the ending & can't reconcile it with what I perceive as GBS's "enlightened views" of women!

interesting symmetry. So you think in the end she sets about training him to be a better gentleman?

Yep, well said.

Exactly. He's genuinely happy that she's back but he can't yet let go of his protective armor. It has served him too well in the past. And she doesn't fetch his slippers either. She does what he won't dare: approach him. It's like she has already learned a bit to look beneath the surface of him. And to be fair: He, too, has worked his butt off to give her something that he deems supremely precious.

This is what I have also assumed.

Insightful comment! I’d like to think that the community you left behind will always be a part of you but the world you’re in now is your true calling.

It's still awful that she's going back to an abuser.

Me too. I thought his love interest was Coln. Pickering.

She was smiling at a friend in Higgins, not a lover. Hepburn was a marvelous actress. If it was love she wanted to project, you'd see it. A consort battleship doesn't fall in love with another ship in the flotilla.

@@lysanamcmillan7972 exactly. I agree. Dont forget She denies it .. She clearly said it just was a friendly feeling. In the house of her mother. Seems many peoplke didnt see the mothers scene? How can you say it more clearly? The only thing I am not completely sure is why "I could have danced " sounds romantic (although it is not the only interpretation, it also fits with other kind of feelings) . She was not in love of him, as she admitted lately (iwhat i did , it was not for the taxis, but cause we were passing a good time together i ended caring for you ...firendly) so it means she just saw him as a friend by the time she sang it (after 4 months in the house). I think it just reflects the joy for having achieved the ianguage skills that she was delaying in achieving (4 months without the results) and the recognition in form of a dance from the professor. I mean this explanation of I could have danced all night fits the real ending of the film. But maybe there is another explanation for the romantic hint of this song?

Aww, my dear youtube commenter. You're not stupid, you were trusting and hopeful, and that's something you can value and work to protect. He was a mean jerk who should have been kind to your feelings, it's entirely on him.