My Fair Lady (1964) was experienced director George Cukor's film musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's 1912 play Pygmalion that had played successfully on Broadway from March 15, 1956 to 1962. Shaw's plot was derived from Latin poet Ovid's story (in the Metamorphoses) about a character named Pygmalion who fell in love with a beautiful ivory statue of a woman. In later Greek tradition, his prayers to Venus that the beloved statue - Galatea - would come to life came true so that they could marry.

The non-musical version of the play, from Shaw's own screenplay, was first filmed in Britain in 1938 by co-directors Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard (who also co-starred with Dame Wendy Hiller). The tale is about a 'guttersnipe' Cockney flower girl heroine (Hepburn), who is trained by a misogynistic, bachelor linguistics expert (Higgins) to speak properly within six months - the result of a daring challenge and bet. During her elocution lessons, her unrepentant, calculating drunk father (Holloway) appears for handouts, and she makes an embarrassing first appearance at the opening day Ascot Races, but she catches the eye of high-born but poor Freddie Eynsford-Hill. Although she experiences personal triumph within high society at the Embassy Ball, and wins her teacher's love, she storms off after being transformed - only to return by film's end.

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