My Fair Lady(1964)newly-restored in 4k by CBS...can a PROPERLY-remastered blu-ray be on the way???

Loverly!

 

I had forgotten that for many, many years, this was one of the biggest selling Columbia albums ever. Everybody had a copy of this record. Parts of it are embedded in my brain:

"Look at her, a prisoner of the gutters...
condemned by every syllable she utters...
by rights, she should be taken out and hung...
for the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue!'

Great lyrics, very witty writing by Frederick Lowe.

 

Bumping this thread for a MAJOR UPDATE...a 4k-remastered blu-ray of "My Fair Lady" has been announced by CBS for release on Dec. 9th, 2014...the restoration work is complete and all the extras from the previous blu-ray release are being ported over, along with 90 minutes of NEW bonus material...moreover, the soundtrack will be in 96k Dolby True HD!!! Don't know what the price will be yet, but the current blu-ray is available at Amazon for $17.99...

 

More details from the official announcement at Parade Magazine's website..."MFL-50th Anniversary Edition" will be a 3-disc deluxe box set consisting of 2 blu-rays and a DVD...MSRP will be $42.99...

 

I wonder what's on the second Blu-ray disc?

 

90 minutes of fresh supplemental material, along with all the previous releases' extras ported over, from what I understand, Marc...

 

Great news!

 

I wish there was alternate audio track with Audrey singing all her songs .

 

According to Robert Harris, who supervised the restoration for this new 50th Anniversary blu-ray, that's been ruled out...he and the producers of this reissue believe it would be an overruling of the collaborative judgement of the film's creators...producer Jack Warner, director George Cukor, Rex Harrison...and Miss Hepburn HERSELF...I learned this on a related thread regarding this very release at Home Theater Forum...

 

Fabulous news!

 

Now available for pre-order at Amazon.com...as stated before, MSRP is $42.99 for the 3-disc(2 blu-rays/1 DVD)box set, but they are discounting 30% down to $30.09...I just placed my order!!!

 

Cheers for the updates, Luke. I'm looking forward to it.

 

Eliza Doolittle... with new hat:

 

I hope they fix the error involving the bonus-material newsreel footage. On the 1994 30th Anniversary laserdisc and VHS tapes the footage appeared in great quality with no time code. But for the subsequent DVD and Bluray releases, it appears somebody screwed up and mistakenly grabbed the raw sample/test footage (low quality and with a huge time code stripped across the bottom) rather than the 'finalized' footage.

Speaking of "My Fair Lady," is there any version of the film soundtrack exit music that doesn't have that massive drop-out during the "I Could Have Danced All Night" segment? The drop-out is on the SACD soundtrack, the 1994 laserdisc, the 2-disc DVD, etc. It has to the single worst tape drop-out I've ever heard on any sort of official release...

 

From Robert Harris's legendary beat-down of the 2011 MFL Blu-Ray:

"Another interesting side note is that a number of the special features contain visible time code, ie. transferred from a back-up editorial sub-master tape. I have no idea why someone involved in the project would have not done a search for the non-time-coded master. Strangely, this is precisely what occurred on the second WB DVD release, c. 1998."

One would hope this means that (a) Harris made CBS aware of this issue; (b) CBS sent Steve with his gas mask and goggles into their archives dungeon to find the proper newsreel.

 

Bargain price alert...Barnes & Noble.com is accepting pre-orders for the new "My Fair Lady 50th Anniversary Edition" for 50% off...$19.99!!!

 

Yes! I'm in. Thanks for the heads-up.

 

And the link is here...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dvd-my-fair-lady-audrey-hepburn/3630948?ean=32429153944

 

This became available for "pre-order" in Sept. 2014. Anybody have a status update?

 

Supposedly, the delayed release is, at least in part, due to the desire to have a simultaneous, national theatrical showing of the film -- most likely as one of those Fathom Events series of classic films. There's been no official announcement, but it seems very likely the BluRay release and theatrical showings will all take place around Christmas. I'd love to see this again on the big screen...

 

Update:

Special 2K and 4K theatrical showings of the newly restored My Fair Lady are scheduled for Oct. 18. Check out MyFairLady50.com for details and locations. (There's a nice video trailer at that site, as well.)

The new 3-disc BluRay/DVD combo set is scheduled to be released Oct. 27.

Robert Harris, who handled the 1994 30th anniversary restoration as well as the new 50th anniversary restoration, is extremely happy with the final results of this new project and gave a very nice interview, discussing both the process and outcome, which you can read here: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/top...vin-koster-on-the-restoration-of-my-fair-lady



Tonight, after reading Harris' interview, I pulled out my 50-year-old, purple-vinyl promo LP of the soundtrack... What an amazing soundtrack. What an amazing film.

 

Too bad they couldn't have moved the release date up a few weeks to coincide with the dates of the historic 1994 re-release. I still have an assortment of memorabilia surrounding that event...

 

One of the great musicals, both on stage and film. As much as I admire Julie Andrews, I prefer the Eliza of the film. Audrey Hepburn nailed the characterization, where Andrews' cockney seems very mannered to me. And it's heretical to say, I know, but I like Marni Nixon's vocals better too.

 

Wow. Marni over Julie Andrews?
Check out Julie's vocal on Show Me compared to Marni - nothing against Marni but....



http://youtu.be/D64AJq9tPCU

 

Oh I know, trust me. I've had the mono LP and then the CD for over 20 years. As far as a flawless technical performance, you can't beat Julie Andrews. But in character, I prefer Hepburn/Nixon. Not technically perfect, but has guts.