It was Audrey Hepburn's singing.

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by Anonymous

reply 39

May 29, 2019 3:55 AM

Who said it failed? It's perfectly charming and considered something of a classic.

by Anonymous

reply 1

May 22, 2019 4:08 PM

"Failed?" Uh, no. A classic.

by Anonymous

reply 2

May 22, 2019 4:12 PM

I was fixated on Funny Face when I saw it TV one time when I was in middle school. It was so bohemian and glamorous (to me, at the time.)

by Anonymous

reply 4

May 22, 2019 4:23 PM

Kool-Aid was just marketed better.

by Anonymous

reply 5

May 22, 2019 4:25 PM

Audrey's singing, yeah, I'm sure that was the worst thing about the film.

I mean, it couldn't be the creepy fact that she was playing the love interest to a man who could easily have been her father that skeeves people out.

by Anonymous

reply 6

May 22, 2019 4:38 PM

How could it fail with Kay Thompson’s Ba-Zazz? I ‘ve been thinking pink since I saw it as a child.

by Anonymous

reply 7

May 22, 2019 5:00 PM

It's an ok musical, but Hepburn grates on me like mad. Also the "romance " between her and Astaire is just bizzare.

by Anonymous

reply 8

May 22, 2019 5:06 PM

On initial release, Funny Face was a box office disappointment and failed to break even. However, in 1964, when My Fair Lady (also starring Hepburn) was released to excellent reviews and huge box office grosses, Paramount theatrically reissued Funny Face. As a result, the film drew substantial crowds and finally turned a profit.

by Anonymous

reply 9

May 22, 2019 6:15 PM

I'm sure the 40 year age difference between the leads had nothing to do with it.

by Anonymous

reply 10

May 22, 2019 6:44 PM

There's not just the age difference. The so-called romance is absent. And the title is bad: Funny Face.

by Anonymous

reply 11

May 22, 2019 7:04 PM

Audrey’s outfits were the cutest, but at the time her winsome routine was wearing thin.

by Anonymous

reply 12

May 22, 2019 7:05 PM

My Fair Lady got excellent reviews by the big papers dependent on Warner Bros for advertising but more mixed from smaller publications.

The jury will always be out on it. Some people love it like me others find it a corpse. Even people who worked on it like Beaton, Gene Allen and Andre Previn had ambivalent feelings about it. Jeremy Brett however told me personally it was one of his favorite films.

by Anonymous

reply 14

May 22, 2019 7:13 PM

How many notable films did Jeremy Brett appear in?

by Anonymous

reply 15

May 22, 2019 7:15 PM

Fred creeped me out but even more so in Daddy Long Legs.

by Anonymous

reply 16

May 22, 2019 7:18 PM

[quote] Jeremy Brett however told me personally it was one of his favorite films.

'Ark at 'er!

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by Anonymous

reply 17

May 22, 2019 7:29 PM

Not of HIS films. I mean outside of War and Peace what else is there? One of his favorite movies in general.

by Anonymous

reply 18

May 22, 2019 10:24 PM

fred was i the original musical with his sister

by Anonymous

reply 19

May 22, 2019 10:32 PM

But that had a number of different songs and a different plot. Just mainly the same title.

by Anonymous

reply 20

May 22, 2019 11:45 PM

If it were just for this Kay Thompson-composed number alone, I would love this film.

"I have to see the den of thinking men

Like Jean-Paul Sartre!

I must philosophize with all the guys

Around Montmarte!

And Montparnasse!"

And I LOVE Audrey's very endearing authentic voice, as breathy and scratchy as it is. She absolutely LOVED to sing, and it shows in the film. (It broke her heart they would not use her voice for "My Fair Lady," and instead used Marnie Nixon's beautiful but impersonal voice instead.)

And no one ever had more pizzazz than Kay Thompson.

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by Anonymous

reply 21

May 22, 2019 11:52 PM

Hepburn and Astaire didn’t have any chemistry

by Anonymous

reply 22

May 22, 2019 11:55 PM

This has GOT to be illegal--

What I feel!

Trés gai! Trés chic!

Trés magnifique!

C'est moi! C'est vous!

C'est grande! C'est too-too....

It's too good to be true!

All the THINGS we can do...

You do THINGS to my POINT of view!

by Anonymous

reply 23

May 22, 2019 11:57 PM

And there is not the slightest excuse for plum or puce!

Or chartreuse!

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by Anonymous

reply 24

May 22, 2019 11:58 PM

Gene Kelly would have been a better match. Much sexier. Audrey fawning over that bony, lollipop headed cricket Astaire? No.

by Anonymous

reply 25

May 22, 2019 11:59 PM

This would be a decent stage musical, especially if the two leads were cast with actors who were close in age.

by Anonymous

reply 26

May 23, 2019 12:05 AM

The studios did not know what to do with Audrey--they knew she was a huge star, but other leading ladies just did not look like her at the time (which is why the film is called "Funny Face"--she initiated that entire look of the woman who was ballerina thin as an ideal for women to aspire to). So they paired her with men who were always much too old for her and who treated her in their films like a child: Gregory Peck, Fred Astaire, Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Rex Harrison, William Holden. Very few of her leading men were age appropriate (Albert Finney and George Peppard are about the only two I can think of who were even close), but that's because the men who ran the studios just could not see her as a sexual being,. But they knew women adored her.

by Anonymous

reply 27

May 23, 2019 12:07 AM

I like your explanation of her r27.

by Anonymous

reply 28

May 23, 2019 12:14 AM

The movie is terrific. Kay Thompson and Fred Astaire are great together. Audrey's singing of 'How Long Has This Been Going On?' is wonderful.. Dovima. Suzy Parker. Ruta Fuckin' Lee. Paris, fer chrissakes.

This is a great film. If you don't understand that, there's something wrong with you.

by Anonymous

reply 29

May 23, 2019 12:19 AM

Shipman said "their styles didn't gel."

by Anonymous

reply 30

May 23, 2019 12:42 AM

Jesus, this place really is jam-packed with geriatric gays. Funny Face? I'm not exactly young myself and can recall my mother talking about this movie (she loved Audrey H) but it never would have occurred to me to track it down and watch it.

r5; haha; I remember Funny Face the Kool-Aid knockoff.

by Anonymous

reply 31

May 23, 2019 12:50 AM

[quote] I'm not exactly young myself and can recall my mother talking about this movie (she loved Audrey H) but it never would have occurred to me to track it down and watch it.

So, what you're saying is: you are proud and smug to be a Philistine.

by Anonymous

reply 32

May 23, 2019 1:54 AM

Hilarious that you think taking a pass on Funny Face = being a philistine.

by Anonymous

reply 33

May 23, 2019 2:01 AM

I wasn't even born yet when Funny Face came out and I'm old. What's wrong with enjoying movies that came out a long time ago? Love seeing Washington Square and Paris in the 50s. So beautiful.

The fabulous Dovima(Dorothy Virginia Margaret) ended up a hostess in a pizza parlor in Ft. Lauderdale.

by Anonymous

reply 34

May 23, 2019 2:20 AM

How could you leave out Peter O'Toole?

He was also 2nd choice for Higgins. Harrison was 3rd. I also believe they might have wanted Rex to audition for the movie. Maybe they just wanted to get pictures taken before they gave him the role.

Anyway whatever it was he told them to go fuck themselves.

by Anonymous

reply 35

May 23, 2019 2:35 AM

Anthony Perkins was also around her age as well, plus James Garner.

by Anonymous

reply 36

May 23, 2019 4:41 AM

r9 "On initial release, Funny Face was a box office disappointment and failed to break even. "

So, her known box office flops included War and Peace, FF, Green Mansions, Unforgiven, the Children's Hour, Paris when it Sizzles, Steal and Million, Two for the Road and everything she starred in from the 1970s and on. That's a LOT of flops for an A-Lister who only made 20 something movies in her lifetime.

by Anonymous

reply 37

May 28, 2019 6:16 PM

The 'beatnik' nightclub number is hilarious.

OP is a deliberately contrarian queen, the kind who regularly deserves to have a drink tossed in her face at parties.

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by Anonymous

reply 38

May 28, 2019 6:24 PM

Funny Face is okay (as old movies go) up to around the colorful modelling scenes. Then the plot just petered out and became forgettably generic . The "be lovely" number appears really dated and embarrassing when watched today.

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by Anonymous

reply 39

May 29, 2019 3:55 AM