On the easy track
INSTEAD of struggling on to a packed ferry or jetfoil then spending three hours queueing to get through immigration, try watching the Macau Grand Prix weekend live from the comfort of your own sofa.
Prime Sports begins coverage of the 40th annual Formula 3 Grand Prix (9.30am today, 9am tomorrow) with live action from the first and second legs as well as the Guia Race.
Later tonight there's also live tennis action of the semi-finals of the Virginia Slims championship in New York (Prime Sports 1am).
IN the late 1950s, an American named Allan J. Lerner was traipsing round England in search of actor Rex Harrison to interest him in a musical version of George Bernard Shaw's novel Pygmalion. According to his good mate at the time and fellow star DirkBogarde, Harrison thought the idea of My Fair Lady (Pearl, 9pm) preposterous and wanted nothing to do with him.
It was Bogarde who felt sorry for Lerner and the day before he was due to return to the US invited him to a gathering at which Harrison would be present. Lerner banged out the tunes on a poorly tuned piano, and, by George, Rex soon got it.
If it hadn't been for that, Harrison might have missed out on the role for which he is still best remembered, Professor Higgins. George Cukor's screen version of Lerner and Loewe's musical is a lavish - if rather soulless - extravaganza famed for Cecil Beaton's luxurious costumes, and distinguished by Harrison's arrogant portrayal and Audrey Hepburn's positively shimmering beauty as Eliza.
True, Hepburn's Cockney accent rivals Dick Van Dyke's in Mary Poppins for worst ever in a movie, and she didn't actually sing the songs. But, in those gowns at Ascot and the embassy ball, she can be forgiven anything. Star cast includes Wilfrid Hyde-White, Stanley Holloway, Gladys Cooper and a young Jeremy Brett (who has about the best song in the film, On The Street Where You Live ), and the film picked up eight Oscars including Picture, Actor (Harrison) and Score Adaptation (Andre Previn).
It adds up to great light entertainment, though GBS would have surely had something to say about liberties taken with the ending.
WORLD's not trying too hard to compete - oddly enough, since a lot of people just don't like musicals. Instead it's trotting out Christopher Reeve in Superman (9.30pm, ORT 143 mins) for what feels like the 97th time.
Yes, this is terrifically entertaining, just not this many times. Richard Donner directed, and maintains the spectacle most of the way, losing his way a bit towards the end.
There was much ballyhoo on the film's release about the zillions paid to Marlon Brando for his brief appearance as Superman's pop. A more interesting point would have been how much less Susannah York was getting as his mum.
