Fresh
Smartly produced, this makes an excellent job of transcribing George Bernard Shaw, retaining all the key lines and giving freshness to the theme.
Variety Staff, Variety
Pygmalion
He picked up a girl from the gutter - and changed her into a glamorous society butterfly!
1938 · 1h 36m · Not Rated
Comedy, Drama, Romance
Directed by
Leslie Howard
,
Anthony Asquith
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Pygmalion
Overview
When linguistics professor Henry Higgins boasts that he can pass off Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle as a princess with only six months' training, Colonel George Pickering takes him up on the bet. Eliza moves into Higgins's home and begins her rigorous training after the professor comes to a financial agreement with her dustman father, Alfred. But the plucky young woman is not the only one undergoing a transformation.
Director and cast
- Leslie Howard Director
- Anthony Asquith Director
- Leslie Howard as Prof. Henry Higgins
- Wendy Hiller as Eliza Doolittle
- Wilfrid Lawson as Alfred Doolittle
- Marie Lohr as Mrs. Higgins
- Scott Sunderland as Colonel George Pickering
- Jean Cadell as Mrs. Pearce
- David Tree as Freddy Eynsford-Hill
- Everley Gregg as Mrs. Eynsford-Hill
- Leueen MacGrath as Clara Eynsford Hill
- Esme Percy Cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
94%
Tomatometer
Fresh
A marvelous 1938 adaptation of the Shaw classic.
Don Druker, Chicago Reader
Fresh
Pygmalion is good Shaw and a grand show.
Frank S. Nugent, New York Times
Fresh
Above all, the film is remarkable in that it strengthens rather than dilutes Shaw's insistence on language as the vital instrument of power and oppression.
Time Out
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