Product Description

Cranky Professor Henry Higgins (Leslie Howard) takes a bet that he can turn Cockney guttersnipe Eliza Doolittle (Wendy Hiller) into a "proper lady" in a mere six months in this delightful comedy of bad manners based on the play by George Bernard Shaw. This Academy Award-winning inspiration for Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady was directed by Anthony Asquith and star Howard, edited by David Lean, and scripted by Shaw himself. Criterion presents Pygmalion in a beautifully restored digital transfer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32889 in DVD
• Brand: Image Entertainment
• Released on: 2000-09-19
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 90 minutes

Amazon.com
This bold 1938 production of George Bernard Shaw's famous play about a linguist who turns a Cockney flower peddler into a princess was codirected by Anthony Asquith (The Browning Version) and star Leslie Howard, who brings a calculated coldness to the character of Henry Higgins. There's no My Fair Lady sugarcoating here: Higgins is a brute using language as a weapon of class war and patriarchal subjugation of women. He's a likable brute, mind you, but a bully nonetheless, and his molding of poor Eliza (Wendy Hiller) into a Cinderella story is not a pretty sight. Everyone in the cast is in perfect accord with this production's take on Shaw's tale, and while this Pygmalion is a fairly radical enterprise, it is also very funny and handsomely realized. Hiller and Howard have never been better, and the rest of the cast, including Wilfrid Lawson, Marie Lohr, Scott Sunderland, and Jean Cadell, can't be improved upon. Edited by David Lean, who eventually directed Brief Encounter and Lawrence of Arabia. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

This is the edition to own
The Criterion/Home Vision edition of this wonderful film is definitely the one to own. It is taken from a pristine print and the sound quality is amazingly vibrant for a film that is over sixty years old. The other available versions are all from worn public domain prints that are better left sight unseen and prove the old truism "you get what you pay for."

I have always been a fan of Leslie Howard: his delightfully cynical Higgins was no surprise. The real revelation for me was Wendy Hiller as Eliza. I was previously primarily familiar with her later roles, such as Paul Scofield's wife in A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS. She is absolutely luminous in this film.

If you are a fan of MY FAIR LADY, this is a must-have motion picture.

THE FIRST DISAPPOINTMENT FROM CRITERION...
Until now, Criterion has been recognized as the undisputed leader in film resoration for transfer to DVD. With PYGMALION, they make a very disappointing stumble. The package states that this is a "gorgeous new transfer, with digitally restored image and sound". I'm sure this is what they intended, but the product does not reflect either restored image or sound. It is, on the whole a good print, though not at all up to the normal Criterion quality. It is - in places - terrible. And the sound is all over the map. Yes, it can be heard, but because of a poor audio mix, one has to raise and lower the volume with almost every scene. Criterion remains by far the best distributor of DVDs, but they should be told by their consumers that in this case, the product is plainly not deserving of the Criterion name.

~Professor Higgins vs. Eliza Doolittle~ A Review...
Pygmalion is the predecessor to the musical My Fair Lady, but saying that, it undoubtedly rings true as the best version of the popular George Bernard Shaw play. This 1938 film version stars Leslie Howard as Professor Henry Higgins, a teacher and hobbyist of phonetics. Engrossed in this trade, he stumbles across a "cockney guttersnipe," flower peddler Eliza Doolittle (played by Wendy Hiller in her film debut). He takes on a bet with his new acquaintance, Colonel Pickering, and proclaims that in a short time, he can transform her into a proper lady and pass her off as "The Queen of Sheba."
What follows is rigorous training in dialogue and etiquette. From the famous `Marbles in Mouth' exercise ("I swallowed one!") to the final test at the Transylvanian Ball, hilarity and poignant antics ensue. The film shows us a budding friendship between teacher and pupil, even though said characters come within inches of striking the other down in tense moments of their relationship. Pygmalion shows "how deliciously low" Professor Higgins is. There is only one fault in his seemingly perfect facade (besides his swearing): his unsuccessful attempt to see Eliza not just as a guinea pig, but as a human being under her yowling dialect and uncouth manners. Henry's mother couldn't have put it more perfectly, saying that not once has he praised, petted, or admired Eliza for her work. Because of his lack of feeling towards Eliza, he gets a taste of his own medicine when Eliza threatens to forget and leave him.
Traditionally put in the Romance genre, Shaw never intended Pygmalion to be so. In an epilogue for the play that never came into the light, he writes that Eliza and Freddy do get married. He won an Oscar for the film's screenplay, and although in public he loathed having received the award, it was told that he proudly displayed it and showed it off to his friends in private.
Pygmalion is one of Howard's great masterpieces. His facial expressions can't be beat, his silvery voice cannot be overlooked, and his physical magnanimity is priceless. Shaw personally picked Hiller to play Eliza and it's crystal clear why he did. She is a treat to watch as a poor flower girl-turned-duchess. Other praiseworthy performances include Wilfrid Lawson as Alfred Doolittle, Marie Lohr as Mrs. Higgins, and Scott Sunderland as Colonel Pickering (Oh, do be reasonable!)
DVD wise: Classic black and white. I did find troubles with the closed captioning because on default, my DVD played viewed them. I had to consult my player manual to try and see how to take them off because the DVD itself doesn't offer an option. Comes with chapters and a Color Bar menu (don't know what that's all about!)
Pygmalion is a classic! Do not pass up the opportunity to place this in your collection. Whether you're a Howard fan or not, Pygmalion is a movie the whole family will enjoy.