Product Description

Based on a classical myth and the inspiration for My Fair Lady, Pygmalion is Shaw's most familiar and popular work.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36242 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2006-05-16
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 120 minutes

Amazon.com
One of the finest television adaptations of George Bernard Shaw's 1912 class satire, this 1973 British production of Pygmalion stars Lynn Redgrave as a marvelously accessible, non-cartoonish, and likable Eliza Doolittle, the Cockney flower girl who becomes the subject of a socio-scientific experiment by phonetics expert Henry Higgins (James Villiers). Betting that he can turn the yowling, filthy guttersnipe Eliza into a proper lady who can pass herself off as an aristocrat, Higgins puts the poor girl through some difficult paces, then develops an affection for her that he's ill-equipped to show. Ronald Fraser is on hand as Colonel Pickering, the warm and considerate Watson to Higgins' imperious Holmes. (Fraser would play Pickering again in a 1981 TV version.) Emrys James is wonderful as Eliza's father, a chimney sweep who laments the fact that Higgins' influence has inadvertently turned him into a middle-class patriarch with unwanted responsibilities. Shaw's piercing comedy about the limits of class and personal character, and their impact on one another is both potent and enjoyable in this excellent showcase. A bonus: a 60-minute, 1983 television version of Shaw's Androcles and the Lion, starring Billy Connolly. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Ehh...
The best thing about this movie is it sticks with the original ending rather than the My Fair Lady ending. Other than that... I made it through the movie but I could think of roughly a dozen more pleasurable ways to spend my evening. The acting was so-so, much of the humor simply wasn't funny, and some interesting interpretations of the scene. Granted, if you're looking for something to watch while folding laundry it's not so bad.

Doesn't work
Lynn Redgrave, while a great actress, is WAY too old to play Eliza. The actor playing Higgins in this version is too young. Redgrave looks like she could be Higgins' mother rather than someone he could fall in love with.

The entire production just doesn't work. The only part that shines out strong is Mrs. Pearce. The actress playing her had a starring role in Upstairs, Downstairs and is just a delight.

While My Fair Lady suffers terribly with Audrey Hepburn rather than Julie Andrews, it is a far better movie than this one!