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Movies / On DVD / Pygmalion
Pygmalion

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Pygmalion (1938)

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Reviews Counted:16

Fresh:15

Rotten:1

Average Rating:8.2/10

Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins

Genre: Comedies

Synopsis: George Bernard Shaw's play, PYGMALION, which takes its title from the Greek myth of Pygmalion, a sculptor who fell in love with a statue of his own making, was a hit on the London stage in 1912.... George Bernard Shaw's play, PYGMALION, which takes its title from the Greek myth of Pygmalion, a sculptor who fell in love with a statue of his own making, was a hit on the London stage in 1912. The transition to film was co-directed by Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard, who also stars as Henry Higgins, the vainglorious snob who claims he can turn a guttersnipe into a Lady. Wendy Hiller is smart and witty, giving as good as she gets, as Eliza Doolittle, the flower girl Higgins takes from the street and tries to pass off as a Duchess. Hiller and Howard play off each other with a delightful spark. The play opens up well for the screen, as evidenced in the dreamy sequence when Eliza attends a society party, a scene smoothly edited by the young David Lean. Shaw wrote the film script himself, ensuring that his original setting in the more innocent time before WWI, didn't feel dated in the dark days of 1938. Other writers were brought in to lighten Shaw's view of the class conflict between Higgins and Eliza, and to lessen the amount of brow beating Higgins employs. Still, compared with the musical version, MY FAIR LADY, there is no magical Cinderella process here, but a painfully, realistically resisted struggle mixed with a slowly developing romance. [More]

Starring: Wendy Hiller, Leslie Howard, Wilfred Lawson, Scott Sunderland

Starring: Wendy Hiller, Leslie Howard, Wilfred Lawson, Scott Sunderland, Marie Lohr, Jean Cadell, David Tree

Director: Anthony Asquith, Leslie Howard

Director: Anthony Asquith, Leslie Howard
Screenwriter: George Bernard Shaw, W.P. Lipscomb, Cecil Lewis, Ian Dalrymple
Producer: Gabriel Pascal
Composer: Arthur Honegger

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Release:

Feb 10, 2009

[DVD Details]
 
 
  • George Bernard Shaw wrote the screenplay adaptation of his own beloved stage masterpiece about Professor Henry Higgins?s wager to turn a low-class flower vendor into a "proper lady," and won an Oscar for his efforts. Pygmalion, which would later be adapted once again, as the musical My Fair Lady, is one of the great Cinderella stories and a tart-tongued romantic comedy par excellence.
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    Reviews for Pygmalion

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    1 - 16 (sorted by date)
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    There's something special about this first English film version of George Bernard Shaw's play, before it became a musical

    Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
    10/25/08
    Louise Keller
    Louise Keller
    Urban Cinefile

    Smartly produced, this makes an excellent job of transcribing George Bernard Shaw, retaining all the key lines and giving freshness to the theme.

    Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
    11/06/07
    Variety Staff
    Variety Staff
    Variety
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    A marvelous 1938 adaptation of the Shaw classic.

    Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
    11/06/07
    Don Druker
    Don Druker
    Chicago Reader
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    This authorized version is the most successful adaptation of George B Shaw to the big screen, one that maintains the text's acerbic wit and droll humor and is splendidly acted by Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller in Oscar-nominated performances.

    Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
    06/14/07
    Emanuel Levy
    Emanuel Levy
    EmanuelLevy.Com

    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.

    Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
    06/24/06
    Time Out

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    09/23/05
    Michael Szymanski
    Michael Szymanski
    International Press Academy

    Embora não tenha o mesmo charme da versão realizada em 1964 (My Fair Lady), este filme conta com uma atuação inesquecível da dupla central (especialmente Hiller) e com os ótimos diálogos de Shaw.

    comment Comment
    07/30/03
    Pablo Villaca
    Pablo Villaca
    Cinema em Cena

    Brilliant film version of the Shaw play.

    comment Comment
    06/16/03
    Ken Hanke
    Ken Hanke
    Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

    A brisk but far from irreverent classic.

    Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
    05/24/03
    Channel 4 Film

    Pygmalion is good Shaw and a grand show.

    Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
    05/20/03
    Frank S. Nugent
    Frank S. Nugent
    New York Times
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Leslie Howard strikes the perfect note as the super-efficient Professor Higgins.

    Full Review Source: Goatdog's Movies | comment Comment
    02/28/02
    Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
    Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
    Goatdog's Movies

    the film ultimately wins your heart not because of the social lessons it offers, but because of the truthfulness of its human relationships

    Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | comment Comment
    02/27/01
    James Kendrick
    James Kendrick
    Q Network Film Desk

    Shaw's magnificent comedy, a 1913 stage smash, was never better served than here, with Howard and Hiller perfectly matched as thoroughly mismatched lovers.

    Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    TV Guide's Movie Guide

    Like My Fair Lady, Pygmalion has been falsely perceived as a romantic comedy...But Pygmalion does let one get closer to the truth; that it's really a biting social satire...

    Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    Jeffrey M. Anderson
    Jeffrey M. Anderson
    Combustible Celluloid

    ...not only the best movie adaptation of a George Bernard Shaw play, but one of the most enduring social comedies of all time.

    Full Review Source: DVDTown.com | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    John J. Puccio
    John J. Puccio
    DVDTown.com

    Pygmalion (1938) is the non-musical film version of George Bernard Shaw's 1912 stage play, a socio-economic drama based on the Cinderella story,

    Full Review Source: Tim Dirks' The Greatest Films | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    Tim Dirks
    Tim Dirks
    Tim Dirks' The Greatest Films
     
     
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