Major Barbara

1941

Major Barbara

Critics Consensus

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93%

TOMATOMETER

Total Count: 15

55%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 136
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Movie Info

George Bernard Shaw's satiric comedy about wealth and poverty is brought to the screen with wonderful performances by Rex Harrison and Wendy Hiller. Hiller plays Major Barbara Undershaft, a major in the Salvation Army who is also a socialist and stridently attacks capitalists -- in particular her father Andrew (Robert Morley), the head of a munitions plant. In love with Barbara is the young Greek scholar Adolphus Cusins (Rex Harrison), whose attentions go unreturned since Barbara spends all her time on her crusade against wealth. To show up his daughter, Andrew donates 50,000 pounds to the Salvation Army which, to Barbara's horror, the Army's general (Sybil Thorndike) happily accepts. Barbara, in protest, quits her post and it is left to Adolphus to take her on a tour of her father's munitions plant and prove to her the benefits of capitalism.

Cast

Wendy Hiller
as Major Barbara Undershaft
Rex Harrison
as Adolphus Cusins
Robert Morley
as Andrew Undershaft
Emlyn Williams
as Snobby Price
Robert Newton
as Bill Walker
Sybil Thorndike
as The General
Deborah Kerr
as Jenny Hill
David Tree
as Charles Lomax
Penelope Dudley-Ward
as Sarah Undershaft
Marie Lohr
as Lady Brittomart
Walter Hudd
as Stephen Undershaft
Marie Ault
as Rummy Mitchens
Donald Calthrop
as Peter Shirley
Cathleen Cordell
as Mog Habbijam
Torin Thatcher
as Todger Fairmile
Miles Malleson
as Morrison
Felix Aylmer
as James
Stanley Holloway
as Policeman
Kathleen Harrison
as Mrs. Price
Mary Morris
as A Girl
Edward Rigby
as Man on Quayside
Bombardier Billy Wells
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Critic Reviews for Major Barbara

All Critics (15) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (14) | Rotten (1)

  • The result is a cinema treat.

    Mar 4, 2015 | Full Review…
    TIME Magazine
    Top Critic

  • Adapted from an old Shaw play, circa 1905, it still carries the lightning thrusts of Shavian caustic satire at any and all levels.

    Mar 26, 2009 | Full Review…

    Variety Staff

    Variety
    Top Critic

  • There is plenty to relish, notably Newton and Morley hamming it up (as, respectively, the rumbustious Bill Walker and the overbearing tycoon), and Deborah Kerr in her debut; but it does tend to just sit there.

    Jun 24, 2006 | Full Review…

    Tom Charity

    Time Out
    Top Critic

  • To call it a manifest triumph would be arrant stinginess with words.

    May 20, 2003 | Full Review…

    Bosley Crowther

    New York Times
    Top Critic

  • Though a bit slow to start and overlong (GBS added 18 minutes to the screenplay), this is still an enthusiastic and intelligent rendering of the wonderful Shavian wit and sense of the ridiculous.

    Jan 1, 2000 | Full Review…

    Don Druker

    Chicago Reader
    Top Critic

  • Gabriel Pascal has definitely triumphed as a producer and director, in every field, with the enthusiastic and determined cooperation of Bernard Shaw. [Full review in Spanish]

    Sep 18, 2019 | Full Review…

    Elena de la Torre

    Cine-Mundial
View All Critic Reviews (15)

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