Review of Pygmalion (Review)
Tuesday, 14th August 2007, 10:13

Introduction
Easily George Bernard Shaw's most popular play, Pygmalion is the story of a bet – that arrogant Professor of Phonetics Henry Higgins can, by teaching Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle elecution, pass her off as a lady inside of six months.

This is a magical presentation of a magical play – a top rate cast performing a top rate script (Shaw's play was adapted for the screen by Anatole de Grunwald, WP Lipscombe, Cecil Lewis and Ian Dalrymple). Described by Halliwell as "a comedy of bad manners", it was nominated for four Oscars (Best Picture, Best Actor for Leslie Howard, Best Actress for Wendy Hiller and Best Screenplay for Shaw and the writing team.) Shaw and the writers won while Howard, Hiller and Producer Gabriel Pascal sadly went home empty handed.

While most people equate Rex Harrison with Professor 'Enry 'Iggins, in 1964 Harrison was up against the shadow of the great Leslie Howard. Howard, who one year after Pygmalion would play Ashley Wilkes in Gone With The Wind, turned in one of his finest performances, managing to be both a complete bastard and an appealing leading man. One cannot help wondering how Shaw's ideal choice for Higgins, Charles Laughton, would have managed.

Howard claimed a co-directorial credit with Anthony Asquith. Although it is not clear what the division of labour was, the picture helped to make Asquith's reputation as a director, especially of stage adaptations. The film was edited by David Lean, who of course went on to be one of Britain's greatest directors in his own right.

A leading light of Britain's wartime propaganda, Howard made a number of movies capitalising on his arrogant charmer persona. He was killed in 1943 returning from lecturing in Lisbon when his plane was attacked by Luftwaffe fighters convinced Churchill was aboard the flight.

Wendy Hiller, later Dame Wendy Hiller, had a long and distinguished stage and screen career. She makes a much more convincing aitch-dropper than the luminous Audrey Hepburn, and shows a great talent as a comedienne. The showstopper is the tea party with Higgins' mother: "Walk? Not bloody likely. I'm going in a taxi." The line is much funnier than Audrey Hepburn's "Move yer bloomin' arse" outburst at Ascot.

As with the musical, this adaptation has the more palatable "romantic" denouement (as if you'd expect anything else), where Shaw's original has Eliza going off to marry Freddy. When the play was originally produced in 1914, the producer, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (his son David plays Freddy), had the actors play the ambiguous end of the play so that it was obvious there was some real romance between Higgins and Eliza. Shaw was so incensed, he wrote an afterword for the play (to be read out at the end of the performance) detailing what happened to the characters subsequently. It is fortunate, and a credit to producer Gabriel Pascal, that in co-writing the screen adaptation Shaw was convinced to soften the ending to what is portrayed in the movie.

Video
Presented in the original 4:3 monochrome, the print this disc is mastered from is a bit of a mixed bag. For the most part, it's beautifully sharp and has marvellous contrast, but has masses of print dirt and the odd tramline. I'm used to – and actually like – some good old-fashioned film artefacts, so the presence of the odd bits of film damage aren't exactly a problem. Some people who are bothered by film grain might not be pleased.

Towards the end of the movie, there are a number of sequences that are obviously sourced from a poorer quality, later-generational print (the grain and contrast becomes more marked), and there is one shot where it would appear video techniques have been used to repair damaged frames (the grain freezes strangely).

The print comes with a credit for Janus Films right at the start, and amazingly the original British Board Of Film Censors certificate before the Rank gongman. There is also a superimposed Loew's Inc credit on the main title card.



Audio
Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround reproducing the original mono soundtrack.



Features
Absolutely none, not even subtitles.



Conclusion
If you love My Fair Lady, you might find this picture a real eye-opener. One of George Bernard Shaw's best loved plays, this classic adaptation is possibly the definitive one as it has never been bettered. Funnier and on the whole more charming than the 1964 musical, it is British cinema at its best.