Pygmalion

Shaw's "Pygmalion," in its motion picture attire, ranks with "Hamlet" and "Henry V" as convincing proof that great plays can be made into great movies without sacrificing anything to film technique. By itself "Pygmalion" is an excellent picture, yet at the same time an accurate and faithful reproduction of the play as Shaw wrote it. True, many scenes implied in the play are acted out in the movie, but no one can seriously criticize such amplification when it is done with the care and respect so characteristic of British films.

G.B.S. has taken a familiar Greek classic, folded in a dash of "middle class morality" and a measure of Cheapside Cockney, and turned out one of his most palatable and humorous plots. Professor Henry Higgins, a middle-aged bachelor and phonetics expert, takes it upon himself to teach cultured English to a poor flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, and then pass her off as English nobility. For months he drills, cudgels, and bullies her, until "'Enry 'Iggins" becomes "Henry Higgins," and the Bunsen flame in front of Eliza's mouth flickers visibly with every "h." Finally comes the great test, and sweeping a starchy Ambassador's Ball, Eliza waltzes with princes, chats with royalty, and convinces one of the Professor's colleagues that her accent is Hungarian. Afterwards, Eliza accuses Professor Higgins of using her merely for an experiment, and tries to go back to selling flowers in Covent Garden. But in the end, she discovers all in gutters is not gold, and Higgins finds himself no longer a bachelor.

The acting is superb. Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller are a comedy team on a par with Coward and Lawrence, and give the Pygmalion Galatea story an hilarious slant the Greeks could never have envisioned.