Pygmalion is a
1938The year 1938 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*January — MGM announces that Judy Garland would be cast in the role of "Dorothy" in the upcoming Wizard of Oz motion picture. Ray Bolger is cast as the "Tinman" and Buddy Ebsen is cast as the "Scarecrow". At Bolger's insistence,...
BritishThe United Kingdom has had a large impact on modern cinema and has one the most respected film industries in the world. Despite a history of successful productions, the industry is characterised by an ongoing debate about its identity and the influences of American and European cinema, although it...
film based on the
George Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60 plays...
play of the same titlePygmalion is a play by George Bernard Shaw loosely inspired by the Greek myth of the same name. It tells the story of Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics who makes a bet with his friend Colonel Pickering that he can successfully pass off a Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, as a refined...
, and adapted by him for the screen. The film was a financial and critical success, and won an
Oscar for best screenplayThe Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. It is awarded each year to the writer of a screenplay adapted from another source...
and three more nominations. The screenplay was later adapted into the 1956 theatrical musical
My Fair LadyMy Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from professor Henry Higgins so that she can pass as a lady...
, which in turn led to the
1964 film of the same nameMy Fair Lady is a musical film adaptation of the Lerner and Loewe stage musical, My Fair Lady, based on the film adaptation of the stage play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. The ending and the ballroom scene are from the 1938 film Pygmalion rather than Shaw's original stage play...
.
The phoneticist and speech coach Henry Higgins (
Leslie HowardLeslie Howard Steiner , better known by his stage name Leslie Howard, was an English stage and film actor, director, and producer...
) meets the flower girl Eliza Doolittle (
Wendy HillerDame Wendy Margaret Hiller DBE was an English film and stage actress, who enjoyed a varied acting career that spanned nearly sixty years...
) on the steps of St Paul's Covent Garden and offers a bet to the
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
scholar Colonel Pickering (
Scott SunderlandScott Sunderland was an English actor. Principally working on the stage, his few film roles included Colonel Pickering in the 1938 film adaptation of Shaw's Pygmalion and Sir John Colley in the 1939 film adaptation of Goodbye, Mr...
) that he can teach her to behave and speak like a duchess in six months, which would then allow her to join a florists' shop rather than sell flowers on the street.
Pygmalion is a
1938The year 1938 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*January — MGM announces that Judy Garland would be cast in the role of "Dorothy" in the upcoming Wizard of Oz motion picture. Ray Bolger is cast as the "Tinman" and Buddy Ebsen is cast as the "Scarecrow". At Bolger's insistence,...
BritishThe United Kingdom has had a large impact on modern cinema and has one the most respected film industries in the world. Despite a history of successful productions, the industry is characterised by an ongoing debate about its identity and the influences of American and European cinema, although it...
film based on the
George Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60 plays...
play of the same titlePygmalion is a play by George Bernard Shaw loosely inspired by the Greek myth of the same name. It tells the story of Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics who makes a bet with his friend Colonel Pickering that he can successfully pass off a Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, as a refined...
, and adapted by him for the screen. The film was a financial and critical success, and won an
Oscar for best screenplayThe Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. It is awarded each year to the writer of a screenplay adapted from another source...
and three more nominations. The screenplay was later adapted into the 1956 theatrical musical
My Fair LadyMy Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from professor Henry Higgins so that she can pass as a lady...
, which in turn led to the
1964 film of the same nameMy Fair Lady is a musical film adaptation of the Lerner and Loewe stage musical, My Fair Lady, based on the film adaptation of the stage play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. The ending and the ballroom scene are from the 1938 film Pygmalion rather than Shaw's original stage play...
.
Plot
The phoneticist and speech coach Henry Higgins (
Leslie HowardLeslie Howard Steiner , better known by his stage name Leslie Howard, was an English stage and film actor, director, and producer...
) meets the flower girl Eliza Doolittle (
Wendy HillerDame Wendy Margaret Hiller DBE was an English film and stage actress, who enjoyed a varied acting career that spanned nearly sixty years...
) on the steps of St Paul's Covent Garden and offers a bet to the
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
scholar Colonel Pickering (
Scott SunderlandScott Sunderland was an English actor. Principally working on the stage, his few film roles included Colonel Pickering in the 1938 film adaptation of Shaw's Pygmalion and Sir John Colley in the 1939 film adaptation of Goodbye, Mr...
) that he can teach her to behave and speak like a duchess in six months, which would then allow her to join a florists' shop rather than sell flowers on the street. The following morning, she arrives at Higgins' flat asking for elocution lessons and he takes her on, formalising the bet with Pickering. Eliza's father, Mr Doolittle (
Wilfrid LawsonWilfrid Lawson was a renowned British character actor of stage and screen.-Life and career:...
), also calls at Higgins' house, and "sells" him his daughter for £5. After some work, Higgins takes Eliza to a social event at his mother Mrs Higgins's (
Marie LohrMarie Lohr or Marie Löhr was an Australian film and stage actress.-Biography:Lohr was born in Sydney, Australia to Lewis J. Löhr, treasurer of the Melbourne opera house, and his wife, the English actress Kate Bishop...
) house in Chelsea, where she causes comic consternation by delivering an account of a relative's death in
Received PronunciationReceived Pronunciation , also called the Queen's English and BBC English, is the accent of Standard English in England, with a relationship to regional dialects similar to that of other European languages...
that is still entirely
CockneyThe term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...
in phraseology. There she also meets Freddy Eynsford-Hill (
David TreeDavid Tree was a British actor. His mother was Viola Tree, and his grandfather was Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree.Beginning his career in the theatre, he entered films in 1937 and played a string of character roles in films such as Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel , Pygmalion , Goodbye, Mr Chips and...
), a young upper-middle-class man who becomes enamored with her.
After more work, and a dress and appearance makeover, Higgins and Pickering take her to a reception at the Transylvanian embassy. There they meet an over-confident Hungarian pupil of Higgins', Count Aristid Karpathy (
Esme PercySaville Esme Percy was an English film actor. He appeared in 40 films between 1930 and 1956.He was born in London and died in Brighton.-Selected filmography:* Pygmalion * Song of Freedom...
), who is now operating as a speech coach in his own right and becomes suspicious of Eliza. Just when it appears Karpathy is about to reveal Eliza as a Cockney and thus lose Higgins his bet, he very publicly concludes that Eliza speaks English too well to be an English duchess and is in fact a Hungarian princess.
The four return home after the ball, having succeeded in fooling everybody there. Higgins and Pickering, however, ignore Eliza's achievement in the affair, and Higgins even has an outright argument with her about it. The following morning the men wake to find Eliza has fled, and go to Mrs Higgins to seek her help finding her. It is revealed that Eliza has fled to Mrs Higgins' protection, and also that Eliza's father has now come into money due to a joke by Higgins to an American philanthropist and is marrying his long-term partner against his will. Pickering leaves with Doolittle for the wedding, and Higgins and Eliza are left alone to argue. Asserting her independence and threatening to leave Higgins's house, marry Freddy and go to work for Karpathy, Eliza storms out and drives away with Freddy. Infuriated, Higgins walks from Chelsea back to his home in
Wimpole StreetWimpole Street is a famous street in London. Located in the City of Westminster, it is associated with private medical practice and medical associations. No...
, where he smashes some of the records he had made of Eliza's voice and then sits to think. Hearing Eliza's voice coming from behind him, he turns to find her at the door.
Adaptation
The Hungarian producer
Gabriel PascalGabriel Pascal was a Hungarian film producer and director.Born in Arad, Transylvania, Austria–Hungary in 1894, Pascal was the first film producer to bring the plays of George Bernard Shaw successfully to the screen...
wished to create a set of films based on Shaw's works, beginning with
Pygmalion, and went to see Shaw in person to gain permission to do so. Shaw was reluctant to allow a film adaptation of
Pygmalion owing to the low quality of previous film adaptations of his works, but Pascal managed to convince him (on the condition Shaw retained full control over the adaptation) and later went on to also adapt
Major Barbara,
Caesar and CleopatraCaesar and Cleopatra is a 1945 film starring Claude Rains and Vivien Leigh, produced and directed by Gabriel Pascal from the 1901 play by George Bernard Shaw. The film was nominated an Academy Award for Best Art Direction . -Plot synopsis:...
and
Androcles and the Lion.
The resulting
Pygmalion scenario by
Cecil LewisCecil Arthur Lewis MC was a British fighter pilot who flew in World War I. He went on to co-found the BBC and enjoy a long career as a writer. Author of the aviation classic Sagittarius Rising , Lewis joined the Royal Flying Corps in 1915, after lying about his age...
and WP Lipscomb removed exposition unnecessary outside a theatrical context and added new scenes and dialogue by Shaw himself.
Ian DalrympleIan Dalrymple was a British screenwriter, film director and producer.- Biography :...
,
Anatole de GrunwaldAnatole de Grunwald was a British film producer and screenwriter.Anatole de Grunwald was born in Petrograd, , Russia, the son of a diplomat in the service of the Russian Tsar. He was seven years old when his father was forced to flee with his family to England during the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution...
and
Kay WalshKay Walsh was an English actress and dancer. She grew up in Pimlico, raised by her grandmother. She began her career as a dancer in West End music halls....
also made uncredited contributions to the screenplay. A long ballroom sequence was added, introducing an entirely new character, Neppomuck (Karpathy in the musical
My Fair Lady) - mentioned in the final scene of the original play, but with no name or onstage appearance), written wholly by Shaw himself. Against Shaw's wishes, a happy ending was added, with Eliza fleeing Higgins with Freddy but then returning to Higgins' home (though whether permanently or on her own terms is left deliberately ambiguous). Shaw and his fellow writers did, however, retain the controversial line "Not bloody likely!" from the playtext, making Wendy Hiller the first person to utter that
swear wordThe original meaning of the adjective profane referred to items not belonging to the church, e.g...
in a British film and giving rise to adverts for the film reading "Miss Pygmalion? Not ****** likely!".
Cast and crew
Wendy HillerDame Wendy Margaret Hiller DBE was an English film and stage actress, who enjoyed a varied acting career that spanned nearly sixty years...
was chosen by Shaw to play Eliza Doolittle after she had appeared in stage productions of
PygmalionPygmalion is a play by George Bernard Shaw loosely inspired by the Greek myth of the same name. It tells the story of Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics who makes a bet with his friend Colonel Pickering that he can successfully pass off a Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, as a refined...
and
Saint JoanSaint Joan is a play by George Bernard Shaw, based on the life and trial of Joan of Arc. Published not long after the canonization of Joan of Arc by the Roman Catholic Church, the play dramatises based on what is known of her life and on the substantial records of her trial...
- though the film's initial credits stated that this movie was introducing her, she had in fact already appeared on film in 1937's
Lancashire LuckLancashire Luck is a 1937 British film comedy, directed by Henry Cass. It is notable as the film debut of Wendy Hiller, and the first credited appearance of Nigel Stock.-Plot:...
. Shaw's choice for Higgins had been
Charles LaughtonCharles Laughton was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and two-time director.While best known for his historical roles in films, he started his career as a remarkable stage actor...
, though Asquith's co-director on the film,
Leslie HowardLeslie Howard Steiner , better known by his stage name Leslie Howard, was an English stage and film actor, director, and producer...
, was in the end chosen for the role. The film also includes the very first (short and uncredited) film appearance by
Anthony QuayleSir John Anthony Quayle, CBE was an English actor and director.-Early life:He was born in Ainsdale, Southport in Lancashire educated at the private Rugby School and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. After appearing in music hall, he joined the Old Vic in 1932...
, as an Italian wigmaker.
The film's crew included
David LeanSir David Lean was an English filmmaker, producer, screenwriter and editor, best remembered for big-screen epics such as Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai,Doctor Zhivago,...
(on his first major editing job - he also directed the montage sequence of Higgins teaching Eliza) and the camera operator
Jack HildyardJack Hildyard, B.S.C. was a British cinematographer who worked on more than 80 films during his career...
(who later carried out the photography for Lean's
The Bridge on the River KwaiThe Bridge on the River Kwai is a 1957 British World War II film by David Lean based on the novel The Bridge over the River Kwai by French writer Pierre Boulle. The film is a work of fiction but borrows the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942–43 for its historical setting...
,
The Sound BarrierThe Sound Barrier is a British 1952 film directed by David Lean. It is a fictional story about attempts by aircraft designers and test pilots to break the sound barrier. In the US it was retitled Breaking the Sound Barrier...
and
Hobson's Choice).
Awards
The writers, including the uncredited
Ian DalrympleIan Dalrymple was a British screenwriter, film director and producer.- Biography :...
, won the
1939 Academy Award for Writing Adapted ScreenplayThe Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. It is awarded each year to the writer of a screenplay adapted from another source...
. The film also received nominations for
Best PictureThe Academy Award for Best Motion Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible...
,
Best ActorPerformance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
(Howard) and
Best ActressPerformance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
(Hiller). Shaw's reaction to his award was "It's an insult for them to offer me any honour, as if they had never heard of me before - and it's very likely they never have. They might as well send some honour to
GeorgeGeorge VI was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions from 11 December 1936 until his death...
for being King of England." However, his friend
Mary PickfordMary Pickford was a Canadian motion picture actor, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Known as "America's Sweetheart," "Little Mary" and "The girl with the curls," she was one of the first Canadian...
later reported seeing the award on display in his home.
At the 1938
Venice Film FestivalThe Venice Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the Lido, Venice,...
, Leslie Howard won the Volpi Cup and the film was nominated for the Mussolini Cup.
External links