Pygmalion (1938)
Shaw's play in which a Victorian dialect expert bets that he can teach a lower-class girl to speak proper English and thus be taken for a lady. (imdb)
Cast and Information
Directed By: Anthony Asquith, Leslie Howard
Written By: George Bernard Shaw
Starring: Anthony Quayle, Patrick Macnee, Leslie Howard, Wilfrid Lawson, Wendy Hiller, Marie Lohr, Moyna MacGill, Jean Cadell, Esme Percy, David Tree, Scott Sunderland
Genres: Romance, Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Where to Stream
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Pygmalion belongs to 29 collections
1. Criterion Collection (collaborative: moderated by caffe - 165 stars)
2. Features under 91 minutes (collaborative: moderated by epiphany - 56 stars)
3. Academy Award - Oscar - Best Picture and Nominees (collaborative: moderated by smviper00 - 43 stars)
4. New York Times' The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made (collaborative: moderated by theficionado - 31 stars)
5. Academy Award - Oscar - ALL Best Picture, Directing, Acting & Screenplay Nominees (collaborative - 22 stars)
6. They Shoot Pictures' Recommended Viewing (collaborative: moderated by Cinephile - 19 stars)
7. Best of criticker: Drama (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr - 18 stars)
8. Adapted from a play/based on a play (collaborative: moderated by djross - 13 stars)
9. Doubling The Canon (collaborative - 13 stars)
10. Oscar: Best Writing (adapted/original) (collaborative: moderated by paulofilmo - 10 stars)
11. David Thomson's 1000 Films (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 7 stars)
12. IMDb Top of The 1930's (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 6 stars)
13. Available on YouTube (collaborative: moderated by utube-cinema - 5 stars)
14. Doubling The Canon (2010 update) (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 5 stars)
15. Criterion Art House Essentials (public: asperastrum - 4 stars)
16. openculture.com: Free Movies Online (collaborative: moderated by T86g - 2 stars)
17. read & see (public: ehk2 - 2 stars)
18. Doubling the Canon (2011 update) (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 1 star)
19. Doubling the Canon (2012 update) (collaborative: moderated by Cinephile - 1 star)
20. Halliwell's Four Star Films (collaborative: moderated by MacSwell - 1 star)
21. British director (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 1 star)
22. Cinetheque (public: allegreller - 1 star)
23. best of the year (public: ehk2 - 1 star)
24. Every Film Nominated For An Oscar (public: cayh - 1 star)
25. PeaceAnarchy's film of the year (public: PeaceAnarchy)
26. Filmspotting Ratings Project: Week 1 (public: PeaceAnarchy)
27. Films Dunstan Owns (public: Dunstan-xxx)
28. Dunstan's DVD Collection (public: Dunstan-xxx)
29. 1930s Mile High Club (public: Dunstan-xxx)
Browse the full list of collections
| Stars | User | Rating | |
| 2 |  |
Moribunny | 90 97th |
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The musical adaptation, "My Fair Lady", is better-known but this version is simply better. The musical waters-down and sweetens what here shines as an intensely clever satire about the ambiguous relationship between an insufferable upper-class wretch and his protégé, a lovable simpleton. Shaw adapted the script from his play himself and so his wit remains undiluted. To top it off it's directed by the sensitive and intelligent Anthony Asquith with great acting from Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller.
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MartinTeller | 85 84th |
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Like most people, my primary knowledge of Shaw's play comes from My Fair Lady. Asquith's rendition lacks the song and spectacle of the Audrey Hepburn/Rex Harrison movie, but the wit shines much brighter. Leslie Howard (also a co-director) and Wendy Hiller are quite memorable in their roles, and the supporting cast is uniformly superb. The film lacks a certain flourish, but makes up for it with the great performances, tight pacing, and of course Shaw's brilliant words.
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| 1 |  |
DMCrimson | 85 91st |
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My Fair Lady if it was funnier, shorter, concise, and ruder. Who else wants to call someone a crumpled up cabbage leaf after seeing this?
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Alex Watkins | 4 70th |
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I've never seen My Fair Lady, but I can't imagine the story being done any better than this. It's a hell of a script, tight as can be and moving the story along with maximum efficiency, as well as providing some wonderful comic dialogue for Howard, Hiller et al. It's not particularly cinematic, but it's such fun that it doesn't really matter.
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PeaceAnarchy | 96 99th |
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A fantastic, perfectly executed film. The performances are excellent, the story is endearing and thoughtful, and the film is really funny as well.
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KasperL | 70 65th |
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Better than 'My Fair Lady'.
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CosmicMonkey | 73 41st |
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I haven't seen My Fair Lady so I can't really compare the two, but this was a generally enjoyable fare, and I appreciate that the film avoided the temptation to turn this into a typical Hollywood happy-ending romance.
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| 1 | xacviant | 88 87th |
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Probably a cut above MY FAIR LADY; Leslie Howard and Rex Harrison are closely matched in their Higginses (their respective approaches are rather different), but Wendy Hiller's Eliza is simply more believable than Audrey Hepburn's, and the brisker pace (it's over a hour shorter) helps as well. And the altered ending from the original play works better, whatever Shaw's objections.
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| 1 | PUNQ | 100 99th |
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I never thought such a wonderfully rude romance story could have me in tears because of it's underlaying sweetness! The dialogue was incredible! I guess that's down to George Bernard Shaw who wrote the play. It escapes all the clichés to reach it's clichés! And this is another time when Leslie Howard takes my breath away. And what can be said about Wendy Hiller? She was his equal here. She's such a presence that's not based on being the most prettiest girl in the room. An exceptional character!
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| Average Percentile 68.79% from 362 Ratings |  |