Pygmalion - Criterion Collection (1939)

A lowly draggle-tailed guttersnipe

There are no few words that can express how I feel about Pygmalion. Everything about this film is perfect. Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard (Gone With the Wind) co-directed the film; Bernard Shaw wrote both the screenplay and the dialogue; and director David Lean (Doctor Zhivago, Brief Encounter, and Lawrence of Arabia) edited the film--what a pedigree! And what a debut from British actress Wendy Hiller who earned an Oscar nomination for her role as Eliza Doolittle, a scruffy flower girl who's taken off the streets and refined into a beautiful duchess. Every actress and actor has a defining role; Eliza Doolittle is Wendy Hiller's defining role. The following paragraphs are a basic--but descriptive--account of the film's premise.

Pygmalion is set in London England. The film opens on a crowded sidewalk in front of a theater. It's gloomy and raining. The cobblestone streets are wet. Tiny people are juxtaposed against the theater's enormous colonnade. Well-dressed people pour out of the theater. Some are hailing taxis.

A flower girl (Wendy Hiller) flees the rainy downpour for the dry sidewalk in the front of the theater. Her clothes are heavy with cold water. She pesters the well-dressed people for money. She enters a loud verbal dispute with someone. A tall well-dressed gentleman looms in the background. He wears a hat and a long coat.

The gentleman's name is Henry Higgins (Leslie Howard), and he is a phonetics professor whose ear is so sensitive that he can place any man within six miles. He has a pen and a small notepad.

The flower girl notices the man in the background with his pen and notepad; she takes him for a detective. He tells her that he is not a detective; he's a phonetics professor. She has no idea what a phonetics professor is. Her ignorance and innocence amuses Higgins.

Out of the few words she utters, Higgins is able to tell her where she's from: Lisson Grove. He plucks a few random voices out of the disorderly crowd; he tells the owner of each voice where he or she is from. The astonished crowd harasses Higgins. A tall well-dressed gentleman walks up and utters a few words; Higgins unravels the man's voice with ease--Cheltenham, Harrow, Cambridge, and India. The man is impressed; his name is Colonel Pickering (Scott Sunderland) and he, too, is a language professor.

The flower girl overhears Higgins and Pickering; Higgins boasts to Pickering that he can transform the common flower girl into a duchess. Offhandedly, Higgins directs a stream of insults at the flower girl. His sarcasm causes her to cry.

Suddenly, a white pigeon swoops off the ground; its ruffling feathers snatches Higgins's attention. Then, a church bell tolls. Out of superstition, Higgins, softly and respectfully, drops sixpence into the flower girl's empty basket. His act of kindness and charity surprises the flower girl; happily, she takes a taxi away from the theater.

She lives in a small room of a huge disintegrating apartment building on the poor side of the town. She sits at an old scuffed up dresser. Upon this dresser rests a small mirror into which she gazes at herself.

The flower girl takes a taxi to Henry Higgins's mansion at 27-A Wimpole Street. He's surprised to see her; compulsively, he heaps insults on her. She wants Higgins to make her into a lady. He calls her names and jokingly threatens to toss her out of the window. Then, he rudely orders the flower girl to sit down. Colonel Pickering gently asks the woman what her name is; her name is Eliza Doolittle. Then, Colonel Pickering politely asks her to have a seat. The flower girl's demeanor softens; she is both surprised and pleased by Colonel Pickering's kindness and respect.

Higgins accepts Eliza as his student, but she must agree to his conditions. She must live in his mansion for six months. He will teach her how to speak beautifully, like a lady in a florists shop. If Eliza's good and does what she's told, she will sleep in a proper bedroom, have lots to eat, and have money to buy chocolates and to take rides in taxis. If she's naughty and idle, he'll make her sleep in the back kitchen among the black beetles and be walloped by Mrs. Pearce (the maid) with a broomstick. At the end of six months, she shall go to Buckingham Palace in a beautifully dressed carriage. If the king finds out that she's not a lady, the guards will take her to the Tower of London and cut off her head--this will serve as a warning to other presumptuous flower girls. If she is not found out, she will receive a salary of seven and sixpence to start life with as a lady in a flower shop. Eliza agrees to his terms. He smiles, then he calls her dirty and "deliciously low." He seizes her wrist and flings her to his maid. He orders Mrs. Pearce to burn Eliza's old clothes. Colonel Pickering poses a question towards Higgins: has it occurred to him that Eliza might have feelings?

Mrs. Pearce drags Eliza upstairs to give her a bath. Eliza is hysterical; she's never had a bath in her life. Mrs. Pearce cajoles Eliza: "Don't you want to be sweet and clean and decent, like a lady? You know, you can't be a good girl inside if you're a dirty girl outside."

In the main room downstairs, Higgins is smiling to himself and playing his piano. Colonel Pickering is leaning on the piano; he asks Higgins a loaded question: "Are you a man of good character where women are concerned? You know what I mean? I hope it's understood that no advantage is to be taken of her (the flower girl's) position."

Pickering's allusion offends Higgins. "What? That thing (Eliza)? Sacred, I assure you. I've taught scores of American women to speak English--the best looking women in the world--I'm seasoned. They (women) may as well be blocks of wood."

Afterwards, Higgins subjects Eliza to months of strenuous voice training. Finally, she's ready to be tested. Before taking Eliza to Buckingham Palace, though, Higgins tests her on his family and friends--his mother, Colonel Pickering, Reverend Birchwood and his wife, Fred Hill, his sister, and their mother, Mrs. Hill. Eliza is dressed in a white bonnet and a white gown of delicate lace and satin. She says her lines mechanically but perfectly. Before he presented her to this group, Higgins instructed her to speak on only two subjects: the weather and "how do you do." However, Eliza strays from Higgins's script. Speaking politely, Eliza uses her own street slang. The demonstration succeeds anyway. Now, Higgins becomes more determined to change Eliza. There's nothing she can't do. Higgins receives an invitation from the Transylvanian Embassy; he'll take Eliza there and pass her off as a duchess.

Higgins trains Eliza night and day. Months later, Higgins takes Eliza to the ball at the Transylvanian Embassy. The atmosphere is upper class and snobbish. Eliza is stunning. She's wearing a long satin gown. Pearls dazzle her neck. Her skin is glowing. Her manners are graceful but careful. Eliza fools them all. She bewitches the queen and dances with the prince. No one suspects that she's only a flower girl. Higgins has outdone himself. He's taken a lowly draggle-tailed guttersnipe and transformed her into a duchess. Now the game is over. He's won his bet with Pickering. But what's to become of Eliza? She's not the woman she was, she can't go back to where he found her, besides, her leaving his mansion--and his life--is something Higgins hasn't considered--until now.

Pygmalion has many counterpoints. In one of the film's early scenes, Mrs. Pearce (the maid) says to the flower girl, "Don't you want to be sweet and clean and decent, like a lady? You know, you can't be a good girl inside if you're a dirty girl outside." Throughout Pygmalion, Higgins, though clean and well bred on the outside, is rude, obnoxious, and conceited towards people and particularly women; on the other hand, Eliza, who's dirty and illiterate, is sweet, honest, and very sensitive. Another counterpoint in the film is the abusive manner in which Higgins treats Eliza and the kind manner in which others--Colonel Pickering, Mrs. Pearce, Mrs. Higgins (Higgins's mother), Fred, etc, -- treat Eliza. Such episodes contrast each other throughout the entire film. The paradox of the film is that no one--including Higgins--could see Eliza's inner virtues until she got herself together on the outside. In this sense, Mrs. Pearce's adage was correct when she said, "...you can't be a good girl inside if you're a dirty girl outside," hence, good can sometimes predicate good, and bad can sometimes predicate bad. Pygmalion is a great film; see it!

author of Gotta Be Down!


October 16, 2008

Best Liza yet

First there was the smash hit play, then came the 1938 B&W movie with Leslie Howard is the ultimate pedantic as Prof. Henry Higgens and Wendy Hiller is utterly charming as Eliza Doolittle. I have a VHS copy of the movie but when I realized that the Criterios Collection has released a DVD taken from a very clean print, I leaped for it. I was not disappointed. Plus, it has the added advantage of all DVDs that I could jump to my favorite scenes: Liza on her first outing at Prof. Higgins' mothers home; Liza's father talking about the "underdeserving poor" and the final confrontation between Liza and Prof. Higgins. There is something about 1938 that makes the story of a professor turning a guttersnipe into a lady in six months that seems credible. By the time My Fair Lady came out, this was a historical play turned into a musical. As much as I enjoy the music from My Fair Lady, I prefer the 1938 film version of Pygmalion. Mainly because there is no dancing and singing to get in the way of the story. Of course, this film was made back in the day when all the supporting actors were serious about their craft. If you are at all a serious Shaw fan, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of the DVD. Buy it so you can watch it as many times as you want, when you want. You won't be sorry. January 28, 2008

Matchless version of Shaw's great play

Pygmalion ,Bernard Shaw's magnificent 1913 comedy,is ideally served by this splendid ,perfectly cast movie.Leslie Howard -cast against the wishes of the author who wanted Charles Laughton in the role -plays Professor Higgins ,a wealthy phoenetics professor who meets Eliza Doolittle,a Cockney who sells flowers outside Covent Garden Opera House .He takes on a wager made with Colonel Pickering ,his best friend that he can transform her from a slovenly and slatternly ,uncouth girl into a lady able to pass as such in polite society.Quite a challenge for a man who described her as "a squashed cabbage leaf" and "a draggle tailed guttersnipe".For Higgins she is an intellectual challenge not a living breathing human being with feelings to be respected .In short he is a monster and a bully with a strong misogynistic streak but redeemable .

The scenes of her education in elocution are well executed especially where she is compelled to speak with a mouth full of marbles .Her transformation is a success -her society debut goes swimmingly .But what to do with her next ?She is now betweixt and between social classes .The play has a somewhat evasive ending but in the movie a definite conclusion is reached -not convincing ,but definite.This is not the only change from stage to screen -Shaw wrote ,at the request of the producer Gabriel Pascal an additional scene ,showing Eliza at the Embassy Ball which marked her full entrance into society and which was retained in the musical version of the paly ,My Fair Lady.

Wendy Hiller is outstanding as Eliza,showing in precise strokes her conversion from a working class girl of limited education into a poised lady of wealth and means.She is at her best in those scenes where she is half way there as in the meeting with Higgins' mother (adeptly played by Marie Lohr).Politely sipping tea she blithely chats about her father's drinking habits and the fate of her late Aunt's straw hat, "Them,what pinched it ,done her in".It is an great pity Dame Wendy made so few movies preferring to concentrate on stage work .There is more than a touch of Kate Hepburn about her playing here
Howard is the unfeeling intellectual tyrant to a T and quite how the Academy preferred Spencer Tracy's lacklustre performance (by his own high standards)in that nonsense "Boy's Town "is beyond me .The movie also lost out for Best Picture to the dire "You Cant Take It With You"-not the Academy at its most perceptive .
Look out also for a fine performance as Alfred Doolittle by Wilfred Lawson despite having most of his best speeches cut from the play-despite Pascal's reassurances
Pygmalion is an intelligent comedy -a rara avis today-and is well served by cast ,its joint directors Howard being one and Anthony Asquith the other and some crisp monchrome photography but above all by the intelligence and sparkle of its writing
January 21, 2008

Classic Shaw in classic film

Pygmalion (1938): Classic Shaw in classic film.
Directed by Anthony Asquith/Leslie Howard
With: Leslie Howard,Wendy Hiller
Criterion Collection's digital transfer edition 2000 offers a first rate black-and-white picture that is a pleasure to watch (in as large a screen as possible), in the original aspect ratio 1.33:1. The edition offers an information booklet but no other extras, commentaries, or other features. However, those familiar with the original G.B. Shaw play will be able to make a comparison with this script, which had several writers, including Asquith. Some divergences will be noted here, but on the whole this is a faithful adaptation of the original. The editing was done by David Lean, who started his career as an editor, and it is thanks to him that the pacing is so lively and the scenes attention-grabbing. There is not one dull moment in the whole play/movie, even when some of the inevitable Shaw preaching intrudes into the action. As is well known, Shaw, in his Preface, asserts that the purpose of his play is "didactic," as all art must be according to him, and the lesson to be learned by the English is that they can't speak their own language. There is a parody demonstrating this idea in the scene when Count Aristide Karpathy (Esme Percy), one of Higgins's former students, now practicing linguistics, claims that Eliza Doolittle, in her final transformation as a lady, is a Hungarian princess, for no English man or woman could speak his/her own language so perfectly. Only foreigners do, who have learned to speak it correctly. Shaw's point here (one of many) is that the English language is an inheritance, coming from the likes of "Shakespeare, Milton and the Bible," and should be revered and respected like a national treasure. Covent Garden cockney is to him detestable degeneration, something the outspoken (and rude) Higgins declares often. A second point is that speaking (any) language correctly will get you places. If you speak cockney, in its various "corrupt" forms, you have no hope of social elevation. A woman who squeaks out various sounds, as Eliza does, has no hope of social or economic advancement. On the other hand, Eliza's father, whose Welsh strain gives his speech a certain rhythmic intonation, can become an orator, a spokesman for the middle class, and attain both fame and wealth.

Leslie Howard makes a perfect Higgins, superior to Rex Harrison's, who received an Oscar for the same role in My Fair Lady (1963). Wendy Hiller is also in looks demeanor and native accent much more genuine Eliza than Aubrey Hepburn who overacted in the same role (and failed to even receive an Academy nomination). My Fair Lady, the popular musical by Lerner and Loewe, is generally hampered by the music itself, for it draws too much attention to itself--the endless songs interrupting the action too often for any points in it to be taken seriously. Of course any play has a right to be made into a musical, but at the risk of lowering expectations. Pygmalion is a sharp social satire, mocking the shallowness and mannerisms of the upper class, and the degeneration of the lower, and perhaps blaming the educational system that is responsible for such a deplorable condition in matters of language--although modern linguists (who accept "all" language) would not agree with him. Shaw's play also mocks romance, romantic inclinations, and the near impossibility of viable man-woman relationships. The movie, however, though demonstrating the above points, does turn to a "happy" reunion between Higgins and Eliza, unexpectedly, and against logic. Movies, especially light comedies, have an obligatory happy ending. In the play, Eliza marries Freddy, not exactly a romantic hero--but much more in line with Eliza's social class.




November 20, 2007

Better than with Audrey Hepburn

Much that I love Audrey Hepburn she seems to play a totally different role from the one played here by the great Wendy Hiller. I understand this was her screen debut. I can say the role is just for her. You can't help falling in love with this young woman. That is it, she plays a real woman who is young, but a woman. The drama is intensified because we can feel what she goes through, socially and emotionally in her relationship with her cold and reluctant lover.

There's more than simple comedy of contrasts here. The "unwilling" romance is accentuated here. There are the intricacies, and feelings of human beings whose God given power to love has been hindered by society's rules and etiquette, and has to break away by sheer power. Adorable film, adorable Wendy Hiller. One of the best old British classics I've seen. August 21, 2007

More reviews at Amazon.com ...