Pygmalion (1938)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Pygmalion (1938) – A. Asquith

George Bernard Shaw’s play, scripted for the screen by the playwright himself, was first directed by Anthony Asquith (with co-director’s credit to star Leslie Howard).  But then it was famously revisioned as the musical, My Fair Lady (first on stage and then on screen in 1964, directed by George Cukor and starring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison).  Having seen the musical first, as a child, it is hard not to hear the lines of the play/1938 film (“the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain”) and recall the songs they became later.  But without revisiting the latter film, it is rewarding to say that Pygmalion may be better.  Both Leslie Howard (as Professor Higgins) and Wendy Hiller (as Eliza Doolittle) present memorable and charismatic characters and the plot twists (such that they are) are funny and well-played; Wilfrid Lawson and Esme Percy are solid and comical in support.  Of course, the basis of the story, Higgins’ boast that he could refashion Cockney flower seller Doolittle into a princess simply by teaching her phonetics and improving her diction, is still condescending and paternalistic – but Howard plays Higgins with his flaws foregrounded, so perhaps this can be forgiven? (And Eliza does tweak him in the end, at least – but what will their relationship be, if relationship there is to be?).  Eighty years on, the social satire (or fantasy?) designed for the British class system may or may not hold up (depending on your aims) – and it is tempting to imagine the roles with different cultural variations (for example, there appears to be a version with genders reversed) but any new version would require a lot more bite and insight than what is managed here. There’s no denying that we use accents to stigmatise people though…