SmugKitZine Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Mischa Redfern I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

JohnnyLee1 Some aspects old-fashioned especially the wanting to be a "lady." Mother's role unconvincing. But Shaw's play is a classic and this production and acting are first rate.

Maddyclassicfilms Pygmalion is directed by Anthony Asquith and is based on the play by George Bernard Shaw. The film stars Leslie Howard, Wendy Hiller, Scott Sunderland, Jean Cadell, David Tree and Wilfrid Lawson.Snobbish and antisocial phonetics professor Henry Higgins(Leslie Howard), makes a bet that he can turn a cockney flower girl into a duchess, simply by teaching her to speak properly.The lady in question is Eliza Doolittle(Wendy Hiller).Over the course of several months Higgins drives Eliza to a near breakdown as he encourages and bullies her in equal measure to work hard and speak properly.Higgins may teach her to speak nicely but he fails to understand that a lady isn't just considered as such by how she speaks, but by how she is treated. His friend Colonel Pickering(Scott Sunderland)treats Eliza with respect and gentleness from the first moment he meets her. Higgins on the other hand treats her merely as a subject of his experiment and nothing more.When he is satisfied with her progress he takes her to a ball where she will mix with the upper classes and royalty. If the guests believe her to be one of them Higgins will have won his bet.Things are complicated when the dull but sweet Freddy Eynsford-Hill(David Tree)falls in love with Eliza. Eliza makes an interesting observation which is something worth thinking about, now Higgins has made her a lady she is not fit to sell anything accept herself. This is true, the best she can now hope for is to marry a rich man and become a beautiful ornament on his arm at social events. At least when she was poor she could find some sort of employment.Eliza dearly wants to open a flower shop but in the society that she has been elevated into such a thing would have been frowned upon.Over the years some people have longed for a romantic and happy ending between Higgins and Eliza. Shaw himself was against that and was angry when a happy ending was included in the stage play. The films ending is ambiguous because we leave the two characters not knowing what will happen to them next. It can be viewed as happy though.Personally I don't see Higgins and Eliza as a romantic couple. He comes to admire her strength, determination and he does grow fond of her. Eliza is grateful to him for bringing about a change in her life for the better but can never forget that he treated her badly at times. Their personalities are so different that I just can't see them together. I can see them as friends but lovers? No way.The cast are all superb. Leslie Howard is at his best as Higgins, he is totally swept up in his work, it is all consuming to him, he has no time for relationships or social niceties.Howard makes him slightly eccentric, with a razor sharp mind and good observational skills. The look on his face in the final scene says more than any dialogue could, it is a rare glimpse of the feeling Higgins has within but rarely shows externally. From this performance here and his role in Pimpernel Smith, I think he would have been fantastic as Sherlock Holmes, alas that was never to be, but think of how he would have been in that role.Hiller does very well as Eliza although I think she struggles somewhat with the cockney accent, she is much better in the scenes where she is learning to speak properly and in the scenes when she has made the transition from street girl to elegant lady.Wilfrid Lawson steals every scene he's in as Eliza's father and Jean Cadell is good as the tough housekeeper Mrs.Pearce. Scott Sunderland doesn't get much to do as Colonel Pickering but he is good in the scenes he's in. David Tree is good as the young rich man who falls for Eliza because she is different and exciting.

mikeburdick Most people know the story of "Pygmalion" by way of the musical version, "My Fair Lady" or the homage, "Trading Places," without ever having seen the original, which is unfortunate. It's simply one of the best films ever made, and stands up not only to time—it is, after all, nearly 80 years old—but to repeat viewing.On a fresh viewing, what struck me most was the superb script—for which it won an Academy Award—which is hilarious and quite caustic, in no small part due to George Bernard Shaw. Both performances by Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller are amazing to watch, every bit as good as the best contemporary actors. And Hiller's performance in this is stunning and heartbreaking. I'm certain Anthony Asquith, who also directed "The Browning Version," deserves much credit, and David Lean as editor.Sometimes, I have to caveat older films with "it was really influential" or "It was good for the time." "Pygmalion," however, is timeless. A film anyone can enjoy.

wes-connors Linguistically appropriate and bad-mannered Leslie Howard (as Henry Higgins) bets he can teach cockney guttersnipe Wendy Hiller (as Eliza Doolittle) how to speak in high society, and then pass her off to the Buckingham Palace crowd as a Duchess. This production of George Bernard Shaw's classic story doesn't have the great Lerner / Loewe songs made familiar in the musical ("My Fair Lady") version, but it's a much better production, overall. Mr. Shaw receives official credit; he shared an "Academy Award" win with three screenplay adapters. Whatever the distribution of work, Shaw's sharp and brilliant satire on British dialects shines prominently. Everyone performs marvelously. The accent is on excellence.********** Pygmalion (8/38) Anthony Asquith, Leslie Howard ~ Leslie Howard, Wendy Hiller, Wilfrid Lawson, Scott Sunderland