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| Leslie Howard | ... | ||
| Wendy Hiller | ... | ||
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Wilfrid Lawson | ... | |
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Marie Lohr | ... | |
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Scott Sunderland | ... | |
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Jean Cadell | ... | |
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David Tree | ... | |
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Everley Gregg | ... | |
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Leueen MacGrath | ... | |
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Esme Percy | ... | |
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Violet Vanbrugh | ... |
Ambassadress
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Iris Hoey | ... |
Ysabel, Social Reporter
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Viola Tree | ... |
Perfide, Social Reporter
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Irene Browne | ... |
Duchess
(as Irene Brown)
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Kate Cutler | ... |
Grand Old Lady
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The snobbish & intellectual Professor of languages, Henry Higgins makes a bet with his friend that he can take a London flower seller, Eliza Doolittle, from the gutters and pass her off as a society lady. However he discovers that this involves dealing with a human being with ideas of her own. Written by Steve Crook <steve@brainstorm.co.uk>
Shaw's brilliant play is expertly filmed by Howard and Asquith. Howard is perfectly cast as the snobbish Professor Higgins and is matched by Hiller, in her second film, as Eliza Doolittle. The fine supporting cast includes Sunderland, Lawson, and Lohr, who's terrific as Mrs. Higgins. It is difficult to make a bad film of this work, given Shaw's witty dialog, but film performance is different from stage performance, with film calling for more subtlety. The love-hate relationship between the professor and Eliza works wonderfully because Howard and Hiller provide the right combination of humor and humanity. Howard's role here is in sharp contrast to the wimpy Ashley the following year in "Gone with the Wind."