Pygmalion

Comparisons with "My Fair Lady" are unfair to this fine television version of "Pygmalion." O'Tool gives a wonderful eccentric performance as Henry Higgens and Margot Kidder is a fine Eliza, but the quality which I especially find valuable when I use this version to teach in my Introduction to Literature is the speeches both Mrs. Pierce and Mrs. Higgens give which are cut from the musical to make room for all that wonderful music. Thus the female voice of Mrs. Higgens, "No No, you two infinitely stupid male creatures!" (Act III line 198), is lost. Also the ending, which is even more vague than the musical about the future of the two main characters, is a wonderful leap off for class discussion about "middle class" expectations. I really enjoy all of this production.

Anderson Rearick Mount Vernon Nazarene University Mount Vernon, OH.