IMDb RATING
7.7/10
9.9K
YOUR RATING
A phonetics and diction expert makes a bet that he can teach a cockney flower girl to speak proper English and pass as a lady in high society.A phonetics and diction expert makes a bet that he can teach a cockney flower girl to speak proper English and pass as a lady in high society.A phonetics and diction expert makes a bet that he can teach a cockney flower girl to speak proper English and pass as a lady in high society.
- Won 1 Oscar
- 3 wins & 5 nominations total
Leueen MacGrath
- Clara Eynsford Hill
- (as Leueen Macgrath)
Irene Browne
- Duchess
- (as Irene Brown)
Cathleen Nesbitt
- A Lady
- (as Kathleen Nesbitt)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe scene in which Eliza accidentally swallows a marble while having an elocution lesson does not appear in the original play. During rehearsals for this scene, a pained expression came over Wendy Hiller's face. When she spat out the marbles she had in her mouth, she said, "Leslie, I've swallowed one!" to which Leslie Howard replied, "Never mind, there are plenty more." This caused such amusement among the watching crew that it was added to the movie and to its musical version, My Fair Lady (1964).
- GoofsAfter the ball when Mrs. Pearce serves Professor Higgins his tea, the shadow of the camera can be seen in the bottom left, moving back across his blanket.
- Quotes
Eliza Doolittle: Walk? Not bloody likely. I'm going in a taxi.
- Crazy creditsOpening credits prologue: PYGMALION WAS A MYTHOLOGICAL CHARACTER WHO DABBLED IN SCULPTURE. HE MADE A STATUE OF HIS IDEAL WOMAN-GALATEA. IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL THAT HE PRAYED THE GODS TO GIVE IT LIFE. HIS WISH WAS GRANTED.
BERNARD SHAW IN HIS FAMOUS PLAY GIVES A MODERN INTERPRETATION OF THIS THEME.
- Alternate versionsThis film was made a year before the Hays Office gave Clark Gable permission to say "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn", so while in the British prints of this film Leslie Howard often utters the word, in the American prints the word "damn" is replaced by either "hang" or "confounded".
- ConnectionsFeatured in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Big Parade of Hits for 1940 (1940)
Featured review
Nearly 70 years later the Gabriel Pascal "Pygmalion" still sets the bar for film adaptation of a stage play. So much so, in fact, that the GBS incorporated many of the film's upgrades into the authoritative published version of the play, despite the play being more than 20 years old when the film was made.
When was the last time you saw a performance leap off the screen like Leslie Howard's as Professor Higgins? Shaw never saw such treatment on screen again, even under Pascal's hand. The film of "Major Barbara" is interesting (and a bit bizarre toward the end) in its own right, with some magnificent bits in the Act II homeless shelter and a heart-wrenching Wendy Hiller, but pales next to the stage version in its intellectual, political and dramatic depth. And all the rest, even the charming "Caesar and Cleopatra" with Raines and Leigh, just don't cut it compared to the plays.
"Pygmalion" is where any screenwriter needs to start in adapting a play for the movies. No one has done it better since.
(BTW, GBS's afterward to "Pygmalion" is intended to be tongue-in-cheek, I think. It's intentionally ridiculous, so that the mob clamoring for a romantic ending would realize just how inappropriate and uninteresting that would have been.)
When was the last time you saw a performance leap off the screen like Leslie Howard's as Professor Higgins? Shaw never saw such treatment on screen again, even under Pascal's hand. The film of "Major Barbara" is interesting (and a bit bizarre toward the end) in its own right, with some magnificent bits in the Act II homeless shelter and a heart-wrenching Wendy Hiller, but pales next to the stage version in its intellectual, political and dramatic depth. And all the rest, even the charming "Caesar and Cleopatra" with Raines and Leigh, just don't cut it compared to the plays.
"Pygmalion" is where any screenwriter needs to start in adapting a play for the movies. No one has done it better since.
(BTW, GBS's afterward to "Pygmalion" is intended to be tongue-in-cheek, I think. It's intentionally ridiculous, so that the mob clamoring for a romantic ending would realize just how inappropriate and uninteresting that would have been.)
- kelly_r_1983
- Jul 14, 2007
- Permalink
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Pigmalion
- Filming locations
- Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK(studio: made at Pinewood Studios England)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- £87,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 29 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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