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Must-have movies: Pygmalion (1938)

Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 17/11/2006

Rachel Simhon reviews a classic that every film-lover will want to own

You will be tempted to compare Anthony Asquith's version of Shaw's Pygmalion, which comes free with your Telegraph on Saturday, November 18, with its more familiar screen version, My Fair Lady. Resist the temptation.


Sexy: Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller in Pygmalion

Instead, enjoy this film for its own merits – charm, wit, intelligence and a delicious naughtiness ("We want none of your slum prudery: we want you to behave like a duchess").

What is more, because Shaw wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay himself, it is much closer to his original vision of the play as a satire on upper-class behaviour and social mobility.

The plot is well-known. Prof Henry Higgins (Leslie Howard) bets he can turn garrulous guttersnipe Eliza Doolittle (Wendy Hiller) into a lady. Eliza is transformed, but she has a corresponding effect on Higgins, forcing him to accept that the world of feelings is as important as that of the intellect.

At the heart of the film are two fine performances from Howard and Hiller. Howard, one of the most romantic leading men of his generation, plays Higgins as a bullying but sexy eccentric, unconscious of his effect upon his protégée.

In her first major role, Hiller is a captivating Eliza – touchingly earnest and very funny to begin with: blithely unaware that her beautifully modulated "It is my belief they done the old woman in" is totally inappropriate tea-party chat. As she grows, her mobile, pixie face is transformed into beauty – and with it, dignity. Her quiet, "We sold flowers in Covent Garden. We did not sell ourselves," is heartbreaking.

If you are wondering what relevance this period piece might have in a world where everyone speaks Estuary English, ask yourself whether a Jade Goody would have been considered such a joke if she had been taught to talk posh by a Henry Higgins.

Steve Crook

Yes, she would :
I don't know why they say to resist the temptation between this and My Fair Lady. They are interesting to compare and this one wins in many ways. It's a great film.

Steve