Day 84: Pygmalion (1938)

In 1964, “My Fair Lady” swept the Academy Awards with a total of eight wins, including Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Picture, becoming one of the most beloved movie musicals in the history of cinema. But, what few realize is the story of a man of breeding teaching a lowly flower girl how to become a woman of refinement had already been to the Oscars and had won before. In 1938 the screen adaptation of the play ”Pygmalion” by famous Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw hit the silver screen and delighted audiences everywhere.

In the film, Wendy Hiller plays Eliza, a low class flower seller with a thick cockney accent, who catches the eye of Professor Henry Higgins (Leslie Howard) and his associate Colonel Pickering (Scott Sunderland). Higgins, a teacher and enthusiast in phonetics, boasts that he could pass Eliza off as a royal duchess if only given enough time to teach her how to speak properly. Overhearing his boast, Eliza accepts the challenge and soon the two are working day and night, with varying levels of success, to change this poor girl’s persona into something of equal beauty and grace.

Finally, after working for months, Henry sees an opportunity to test Eliza’s new skills in the real world and takes her to the Embassy Ball amongst the highest of society. Upon her entrance, the whole place is a buzz with talk of the charming Eliza, but she’s soon caught off guard when a former student of the Professor’s shows up and is asked by the host of the ball to find more out about her. With all eyes on her and no one but Henry at her side, Eliza will have to give the performance of her life and prove to the world she’s a genuine lady.

When it comes to some stories, they are just so good that the world can’t hep but retell them in every possible way. “Pygmalion” is certainly one of these. Inspired by the Greek myth of Pygmalion, a sculpter who fell in love with a statue he carved, playwright George Bernard Shaw, created his play and, to this day, with it’s social class humor, it is still considered his most popular work. With its success on the stage still lingering by the 1930′s, Hungarian producer Gabriel Pascal wished to adapt the play to film and went to Shaw himself for permission. Though nervous at the thought of a film, after several of his plays had been poorly adapted, Pascal finally won him over by letting him write the screenplay as well as retain full control over the story.

With the film then gaining overwelling praise upon it’s release and an Academy award for Shaw’s screenplay, it became a classic in its own right and the musical writing team Lerner and Loewe decided, another few decades later, to take the film version, whose ending was slightly more romantic than the play’s, and adapted it into the musical “My Fair Lady,” which won six Tony awards including “Best Musical.” From there, the musical was once again adapted to the screen with Rex Harrison reprising his role of Henry from the stage and Audrey Hepburn playing Eliza. As mentioned before, “My Fair Lady” took eight Oscars home, which totals Shaw’s original story of “Pygmalion” at technically nine Academy awards and six Tonys.

But just because Shaw’s original idea was a smash hit with awards, that doesn’t actually mean he felt any of them necessary. When he won for “Pygmalion’s” screenplay he wasn’t present to accept the award and, when he did finally hear of his victory he was, to the shock of all, livid. “It’s an insult for them to offer me any honor as if they had never heard of me before and it’s very likely they never have.” he said, “They might as well send some honor to George for being King of England.” Though legend likes to say that Shaw never received his Oscar, actress Mary Pickford, who was a good friend of the writer, said he had the award on his mantle. Years later, when Shaw died in 1950, his home became a museum and his Oscar statuette was so tarnished that the curator thought it had no value and used it as a door stop for several years before it was repaired and put on display.

George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion,” is a wonderful experience in any form you see it, but there is something simply exceptional about this first film adaptation. With Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller’s amazing chemistry and even some early editing by David Lean, this version of the flower girl turned princess of the ball is one of the best.

To learn more about “Pygmalion,” check out Criterion’s page here.

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