Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard

Pygmalion

Pygmalion

Cranky Professor Henry Higgins (Leslie Howard) takes a bet that he can turn Cockney guttersnipe Eliza Doolittle (Wendy Hiller) into a "proper lady" in a mere six months in this delightful comedy of bad manners, based on the play by George Bernard Shaw. This Academy Award–winning inspiration for Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady was directed by Anthony Asquith and star Howard, edited by David Lean, and scripted by Shaw himself.

Share

Film Info

  • United Kingdom
  • 1938
  • 96 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.33:1
  • English
  • Spine #85

Special Features

  • English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired

    New cover by Michael Boland

Purchase Options

Collector's Sets

Collector's Set

Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films

Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films

DVD Box Set

50 Discs

$650.00

Out Of Print

Special Features

  • English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired

    New cover by Michael Boland
Pygmalion
Cast
Leslie Howard
Professor Henry Higgins
Wendy Hiller
Eliza Doolittle
Wilfrid Lawson
Doolittle
Marie Lohr
Mrs. Higgins
Scott Sunderland
Colonel Pickering
Credits
Director
Anthony Asquith
Director
Leslie Howard
Producer
Gabriel Pascal
Screenplay
George Bernard Shaw
Scenario
W. P. Lipscomb
Scenario
Cecil Lewis
Cinematography
Harry Stradling
Editing
David Lean
Music
Arthur Honegger
Art direction
John Bryan
Set designer
Laurence Irving
Assistant director
Teddy Baird
Camera
Jack Hildyard
Musical conductor
Louis Levy

Related Films

1/3
2/3
3/3

Current

Anthony Asquith

Flashbacks

Anthony Asquith

Critic Peter Cowie pays tribute to a quintessentially English master, whose prolific career stretches back to the silent era.

By Peter Cowie

Short Takes — Apr 11, 2017

Explore

David Lean

Editor

David Lean
David Lean

For many cinephiles, the name David Lean signifies grand moviemaking—sweeping epics like Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago. But the long and eclectic career of this legendary British director encompasses arresting intimacy as well, as evidenced by the films of his in the Criterion Collection. Among those are pictures that he was responsible for editing, early on in his work in film: some of his national cinema’s greatest hits, including Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard’s Pygmalion, Gabriel Pascal’s Major Barbara, and Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 49th Parallel. In the forties and early fifties, having moved to directing, he made several luminous films, including adaptations of such classic and important contemporary works from the stage and page as Harold Brighouse’s Hobson’s Choice, Noël Coward’s Still Life (Brief Encounter, in the film version), and Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations and Oliver Twist. All are graced by evocative, shadowy black-and-white cinematography and elegantly restrained compositions. Summertime, his gorgeous 1955 Technicolor trip to Venice with Katharine Hepburn, marked a turning point in his career: the sun-dappled location shoot was galvanizing for Lean, and the remainder of his films, from The Bridge on the River Kwai to A Passage to India, could be considered outdoor spectacles. Yet Lean’s deep interest in complex characters, his brilliant way with actors, and his classic sense of storytelling were never trumped by scale.

More David Lean View All