--- title: "Pygmalion" year: 1938 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/pygmalion" fi1m_score: 84 critics_score: 80 critics_reviews: 4 published: "2026-09-20T21:10:16.383213+00:00" updated: "2026-09-20T21:10:24.444558+00:00" region: "RO" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Pygmalion (1938) Directed by Leslie Howard, Anthony Asquith · 1h 36m · Comedy, Drama, Romance **Fi1m score: 84** · Critics 80 (early) from 4 reviews *In a sentence:* A phonetics professor turns a flower girl into a duchess and is far too pleased with himself to notice she is a person > The first Shaw film that works, cut by David Lean to move at twice the speed of the play. Wendy Hiller’s Eliza is the reason to see it; Leslie Howard’s Higgins is more charming than the text deserves, and the last stretch softens. ## Synopsis London, a rainy night outside the Covent Garden opera. Sheltering under the church portico is Henry Higgins (Leslie Howard), a professor of phonetics who can place anyone within a few streets by their vowels and is writing them down. Among the crowd is Eliza Doolittle (Wendy Hiller), a flower girl who thinks he is a policeman. Higgins tells Colonel Pickering (Scott Sunderland) that in six months he could pass her off as a duchess at an embassy ball. The next morning Eliza turns up at his house in Wimpole Street wanting lessons so she can work in a shop. Mrs. Pearce (Jean Cadell), the housekeeper, puts her in the bath; her father Alfred (Wilfrid Lawson), a dustman, arrives asking for five pounds. ## Review George Bernard Shaw refused for years to let anyone film his plays, and when he gave in to Gabriel Pascal he took the screenplay credit himself. *Pygmalion* was made by people who knew his way of telling it would not work on a screen, so they changed the telling and left his lines standing. It is the best film anyone has made from Shaw and one of the liveliest British comedies of its decade. It has a slow patch after the ball and a last two minutes we do not believe, and we recommend it anyway. Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard share the direction, but the pace belongs to David Lean, who edited it. The play tells you about Eliza’s lessons; the film shows them, in a montage of marbles in the mouth, a candle flame that must not flicker at the aitches and a gramophone horn, and it does in four minutes what Shaw did with a scene change. Harry Stradling opens on a wet Covent Garden at night, umbrellas and rain running off the portico, and gives the Wimpole Street house a hard, clean light in which Eliza looks like a smudge. Arthur Honegger’s score mostly stays out of the way, then arrives in full for the embassy reception, a waltz the film enjoys more than Higgins does. Wendy Hiller is the reason to watch. She does the two halves of Eliza without a join: the flower girl who howls when Higgins takes her name down, and the composed woman in the white dress who has learned to say nothing. Her tea party at Mrs. Higgins’s house, telling the story of an aunt’s death in the vowels of a duchess and the grammar of Lisson Grove, is the funniest ten minutes in the film, and we laughed. Then comes the scene after the ball, Eliza alone in the study while the men congratulate each other, and we found we had stopped laughing before the film asked us to. It is the way Hiller holds still while Howard talks about how bored he has been. She is not playing hurt; she is waiting to see if anyone notices her. Howard is a lighter Higgins than the text asks for. Shaw’s professor is a bully who happens to be right; Howard plays him as an overgrown schoolboy who has never been contradicted, appalled that anyone should take offence. It is well timed, and it makes the man more likeable than he ought to be, which tilts the last act somewhere the play resisted. Wilfrid Lawson, as Eliza’s father, has two scenes and takes both: a dustman with a philosopher’s contempt for middle-class morals, arriving to sell his daughter for five pounds and turning down ten on principle. Scott Sunderland’s Pickering is decent and slightly dim, and Marie Lohr, as Higgins’s mother, has the best raised eyebrow. The trouble is in the second half. Once the bet is won, the film has to return to Shaw’s argument about what you do with a woman you have made unfit for her old life and unwelcome in a new one, and the argument arrives as talk. The scenes at Mrs. Higgins’s house are played at stage speed, and there is only so much an editor can do with people disagreeing in a drawing room. The embassy reception is added with a rival phonetician (Esme Percy) and an ambassadress (Violet Vanbrugh); it is handsome and a little empty. The last two minutes take a turn we will not describe; it is the one place the film chooses comfort over the play, and we did not believe it. Set beside [*My Fair Lady*](https://film.one/film/my-fair-lady), which added songs and nearly three hours, this is the harder and quicker film. At 96 minutes it is spare where the musical is plush, and it is clearer here that what Higgins does to Eliza is done to her rather than for her. Watch it with someone who knows *My Fair Lady* by heart, and enjoy their face when they realise nobody is going to sing. *Fi1m score 84, published 20 September 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is Pygmalion worth watching?** *Pygmalion* is worth watching for anyone who wants a quick, sharp British comedy that still has something to say about class, and we scored it 84. Wendy Hiller's Eliza is the reason to see it, and David Lean's editing keeps it moving at twice the speed of the play. It slows after the ball, and the last two minutes soften in a way we did not believe. **How long is Pygmalion, and what is it rated?** *Pygmalion* runs 1h 36m. It is a comedy and drama film. **Where can I watch Pygmalion in Romania?** *Pygmalion* is not on any streaming or rental service in Romania at the moment. It is available in 2 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How does Pygmalion compare to My Fair Lady?** *Pygmalion* is the harder and quicker film; *My Fair Lady* is the same story with songs, more money and less nerve. At 96 minutes the earlier film is spare where the musical is plush, and it is clearer that what Higgins does to Eliza is done to her rather than for her. Choose the musical for Beaton's costumes and Rex Harrison's Higgins; choose this for Hiller and for a story that gets on with it. ### Reviews we read (4) - **The Guardian**, Philip French (90/100, inferred): This is the first successful film version of a Bernard Shaw play and a triumphant adaptation, even if softened for censors. The critic praises the visual storytelling, the definitive performances by Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller, the strong supporting cast, and contributions from Carl Mayer, Arthur Honegger, David Lean and Harry Stradling. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/aug/19/dvdreviews) - **The New Yorker**, John C. Mosher (80/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a charming success that shrewdly adds cinematic elements like a royal party scene while respecting Shaw's text. Howard delivers a perfect comedy turn as Higgins, and Hiller delights as Eliza, especially in the tea party scene. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1938/12/03/1938-12-03-128-tny-cards-000044511) - **Time Out** (80/100, inferred): The film is a radical take on Shaw's play that emphasizes the painful, forced nature of Eliza's transformation rather than a fairy-tale story. It stands out for reinforcing Shaw's focus on language as a tool of power and oppression, avoiding the sentimentality of later adaptations like My Fair Lady. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/pygmalion) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (**): The production smartly transcribes Shaw while retaining key lines and freshness, though the second half drags into talkiness after a speedy first half. Howard excels in comedy as Higgins, and Hiller faultlessly captures Eliza's guttersnipe origins shining through. [Read](https://variety.com/1937/film/reviews/pygmalion-2-1200411598/) ## Details - **Director:** Leslie Howard, Anthony Asquith - **Director:** Leslie Howard, Anthony Asquith - **Screenplay:** George Bernard Shaw - **Writer:** Ian Dalrymple - **Cinematography:** Harry Stradling - **Editor:** David Lean - **Music:** Arthur Honegger - **Producer:** Gabriel Pascal - **Cast:** Leslie Howard as Henry Higgins; Wendy Hiller as Eliza Doolittle; Wilfrid Lawson as Alfred Doolittle; Marie Lohr as Mrs. Higgins; Scott Sunderland as Colonel George Pickering; Jean Cadell as Mrs. Pearce; David Tree as Freddy Eynsford-Hill; Everley Gregg as Mrs. Eynsford-Hill - **Runtime:** 1h 36m - **First release (Italy):** 29 August 1938 - **Genres:** Comedy, Drama, Romance - **Also in:** [Best Picture winners](https://film.one/collections/oscar-best-picture.md) (Nominee, 1938) - **Budget:** $350,000 ## Where to watch in Romania Not streaming, renting or buying in Romania at the last check. Also available in: JP, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1939: Best Actor (nominated); Best Actress (nominated); Best Picture (nominated); Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (won) ## If you liked this - *My Fair Lady* (1964), Fi1m 76: The same story with songs, more money and less nerve; worth the comparison. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/my-fair-lady.md) - *Major Barbara* (1941): Pascal and Hiller do Shaw again, with Rex Harrison and a Salvation Army band. - *Born Yesterday* (1950), Fi1m 76: Judy Holliday is educated by a journalist and turns out cleverer than either man. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/born-yesterday.md) - *Educating Rita* (1983), Fi1m 71: A Liverpool hairdresser and a drunk lecturer; Pygmalion with the class politics left in. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/educating-rita.md) - *The Lady Eve* (1941), Fi1m 90: Barbara Stanwyck reinvents herself to punish a rich fool; Sturges at his fastest. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-lady-eve.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/pygmalion