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Pygmalion (1938) [The Criterion Collection #85] [Repost]

Posted By: ChumPaa
Pygmalion (1938) [The Criterion Collection #85] [Repost]

Pygmalion (1938)
A Film by Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard
DVD5 | VIDEO_TS | NTSC | MPEG 2 | 4:3 | 1h 35min | 720x480 | 29.97 fps | AC3 1ch 192Kbps
Lang: English | Subs: English | Cover | 4.14 GB
Genre: Comedy | Drama | Romance

IMDB
IMDB Rating: 7.9/10
Directed by: Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard
Starring: Leslie Howard, Wendy Hiller, Wilfrid Lawson

Storyline: The snobbish & intellectual Professor of languages, Henry Higgins makes a bet with his friend that he can take a London flower seller, Eliza Doolittle, from the gutters and pass her off as a society lady. However he discovers that this involves dealing with a human being with ideas of her own.
Perfect cinema. That was my reaction when I first saw Pygmalion, the first of 50 viewings and counting, and I still think so. Who could not fall in love with Leslie Howard, one of our greatest actors, so tragically assassinated in the Second World War? Wendy Hiller IS Eliza. The cast is flawless. The script… words fail me, for George Bernard Shaw was a genius, he did not simply adapt his play for the screen, it is so good that it is like it's happening before your eyes. My God, after seeing this is there anyone out there who thinks 'My Fair Lady', the slowest film musical on record, is the best screen version of Shaw? If they do, they are mad.

That film moves me not one jot, everything is so clean, so smug, so unreal. Here we see poverty, but also hope. These are not actors and actresses moving through the sets garbed in Cecil Beaton, but real people, real suffering, but humanity lights every scene like a beacon. The unbearably moving scenes of Eliza capturing society at the ball, the irresistible waltz, watch this with no tears in your eyes, I dare you. Halliwells Film Guide calls this 'one of the most heartening and adult British films of the thirties'. Too right. I cannot fault this film, it is priceless. By the way, I saw 'My Fair Lady' on stage recently, and it's miles better than the film version. Warner Bros really let Shaw down, and it's impossible to put it right. But this…well it is a big compensation. And I don't miss the songs one little bit.

There are so many classic scenes I can't pick any out. Of course viewers will spot that it was 'updated' to 1938, and the original play set in the Edwardians. That doesn't hurt it at all, 'polite' society didn't change much in the intervening years and gives the play an added 'contemporary' edge. Please, please, please see this film. You will be gripped.

by puff-7
Screenshots:

Pygmalion (1938) [The Criterion Collection #85] [Repost]

Pygmalion (1938) [The Criterion Collection #85] [Repost]

Pygmalion (1938) [The Criterion Collection #85] [Repost]

Pygmalion (1938) [The Criterion Collection #85] [Repost]

Pygmalion (1938) [The Criterion Collection #85] [Repost]

Pygmalion (1938) [The Criterion Collection #85] [Repost]

Pygmalion (1938) [The Criterion Collection #85] [Repost]

DVD Features:
* Gorgeous new transfer, with digitally restored image and sound
* English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired