Rating: 
Summary: Bilious Pidgeon
Review: On the surface, the prospect of listening to a live performance of Pygmalion, one which could be shared with my students, should be exciting. Absolutely not the case here. Shaw's script, unfortunately, is brutalized by the flagrant omission of many of his lines. Listening to the play, with a recent copy of the play in hand, I was mortified when I realized I would not be able to use this performance. Too many lines cut. Be forewarned: this is an "abridged" version of the play.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent screen adaptation
Review: Windy Hiller [Major Barbara (1941) ASIN: 6302969840] Plays a Cockney flower seller. Seeking a better position sees professor of linguistics about improving her speech. Professor Henry Higgins (Leslie Howard) bets that he can pass her off as a duchess in six months by adjusting her speech pattern. The Film is good however I am used to the later version "My Fair Lady" and I miss the music. This is a screen adaptation of a George Bernard Shaw play based on Greek mythology. This is a must for your collection.
Rating: 
Summary: Shaw's classic play brought alive for the first time
Review: Those of us brought up on Rex Harrison will find Leslie Howard's Professor Higgins rather hard to swallow. He is far meaner, far ruder, far more arrogant and far less the "loveable rogue" than Harrison was. But he is no more or less true to Shaw's original creation, and he turns in a worthy performance alongside Wendy Hiller as Eliza Dolittle (another sterling performance, even if her cockney accent is less convincing than Hepburn's later attempt).It is difficult nowadays to appreciate just what an achievement this collaborative effort was, but for its time its cinematic liveliness is outstanding. The montage sequences are enhanced by Arthur Honegger's stirring score. Harry Stradling does a fine job of the photography, and was, I believe, later to photograph George Cukor's film version of "My Fair Lady". And, of course, the real star of the show is George Bernard Shaw's witty and romantic script, which is so excellently brought to life here by a talented ensemble.
Rating:
Summary: A great film that begs for restoration
Review: I have loved this film for years, but why hasn't anyone begun the task of restoring this fine, old flick? Leslie Howard is great as Dr. Higgins and Wendy Hiller is the very best Eliza (with apologies to the legendary Audrey Hepburn).
Rating:
Summary: it's really about male dominance!
Review: We all love My Fair Lady, the musical that emerged from Pygmalion. Henry Higgins seeks to mold a woman to his standards and win a bet that he can pass her off as royalty, and flower girl Eliza Doolittle shows up at his door with her own ambitions of learning proper English so that she can get a better job in a shop instead of selling blooms at the corner of Tottenham Court Road. And so Higgins embarks on refashioning Eliza without ever seeing her as a person, while Eliza falls in love with this man who is taking such an interest in her. Come to think of it, this is a pretty classic story of most relationships! But does Eliza figure it out and move on to greener and emotionally-healthier pastures? Read it and see!
Rating:
Summary: 'My Fair Lady' wins out
Review: Ever since I was a little girl, the musical 'My Fair Lady' has been a favorite of mine. I love the music, and sing along with 'I Could Have Danced All Night' in my bedroom, flopping on the bed just as Eliza does. It was my love of the musical that persuaded me to read 'Pygmalion', and I was, frankly, quite surprised. Going into the reading, I knew only that My Fair Lady was an adaptation of the book, and I expected the book to be dry, old and crusty, with stress on Grecian themes and approaches to literature. You can imagine my surprise when I started to read!
While I was surprised at finding out what the book was actually about, my enjoyment was not squelched at learning it wasn't to be what I thought it was. I rather enjoyed picking out lines from the show that I found in the book ("I find the moment I become friends with a woman, I become selfish and tyrannical.."). I couldn't help reading Eliza and Henry Higgins with similar inflections I remembered from the show, and my knowledge and familiarity with the staged version added immensely to my enjoyment of the book.
The only thing that left me disappointed was the ending! I much prefer the ending chosen for the stage, rather than the realistic and depressing ending of the book. (Marry Freddy!?) While I'm now able to more enjoy the musical, and would recommend the book to anyone interested in reading a witty, well written play, I feel the musical suits me more.
Rating:
Summary: PYGMALION IS WON OVER BY HIS GALATEA...
Review: This superlative, award winning film adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's play is as delightful today as when it was first filmed, nearly sixty five years ago. This ageless story, based upon greek mythology in which an ivory statue of a maiden, Galatea, is brought to life by the prayers of its sculptor, Pygmalion, features a professor of linguistics, Henry Higgins (Leslie Howard), who takes a cockney flower seller, Eliza Doolittle (Wendy Hiller), and bets that, within a matter of six months, he can turn her into a lady who can pass in high society without betraying her lowly origins. Leslie Howard, wonderful in the role, is the quintessential Henry Higgins, playing him as an arrogant, aristocratic misogynist whose own mother (Marie Lohr) barely finds him tolerable. Henry makes his bet about his prospective success with Eliza with his friend, the kindly Col. George Pickering (Scott Sunderland), a wealthy gentleman who bankrolls the costs of Eliza's transformation from guttersnipe to royal pretender. Wendy Hiller is perfectly cast in the role of Eliza, having a certain earthiness about her, which makes her so believable as the cockney upstart. Yet, she has enough of an incandescence about her, so as to make her believable in her transition from gutter to drawing room. Scott Sunderland is wonderful as Col. Pickering, the buffer between Henry and Eliza. Marie Lohr is excellent as Mrs. Higgins, Henry's exasperated mother. The scene in which Eliza has tea with Henry's unsuspecting mother and her guests is one of the funniest on the silver screen. Look also to a wonderful, comedic foray by Wildred Lawson, as Eliza's father, Alfred Doolittle. All in all, this is a film that has withstood the test of time. The precursor for the musical adaptation "My Fair Lady", Pygmalion reigns supreme. Nominated for four Academy Awards and winning two, this is the definitive adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's play, sharp and witty. Deftly directed by Leslie Howard and Anthony Asquith, it is simply a magnificently acted, comedic film, and one that those who love classic, vintage films will enjoy. Bravo!
Rating:
Summary: Literature romantic social comedy
Review: When Professor Henry Higgins boasts that he could take a ragamuffin flower girl and teach her to talk like a duchess in three months, Eliza Doolittle decides to take lessons so she can get a position in a flower shop. But then Colonel Pickering, another expert on phonetics, decides to turn the Professor's boast into a wager. Higgins takes the bet and Eliza is whisked off to begin her transformation. Within a few days Higgins is able to take her to his mother's house where none of the high society folk who had seen Eliza at Covent Garden recognize the flower girl. Eliza succeeds at the her big test when she is passed off as a great duchess at an ambassador's garden party, but when Higgins celebrates the great success, Eliza chucks a slipper at him. Not only have they ignored her contributions to the experiment's success, she now wants to know what is to become of her. With her new command of the English language she no longer fits back with her friends and because of her low birth will never fit in with high society. Eliza leaves, determined to earn some respect and her own independence, while Higgins wants Eliza to come back so everything will be the way it was. PYGMALION is based in part on the ancient myth of the sculptor who fall sin love with the beautiful statue he has carved, but in the hands of playwright George Bernard Shaw it is also a critique of the social strata of British society, where elocution separates high from low just as much as birth or wealth. The iconoclastic Shaw even goes on in the preface to his play about the absurdity of English spelling in connection with English pronunciation. However, readers should resist the impulse to read romance into this didactic play where no romance is intended.
Rating: 
Summary: Better seen than read, I suppose
Review: So there is a lot of wit and witticism here. Ho hum. Tim Allen is witty; his books aren't classics. The plot, too, is rather ho-hum. What makes this work a classic is the interaction between subtle characters, and what makes it a great play also makes it difficult to relate to on the page. An explanation. In my opinion, the best stage plays often don't make very good reads. They leave a lot of room for an actor or actresses' interpretation, and respect that a few words said(acted) properly on a stage are more effective than lots of words. None of us talk like the characters in a novel, yet they must talk like that for us to understand them: all we have are their words. Thus I think it is with this play. Especially in the final act, which seems to be the most important (and what raises this above the level of, say, the Princess Diaries) I have a hard time following the movement of the characters and the dialogue. Not a hard time making sense of it, not anything that straightforward, but a hard time following it intuitively, understanding the progression and movement of Eliza and Henry from one page to the next. As a sometime-actor, this intrigues me. As a reader, it leaves me unsatisfied, wanting to see it done: see how it flows and makes sense. The part that reads best is Eliza's father: he's a delightful embodiment of Nietzchian ethics and speeches more than he talks. He's fun and pretty quotable. Just a note: I don't think this is exactly based upon the Greek legend of Pygmalion and Galatea. It seems more likely to me that Shaw had the idea, wrote the play, looked for a title, and found it in mythology. I hope to see it performed someday.
Rating:
Summary: Good... but I enjoyed My Fair Lady more
Review: This book is genius of course, but I am one of those ridiculously romantic type people who wishes the end would have turned out differently... thats why I like the movie My Fair Lady slightly more than the original book. You'll see what I mean, if you get this book.
|
