Pygmalion

"He picked up a girl from the gutter - and changed her into a glamorous society butterfly!"

1938 1h 36m EN

👍

7.0

SOLID

🔥

100%

CERTIFIED FRESH

⭐

7.7

IMDB

★7.0TMDB · 166🍅100%Rotten Tomatoes★7.7IMDB · 10,214

ComedyDramaRomance

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

When linguistics professor Henry Higgins boasts that he can pass off Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle as a princess with only six months' training, Colonel George Pickering takes him up on the bet. Eliza moves into Higgins's home and begins her rigorous training after the professor comes to a financial agreement with her dustman father, Alfred. But the plucky young woman is not the only one undergoing a transformation.

“He picked up a girl from the gutter - and changed her into a glamorous society butterfly!”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Leslie Howard
Henry Higgins
Wendy Hiller
Eliza Doolittle
Wilfrid Lawson
Alfred Doolittle
Marie Lohr
Mrs. Higgins
Scott Sunderland
Colonel George Pickering
Jean Cadell
Mrs. Pearce
David Tree
Freddy Eynsford-Hill
Everley Gregg
Mrs. Eynsford-Hill

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Anthony Asquith
Writers: George Bernard Shaw, Cecil Lewis, W.P. Lipscomb
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $0.3M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

ERA

Did you know

88 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Anthony Asquith, shot by Harry Stradling Sr.. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor David Lean shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller and Wilfrid Lawson carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "He picked up a girl from the gutter - and changed her into a glamorous society butterfly!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0030637 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Anthony Asquith directs. Harry Stradling Sr. behind the camera. David Lean cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $0.3M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
288 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
3Directed by Anthony Asquith, shot by Harry Stradling Sr.. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Editor David Lean shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller and Wilfrid Lawson carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "He picked up a girl from the gutter - and changed her into a glamorous society butterfly!".
7IMDB entry: tt0030637 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Classified under 22 themes, including "bet", "professor", "bath", "transformation".

The technical file

Cinematography: Harry Stradling Sr.
Editing: David Lean
Runtime: 96 min · 1h 36m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $350,000
Original language: EN
IMDB: Pygmalion (1938)
Rotten Tomatoes: 100% 🍅 Fresh
IMDB rating: 7.7/10 · 10,214 votes
MPAA: Approved

Awards

Won 1 Oscar. 4 wins & 5 nominations total

Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Anthony Asquith

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2022-06-20
★ 7/10
Even though it was made some 25 years, or so, before "My Fair Lady" it still takes a few minutes before you get used to the fact that it has no singing... Once that has been established, we can enjoy a witty and pithy observation of class and superficiality that raises both smiles and heckles in equal measure. Leslie Howard is great as the somewhat snobbish phonetics expert ("Prof. Higgins") who bets his pal "Col. Pickering" (Scott Sunderland) that he can take the gutturally linguistic flower girl "Eliza" (Wendy Hiller) and pass her off as a duchess to the highest of society. Hiller is super, too. She takes the role of the reluctant, naive but strong willed and savvy street seller by the scruff of the neck and before long we see that the Professor has more than met his match! His housekeeper "Mrs. Pearce" (Jean Cadell) has a go at umpiring now and again and there is a scene stealing performance from Esme Percy as the even more pompous "Count Karpathy" who is the one person "Higgins" fears may be able to rumble his deception. Right from the raucous and hilarious bathing scene, it sets off at quite a pace swiping relentlessly at the British societal system - ribbing snobs and workers alike as Bernard Shaw's story is transferred to celluloid in a way that (hopefully) the author would have appreciated too. I can't say I liked the ending of the play and I don't really much care for the ending here, either - but boy, it's one hell of a journey demonstrating creative skill at just about every turn.

Production companies