Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

RyothChatty ridiculous rating

Supelice Dreadfully Boring

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Hitchcoc Henry Higgins is a bully and a braggart and full of himself. He has little respect for others, so when he chooses Eliza Doolittle to be the object of an experiment, he sees her as a prop, a part of his laboratory. The fact that he succeeds in taking a simple flower girl and making her fit in with royalty is not the issue. What is, is what the play is really about. It's about the growth of the characters. Eliza becomes so much more. Wendy Hiller is marvelous in this film, which, of course, has no music. Her facial expressions are excellent, her resolve even more. Leslie Howard as Higgins gives her nothing in the way of reward or kindness. He is a jerks to the bitter end. Shaw oversaw this play and the conclusion is a bit controversial. We will never know his intent, but he wanted to make sure that it has his imprint because he feared the producers would destroy it. Maybe one of the best films ever. If you saw "My Fair Lady," enjoy another interpretation of the characters.

Michael Mendez At first I was doing research and couldn't help but notice that something was familiar about this flick. As the first establishing shot of the town faded in, one building had gigantic pillars and that is when it hit me. MY FAIR LADY. Same story, honestly only different in some ways, but not too much. This one is not a musical, sadly, but on the bright side it is only and hour and a half, as opposed to three hours as its remake was with Audrey "the beautiful" Hepburn in 1964. The title of this film, staring and directed by Leslie Howard, is Pygmalion (1938).Now, Pygmalion is actually a Greek story of an artist who designs a sculpture of a beautiful woman. He ends up falling in love with her and prays to the gods for her to come to life. Aphrodite granted his wish -the lucky bastard.. But this is what the story is based off of.**Henry Higgins's goal is to teach a down-in-the-dumps gutter-girl how to speak the proper English; the fancy kind. To aide him is a colleague named Colonel Pickering, who is a very easy going lad with very little to say.I really found Eliza (Wendy Hiller) a bit different from Hepburn's. I believe in this film, she gave here character more of a meaning. She starts out as a desperate FLOWER girl who just wants to get by, but also aches to learn how to be more middle-class; how to speak properly; and how to fare. This is shown towards the beginning when they negotiate the terms in which Henry (Leslie Howard) teaches her simple phonetics (the science of speech). -- She is also a tad more passive; she seems more accepting to the change rather than completely pushing it away.As for Henry, Rex Harrison's was excellent, but so was Howard's. He defines his character and makes him truly an arrogant bachelor, who does not even notice his insults that come out of his mouth. You can see that he takes after his mother, but only on the egotistic part. She carries a little more heart on her sleeve, if you know what I mean.One thing I would like to mention is that the EDITING, for its time, is amazing! There are two montage scenes that include fading transitions and dutch-angle close-ups that I cannot help but find sexy.I gave this 1938 film a 8 out of 10. I didn't not give it the extra star because I find the story a bit condescending in a way during the MANY arguments between Eliza and Henry. I just think it was not necessary and could have been more pleasing/gratifying towards the end. Other then that, this film and its story is perfection; a true beauty.

miss_lady_ice-853-608700 The first time I watched this film, it just felt like My Fair Lady without songs. Of course, that's a backward view seeing as My Fair Lady was an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's original play, but My Fair Lady has become such a classic that it's hard not to hear Eliza say "the rain in Spain" and not go into singing it. However, upon re-watching it, I found it to be delightful and a perfect companion for My Fair Lady.Leslie Howard is perfect as Professor Henry Higgins, the teacher of phonetics who makes a bet with friend Colonel Pickering (Scott Sunderland) that he can take a flower girl and turn her into a duchess. That flower girl is Eliza Dolittle (Wendy Hiller). Initially I found Hiller's performance to be less charming than Audrey Hepburn's, but Hiller's performance is charming. It is the charm of comedy and wit rather than Hepburn's mix of vulnerability and assurance. This is not an inferior charm, simply a different one.I adore Leslie Howard as Henry Higgins. In the play, Higgins is only 41, so comparatively young. However in My Fair Lady, 58-year-old Rex Harrison played Higgins, and the actors that followed tended to be in their late forties-late fifties. It's interesting to see both versions. The older Higgins of My Fair Lady means that we do not see their relationship as a typical "love affair" and so we concentrate on Eliza's journey rather than wanting her to get together with Higgins. Having a younger Higgins adds a wonderful sexual frisson and Howard is boyishly sexy in a geeky sort of way without being sexy in a matinée idol sort of way. However, some of the deeper meanings of the play get a little lost this way. This film is a witty cerebral version of the play (I adore David Tree's portrayal of Freddie as a simpering toff), with great editing by David Lean (who would go on to direct Brief Encounter and Laurence of Arabia just for starters). However, My Fair Lady helps to reveal the darker messages behind the play.

Arcturus1980 I prefer this to the much-enjoyed 1964 musical, My Fair Lady. The delightfully lavish musical says as much in roughly double the time. Howard and Hiller are brilliant here, as are Harrison and Hepburn in My Fair Lady. I can't favor one pair over the other. However, Esme Percy as the Count is more amusing than his counterpart, Theodore Bikel.I agree with the controversial ending. Eliza had come too far to leave Higgins for Freddy, a comparative dolt. To my mind, it wraps up this witty picture appropriately. There is no telling how many more great Leslie Howard roles there would have been, had he not been a casualty of that awful dustup World War II.