# Pygmalion (1938 film)
*Pygmalion* is a 1938 British film adaptation of [George Bernard Shaw](https://www.edgepedia.org/george-bernard-shaw)'s 1913 stage play, directed by Anthony Asquith and [Leslie Howard](https://www.edgepedia.org/leslie-howard) and produced by Gabriel Pascal, in which phonetics professor Henry Higgins bets that he can pass Cockney flower girl [Eliza Doolittle](https://www.edgepedia.org/eliza-doolittle) off as a lady by teaching her speech and deportment.[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/365) • [2](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/pygmalion-1938) It was the first filming of a Shaw play in which the playwright fully authorized and participated in the production, and Shaw's screenplay won him an Academy Award.[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/6125-PYGMALION?cp=1&cxt=Filmography2&pos=4&sid=4ec15733-718b-48db-b5a3-f77202a615b8&sr=0.11259612) • [4](https://pressarchive.theoldglobe.org/_pdf/Programs/2012-13/Pygmalion_Program.pdf)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Directors | Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard (co-director credit)[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/365) |
| Producer | Gabriel Pascal, for Pascal Film Productions[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/365) |
| Cast | Leslie Howard (Henry Higgins), Wendy Hiller (Eliza Doolittle), Wilfrid Lawson (Alfred Doolittle), Scott Sunderland (Colonel Pickering)[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/365) |
| Screenplay | George Bernard Shaw, with W. P. Lipscomb, Cecil Lewis, and Ian Dalrymple; Shaw won an Academy Award for it[2](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/pygmalion-1938) • [4](https://pressarchive.theoldglobe.org/_pdf/Programs/2012-13/Pygmalion_Program.pdf) |
| Key crew | Edited by David Lean; music by Arthur Honegger; cinematography by Harry Stradling[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/365) |
| Budget | $350,000, made at Pinewood Studios, with $50,000 of the budget for screen rights[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/6125-PYGMALION?cp=1&cxt=Filmography2&pos=4&sid=4ec15733-718b-48db-b5a3-f77202a615b8&sr=0.11259612) |
| Runtime | 96 minutes, black and white[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/365) |
| Legacy | Acknowledged source of Lerner and Loewe's musical *My Fair Lady*[5](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/aug/19/dvdreviews) |
## Spoilers
### Story
The film follows Shaw's play. Eliza Doolittle, a London flower girl whose Cockney speech patterns fascinate the bachelor professor of phonetics Henry Higgins, becomes the subject of a wager with Colonel Pickering: Higgins vows to teach Eliza the speech and deportment of a lady and have her accepted as such by English high society.[2](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/pygmalion-1938) Eliza moves into Higgins's home and begins rigorous training after the professor comes to a financial agreement with her dustman father, Alfred.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1016943-pygmalion) The title frame of the film reads "Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion", and it opens with a foreword explaining the Greek myth of the sculptor [Pygmalion](https://www.edgepedia.org/pygmalion-mythology) and his statue [Galatea](https://www.edgepedia.org/galatea-mythological-statue) as the theme Shaw modernized.[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/6125-PYGMALION?cp=1&cxt=Filmography2&pos=4&sid=4ec15733-718b-48db-b5a3-f77202a615b8&sr=0.11259612)
### The ending and the romanticization question
Shaw resisted happy endings for the play, and later productions and the 1938 film added romantic endings in which Eliza returns to Higgins.[4](https://pressarchive.theoldglobe.org/_pdf/Programs/2012-13/Pygmalion_Program.pdf) A scholarly study of the adaptation concludes that the 1938 film was based on the Pascal screenplay rather than on Shaw's own 1938 scenario, and that the film occupies a pivotal position in the play's transformation from an anti-romantic comedy of ideas toward the Cinderella-like musical *My Fair Lady*.[9](https://paperzz.com/doc/8689443/eliza-underminded--the-romanticisation-of-shaw-s-pygmalion) • [7](https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10179/2414/02_whole.pdf) According to that study, Shaw learned that the final scene had been changed only when he attended the advance press screening of the film on 4 October 1938.[7](https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10179/2414/02_whole.pdf)
## Production
**Pascal and Shaw.** Producer Gabriel Pascal, a transplanted Transylvanian in his early forties with few certifiable film credits, went to Shaw hoping to produce a film version of *The Devil's Disciple*; the playwright told him to try *Pygmalion* first.[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/6125-PYGMALION?cp=1&cxt=Filmography2&pos=4&sid=4ec15733-718b-48db-b5a3-f77202a615b8&sr=0.11259612) • [2](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/pygmalion-1938) Shaw had had little use for the previous film versions of his plays, and Pascal somehow managed to secure his trust and cooperation. Pascal had originally had an agreement with [Columbia Pictures](https://www.edgepedia.org/columbia-pictures) to produce the film but left the studio when he did not believe it would be correctly produced, then formed his own production company in London.[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/6125-PYGMALION?cp=1&cxt=Filmography2&pos=4&sid=4ec15733-718b-48db-b5a3-f77202a615b8&sr=0.11259612) Shaw was persuaded to work on the screenplay and make major changes, and was even prevailed on to write an introduction explaining the title.[5](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/aug/19/dvdreviews)
Filming began on 11 March 1938 at [Pinewood Studios](https://www.edgepedia.org/pinewood-studios), with Shaw appearing at a press luncheon there.[7](https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10179/2414/02_whole.pdf) • [8](https://www.tcm.com/articles/294375/george-bernard-shaw-profile) In remarks to *The New York Times*, Pascal said rehearsals lasted two weeks and that, instead of the customary £2, he paid £15 daily to leading London stage performers whom he engaged as extras.[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/6125-PYGMALION?cp=1&cxt=Filmography2&pos=4&sid=4ec15733-718b-48db-b5a3-f77202a615b8&sr=0.11259612)
**Casting.** Shaw initially resisted the casting of Leslie Howard, whom he thought too romantic for Higgins, but he himself chose [Wendy Hiller](https://www.edgepedia.org/wendy-hiller), then a stage actress, for her first major film role as Eliza.[5](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/aug/19/dvdreviews)
## Release and reception
M-G-M agreed in August 1938 to distribute the film in the United States, but the studio required some retakes, a new musical score, and other changes to "bring it up to American standards"; the film premiered in New York on 1 December 1938.[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/6125-PYGMALION?cp=1&cxt=Filmography2&pos=4&sid=4ec15733-718b-48db-b5a3-f77202a615b8&sr=0.11259612) It was both a critical and popular success, described as one of 1938's best movies and one of the biggest international British successes of the second half of the decade.[2](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/pygmalion-1938) • [10](https://www.wncc.org.uk/pdf/341.pdf) Shaw's screenplay won the Academy Award.[4](https://pressarchive.theoldglobe.org/_pdf/Programs/2012-13/Pygmalion_Program.pdf) On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 100% critics' score from 17 reviews.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1016943-pygmalion)
## Place in Shaw on film and legacy
Although the Germans had filmed *[Pygmalion](https://www.edgepedia.org/pygmalion-play)* in 1935 and a Dutch production by Filmex of Amsterdam followed in 1937, the 1938 film was the first successful English-language movie version of a Shaw play and the first really expert filming of his work.[2](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/pygmalion-1938) • [3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/6125-PYGMALION?cp=1&cxt=Filmography2&pos=4&sid=4ec15733-718b-48db-b5a3-f77202a615b8&sr=0.11259612) Its success encouraged Shaw and Pascal to plan further collaborations on the filming of Shaw plays, including *Major Barbara* (1941).[2](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/pygmalion-1938) The film made Wendy Hiller a sought-after film star, though she remained faithful to the stage and selective in her future movie roles.[2](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/pygmalion-1938)
The screenplay, rather than the original stage text, is the acknowledged source of [Alan Jay Lerner](https://www.edgepedia.org/alan-jay-lerner)'s *My Fair Lady*.[5](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/aug/19/dvdreviews) The film was edited by [David Lean](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-lean), early in his career, and the visual storytelling that often replaces pages of dialogue has been attributed to the German silent-era writer Carl Mayer (1894–1944), then living in British exile, who worked on the film without credit.[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/365) • [5](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/aug/19/dvdreviews) According to Kay Walsh's obituary in *The Daily Telegraph*, Walsh wrote additional dialogue for the film so seamlessly that it was said Bernard Shaw never noticed.[11](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1488807/Kay-Walsh.html) The film historian Roy Armes has argued that *Pygmalion* is a culminating point of British 1930s cinema because it deals consciously and explicitly with the underlying themes of the decade: class, morality, and accent.[7](https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10179/2414/02_whole.pdf)
## References
1. [Pygmalion (1938), The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/365)
2. [Pygmalion (1938), Toronto Film Society film notes](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/pygmalion-1938)
3. [Pygmalion, AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/6125-PYGMALION?cp=1&cxt=Filmography2&pos=4&sid=4ec15733-718b-48db-b5a3-f77202a615b8&sr=0.11259612)
4. [The Old Globe, Pygmalion program (2012–13)](https://pressarchive.theoldglobe.org/_pdf/Programs/2012-13/Pygmalion_Program.pdf)
5. [Philip French's DVD club: Pygmalion, The Guardian (2007)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/aug/19/dvdreviews)
6. [Pygmalion (1938), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1016943-pygmalion)
7. [Eliza underminded: the romanticisation of Shaw's Pygmalion, Massey University thesis](https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10179/2414/02_whole.pdf)
8. [George Bernard Shaw Profile, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/294375/george-bernard-shaw-profile)
9. [Eliza underminded: the romanticisation of Shaw's Pygmalion (textual comparison)](https://paperzz.com/doc/8689443/eliza-underminded--the-romanticisation-of-shaw-s-pygmalion)
10. [Woking's New Cinema Club notes on Pygmalion](https://www.wncc.org.uk/pdf/341.pdf)
11. [Kay Walsh obituary, The Daily Telegraph](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1488807/Kay-Walsh.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Adaptations of literature, stage, and other media › Films based on stage plays*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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