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.
Writing
Shaw's razor dialogue barely softened
Acting
Hiller's Eliza—feral, then fierce, never fragile
Costume
The ascot-to-ascension wardrobe journey
Director
Anthony Asquith
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
Leueen MacGrath
Clara Eynsford-Hill
Esme Percy
Count Aristid Karpathy
Violet Vanbrugh
Ambassadress
Irene Browne
Duchess
Kate Cutler
Grand Old Lady
O.B. Clarence
Mr. Birchwood
Ivor Barnard
Sarcastic Bystander
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The real Pygmalion myth ends with the statue coming alive and marrying her creator—Shaw's version is deliberately, viciously different.
GB
