References

• Pygmalion at Athenaeum Brilliantly acted by Wendy Hiller and Leslie Howard, playing Liza Doolittle and Henry Higgins, Shaw’s play Pygmalion is brought to the screen (the sanguinary adjective and all) at the Athenaeum Theatre in a programme which reasserts the appeal of films to the intelligence. It may be argued that the dialectics of George Bernard Shaw are better suited to the stage (and the critic votes with the ‘ayes’), but the delicious humor, both broad and ironic, of this play suggests popular appeal. The flower girl of Covent Garden tempted to become a lady, learning the language and audacity of a duchess, taking a bath as a preliminary to taking the social plunge, and turning the tables on Higgins and Pickering Just as they begin to preen themselves on their, creation, offers rollicking comedy, whatever the form of its presentation.
• Pygmalion Shaw's play in which a Victorian dialect expert bets that he can teach a lower-class girl to speak proper English and thus be taken for a lady. Directors: Anthony Asquith, Leslie Howard