Observation: Pygmalion is a better story than My Fair Lady

[supernova]

I recorded the movie Pygmalion when it was on TCM a while ago. The screenplay was written by George Bernard Shaw.

It's a much more nuanced story than My Fair Lady. To whit:

-Henry Higgins is more of a bachelor slob in P, rather than the Felix Ungerish cartoon in MFL. The housekeeper has to remind him to be dressed for breakfast and not use his bathrobe as a napkin. LOL.
- Eliza's East Londonese is much more believable.
- Her dad's speech about not being able to afford middle-class morals is genuinely heartbreaking. MIA in the musical.
- Her first formal outing to his mom's salon is rather cute. This seems to be missing from the musical.

That's all I've seen so far. Haven't finished the whole thing.

[MrCoffee]

1. Romeo and Juliet is better than West Side Story

but, the Taming of the Shrew is not better than 10 Things I Hate About You

[supernova]

4. Hrmm

I've never particularly liked Taming of the Shrew for all the obvious reasons, but the language alone is better than 10TIHAY.

[Orsino]

5. Well, yeah.

Leguizamo was awesome.

[TZ]

6. But Kiss Me Kate is much better than Taming of the Shrew

Yeah, I'm a musical theater geek too...:P

[supernova]

8. Thank you!

I knew there was a version I was missing.

:toast: for Kiss me Kate!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSmZfnax1yw

[whistler162]

11. True... but only as long as you brush up your Shakespeare.....

[no name no slogan]

2. Shaw was an America-hating Socialist

And the anti-capitalist overtones in Pygmalion were there on purpose. It was written as a critique of capitalism and it shows. In addition to watching the film, read the script. It's even better.

My undergrad thesis was on politics and the arts, and consequently I read a lot of Shaw (and Brecht, and Arthur Miller, and even August Wilson and Spike Lee). It's all there, if you look for it...

[supernova]

3. Yes, and it's obvious

that all those points were scrubbed clean from My Fair Lady.

[no name no slogan]

7. Kind of sad, isn't it?

The producers tend to do a good job of whitewashing a lot of the political bits from our entertainment-- especially the leftist, pro-working class bits.

If you didn't know the back story to My Fair Lady, you'd think it was a nice story about some poor girl working hard and bettering herself. Almost the complete opposite of what Shaw was saying originally.

[supernova]

9. Yeah, when did he die

Was he still alive when MFL came along?

I wonder how he felt/would have felt about it?

[no name no slogan]

10. He was six years dead by the time of MFL

He died in 1950, and MFL came out in 1956. Right at the height of the postwar consumerist boom, no less.

And I've wondered that myself, what he would have thought of it. That's a good question.

[Graybeard]

12. Goodbye Mr. Chips: American vs Brit versions.

I always liked the sentimental 1939 film but had never read the James Hilton story. A few years ago PBS aired a British version that was so different it was mind-blowing. A disturbing sub-text about the cruel and sadistic hazing that was (is?) so prevalent in English schools was totally missing from the film.

[Enrique]

13. but "She's all that" tops them all

Freddy Prinze Jr.!

[Graybeard]

14. kick

[rug]

15. Ovid knew his stuff.

http://www.uvm.edu/~hag/ovid/garth/garthb10p96.html