Pygmalion

Although this TV version, produced by Margot Kidder herself, is much closer to Shaw's original play than either the 1938 filming or MY FAIR LADY, I still find Wendy Hiller and Leslie Howard did the best job of realising the spirit of the play. The problem here is mainly in the casting. Margot and Peter are obviously trying their best, and are enthusiastic about the play, but it just doesn't come off. Peter O'Toole seems on the ragged edge of drunk most of the time. Margot Kidder is a bit too much "in your face" to produce the effect of sweetness which is basic to the character of "Eliza". Sure, she is a tough street girl, but she longs for affection and friendship as well as advancement in the world. Margot doesn't produce this effect. The two best acting jobs are by Frances Hyland as Mrs. Higgins, and by John Standing as Col. Pickering.

As for those who prefer MY FAIR LADY, I'll agree it is a beautiful spectacle, but that confounded "Opera Seria" format gets in the way of the story. If you eliminate the music, it's a pretty good "Pygmalion". But it's outrageously extrapolated from Shaw.

Both O'Toole and Kidder look like ghosts in this television adaptation of the classic Shaw play about a stuffy phonetics teacher who takes a common flower girl the ways of being a lady. Although O'Toole fares well as Henry Higgins, the production as a whole is a dreary affair.

Peter O'Toole brings a different tone to the role of Henry Higgins than did Rex Harrison, the actor most commonly associated with the noted British linguist. O'Toole's talent is as undeniable and obvious as ever, but his performance is much wilder and rougher around the edges than Harrison's was. Unfortunately, Margot Kidder was not up to the role of Eliza Doolittle and the only thing worse than her "cultured" English is the lower-class Cockney dialect used early on. Frances Hyland stands out as Mrs. Higgins, Henry's mother, but the few other parts are given short shrift and are eminently forgettable.

Alan Cooke's direction is quite capable for a television production. Overall this version stands on it's own adequately enough, but it pales in comparison to the film "My Fair Lady."

Comparisons with "My Fair Lady" are unfair to this fine television version of "Pygmalion." O'Tool gives a wonderful eccentric performance as Henry Higgens and Margot Kidder is a fine Eliza, but the quality which I especially find valuable when I use this version to teach in my Introduction to Literature is the speeches both Mrs. Pierce and Mrs. Higgens give which are cut from the musical to make room for all that wonderful music. Thus the female voice of Mrs. Higgens, "No No, you two infinitely stupid male creatures!" (Act III line 198), is lost. Also the ending, which is even more vague than the musical about the future of the two main characters, is a wonderful leap off for class discussion about "middle class" expectations. I really enjoy all of this production.

Anderson Rearick Mount Vernon Nazarene University Mount Vernon, OH.

Here's the skinny. Peter O'Toole is rarely less than good. In most of his roles, he's fabulous. Here, he's adequate. He can do almost anything but he lacks the aplomb associated with Higgins. I wonder how the Irish Shaw would feel about him. Margot Kidder is dreadful. Donald Ewer is Alfred Doolittle. I'm not familiar with his work (I went to a version of MY FAIR LADY with Clive Revel as Doolittle and he was magnificent, but I suppose they lacked a budget for an actor of his stature for Doolittle). John Standing is more than adequate for Pickering. He does "intelligent cluelessness" well.

It was apparently produced as a showcase for Kidder and her being Canadian was no worse than O'Toole being Irish but matriculating at RADA.

I'd give O'Toole a pass and I can admire a fiesty Eliza giving as good as she got, but Kidder comes off as merely petulant. Too bad. It was an idea worth trying but English drawing room comedy isn't Kidder's forte.