Movie Review: Pygmalion (1938)

A romantic drama and comedy, Pygmalion provides sharp commentary on classism and the battle between the sexes.

In London, linguistics professor Henry Higgins (Leslie Howard) encounters poor flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Wendy Hiller) at Covent Garden. Her coarse language and unrefined pronunciation agitate his senses. Higgins boasts to his colleague Colonel George Pickering (Scott Sunderland) that with three to six months of training he can pass Eliza off as a duchess.

The next morning she shows up at his doorstep, reluctantly willing to undergo the transformation. Soon her father Alfred (Wilfrid Lawson) appears, looking for a few pounds in return for giving up his daughter. With intensive effort Eliza makes progress, and Higgins introduces her to his mother (Marie Lohr) while local gentleman Freddy (David Tree) falls in love with Eliza at first sight. The big test looms at a gala event hosted by the Ambassador of Transylvania.

An adaptation of the 1913 George Bernard Shaw play, Pygmalion boasts a witty, dynamic script, clashing characters, multiple attractive settings and brisk pacing. The British production is co-directed by Anthony Asquith and star Leslie Howard with an eye on revealing the superficial differences separating England's classes. The film gently mocks both upper class haughtiness and working class contentment, with only Eliza possessing the courage to test the divide.

With class differences rumbling from the first scene, the film's longer arc concerns men and women, and particularly Higgins' brand of narcissistic masculinity blocking his path towards finding love. Howard (looking younger than his 45 years) brings an uncompromising edge to the role of a stubbornly confirmed batchelor refusing any accommodation in his approach to life. Shaw creates a genuinely difficult-to-like character at the middle of a would-be romance, both frustrating narrative conventions and challenging Eliza's commitment.

Her quest becomes doubly difficult: to self-improve and seep into Higgins' expertly defended heart. Wendy Hiller is up to the task in a touching and defiant performance, starting in the gutter and culminating with an understanding of what it really takes to thrive. Eliza's climactic dilemma is to decide on a future path, and the film's final act and tentative ending cannot disguise the hard work required to close the gap between two strong personalities.

Beneath the frequent sparring, Pygmalion carries an admirably gentle spirit, representing Shaw's optimism about British society's essence. Colonel Pickering and Mrs. Higgins are immediately welcoming and respectful towards Eliza, and they both offer a refuge away from the caustic Higgins. Even Freddy looks well past Eliza's rough edges and allows love to consume him.

Shaw co-wrote the Academy Award winning script, which was subsequently the basis for the 1956 musical play My Fair Lady and the lavish 1964 Hollywood treatment. The 1938 version may lack the celebratory musical panache, but the astute words speak for themselves.

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Movie Review: A Man For All Seasons (1966)

The biography of Sir Thomas More based on Robert Bolt's play, A Man For All Seasons is a distinguished talkfest and engrossingly well-acted. The story of a principled member of the intelligentsia refusing to bend to the will of his king brings to life the high stakes political games of sixteenth century England which shaped the future of both religion and the monarchy.

It's the early 1500s, and Cardinal Wolsey (Orson Welles) summons the independent-minded member of the Privy Council Sir Thomas More (Paul Scofield) to discuss a looming crisis. King Henry VIII (Robert Shaw) is trying to circumvent the church and invent the necessary laws allowing him to divorce his wife Catherine of Aragon and marry mistress Anne Boleyn. A principled lawyer, Sir Thomas sees no legal reason for the Pope to grant an annulment, and resists the pressure to support the King's machinations.

Sir Thomas is later appointed by the King to the powerful position of Lord Chancellor. His wife Alice (Wendy Hiller), daughter Margaret (Susannah York), son-in-law William Roper (Corin Redgrave) and friend the Duke of Norfolk (Nigel Davenport) are all outspoken and provide him with varying opinions about the unfolding battle between the King and the Church. Henry desperately wants the necessary legal cover for the annulment, but Sir Thomas stands by his principles and resigns his office, maintaining silence as the King breaks away from the Catholic Church and declares himself head of the Church of England. Thomas Cromwell (Leo McKern), a senior advisor to the King, and Richard Rich (John Hurt), an ambitious but morally weak man, start to plot against More.

Effectively a series of long, thoughtful conversations among a diverse group of powerful politicians, A Man For All Seasons builds authoritative momentum from complex characters. The personality contrasts allow the film to sparkle. Sir Thomas, King Henry, Cromwell and Rich all bring markedly different skills to their positions of influence. More is steeped in principle, King Henry wields his power with flamboyant madness, Cromwell is the conniving back-room operator, and Rich is the weaselly weakling, seeking undeserved position simply to satisfy naked ambition.

With nothing going on except the talking, A Man For All Seasons is all about the acting, the sets, and the costumes. The cast deliver with perfection, immersing themselves in their characters and making full use of the excellent prose in Robert Bolt's screenplay. In an Academy Award winning performance, Paul Scofield reprises his stage role and gives Sir Thomas a dignified air and a calmness that comes from possessing the deepest convictions. With More easily able to reconcile the laws of the land with the rules of the Church, Scofield portrays a man patient with others of lesser intellect and at peace with the destiny that comes from standing on principle and opposing the will of the King.

In one his earliest film roles, John Hurt portrays Rich with searching eyes and a brain racing in all the wrong directions. Hurt captures the tentativeness of man out of his depth but riding a blind drive for power, and as More sacrifices all to stay true to his values, Rich slowly but surely sacrifices all his morals in an ugly grab for higher office. Leo McKern succeeds in portraying Cromwell as the worst example of a dark political operator, alternating between promises and threats, all delivered in couched language, to serve the master of the day and extend his own reach. In a relatively small role, Robert Shaw has fun as King Henry VIII, all bombast, loud laughter, and pomposity fuelled by exaggerated arrogance and blind entitlement. Vanessa Redgrave appears in an end-credited cameo as a radiant Anne Boleyn.

Director Fred Zinnemann, who also produced, directs at a stately pace and does his best to find some exteriors, but has to be satisfied with some repetitive river-boat taxi shots, predictable gardens and static gargoyles. He does better bringing lush interiors to life, the set designs of A Man For All Seasons recreating the grandeur of life in the top echelons of English society, as well as the dark offices and holding cells where the real decisions are made and implemented.

Resisting the will of the King is ultimately not about right or wrong. Rather, Sir Thomas More demonstrated a pure example of supreme personal courage to be true to his own bedrock beliefs, no matter what the sacrifice.

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Movie Review: The Elephant Man (1980)

The true tragic story of Joseph (John) Merrick, a horribly disfigured man who lived in London of the late 1800s, The Elephant Man is a movie that finds tenderness deep within abomination.

Dr. Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins) tracks down the frighteningly distorted Elephant Man, a freakshow owned by the brutal Bytes (Freddie Jones). The Elephant Man is actually John Merrick (John Hurt), born with a disease that caused extreme enlargement of his skull, skin outgrowths, a uselessly overgrown right arm, and a mangled spine. After initially examining Merrick purely as a medical exercise, Treves delves deeper and discovers that Merrick is intelligent and can actually talk and read.

London Hospital's Governor (John Gielgud) eventually agrees to make a room available to house and care for Merrick. Gradually London's upper classes, including theatre star Madge Kendal (Anne Bancroft) hear about The Elephant Man and start to visit him, although the hospital's night watchman continues a side-business of profiteering. Bytes has plans to regain control of Merrick as a meal ticket, and Treves has to deal with the guilt of continued exploitation.

Ironically, The Elephant Man was one of the more mainstream films created by director and co-writer David Lynch. Staying close to historical facts, Lynch introduces Merrick with masterful artistry. For the first 30 minutes of the film Merrick is only seen in glimpses, under a shroud or from behind a curtain. Only once the context is set, the locales established, Merrick's suffering outlined, and the characters of Treves and Bytes introduced is Lynch ready to reveal The Elephant Man. It's a mature strategy of patience that works brilliantly in building anticipation and humanizing the subject prior to foisting him upon the screen.

Lynch and cinematographer Freddie Francis make excellent use of the black and white photography to recreate the seedy London back alleys where sleaze thrives, and to capture the earliest days of industrialization and nascent medical progress.

A still svelte Anthony Hopkins gives a complex performance as Dr. Treves, a man who initially just sees in Merrick an opportunity to advance his status. Hopkins allows Treves his pompous moment of bluster in front of his London medical establishment colleagues, but soon steers the character to a much more distinguished role as Merrick's gateway to society. But the doctor's journey not yet over, as Hopkins has to convey Treves' mounting revulsion that he may have only succeeded in helping Merrick move from one freakshow to another, albeit a high class one.

John Hurt performs admirably underneath a mountain of make-up, and projects emotion with physical gestures and through a monstrously disfigured face. It does not take long for Hurt's eyes to channel trauma, joy, pain and longing. Hurt completely overcomes Merrick's deformation and releases the human within.

In the support roles, Freddie Jones, John Gielgud, Anne Bancroft and Wendy Hiller provide serious depth to the outstanding cast.

Society's response to tragic suffering brings out the best and the worst of human behaviour. The Elephant Man captures the base instinct to stand, stare, and profit, as well as the noble ability to bend down and help. The film leaves no doubt as to which course of action causes civilization to move forward.

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