Pygmalion's Birthday
On August 29, 1938, the British film "Pygmalion", directed by Anthony Esquith and Leslie Howard, premiered at the Venice International Film Festival. The film was based on the play of the same name by the great British playwright, laureate of the Nobel Prize for Literature (1925), George Bernard Shaw.
There was only a year left before the start of World War II, but future allies were already determined. Therefore, the main prize of this festival was the film “Olympia” by Leni Riefenstahl. At the same time, there was still a whole year before the war. Therefore, the main award for the best male role was received by the British actor Leslie Howard, the lead actor in the film "Pygmalion".
The film was nominated for an Oscar in four categories, but won only one - for the best screenplay. The team of screenwriters was led by George Bernard Shaw himself, based on whose play the script of this film was written. Bernard Shaw first participated in the creation of a screenplay. The fact is that before this several attempts to film his most famous play ended in failure, and he decided to take the reins of government in his own hands. And succeeded in that.
In the nomination "Best Picture" the American Film Academy awarded the victory to the American film "You Can't Take It with You" by Frank Capra. In addition to "Pygmalion", French film "La Grande Illusion" by Jean Renoir was included in the company of relative "losers", which consisted of 9 films.
When the award for the best screenplay was announced to George Bernard Shaw and his team, the great playwright joked: "Mr. Shaw’s story is as original today as it was three thousand years ago."
When George Bernard Shaw died in 1950, his house in Ayot St. Lawrence became a museum. One of the artifacts in it is his Oscar, which had become so tarnished that the curator assumed it had no value, and had been using it as a door stop.
In the cinemas of the USSR, the film was not shown. Although this is strange. After all, George Bernard Shaw was an ardent admirer of Stalin and his policies. It is believed that the United States agreed to establish diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union in 1933, largely due to a speech delivered by George Bernard Shaw addressed to American radio listeners.
With a budget of £ 87,000 (or $ 425,430), the film grossed $ 1.4 million, a testament to the film's massive success with moviegoers. Modern moviegoers also highly rated the film "Pygmalion" by Anthony Esquith and Leslie Howard: 65% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users gave the film ratings from 8 to 10.
With that said, the rating of Anthony Esquith and Leslie Howard's "Pygmalion" by FilmGourmand was 7,932, making it 820th in the Golden Thousand.
