PYGMALION IN SOUTH AFRICA

Later adapted as My Fair Lady George Bernard Shaw's wonderful comedy of manners is given its finest screen outing in this 1938 production. Nominated for four Oscars, Shaw himself was one of the recipients of the award for best screenplay. Snobbish Professor Higgins has a wager with his friend Colonel Pickering that with the right instruction he can pass off cockney gutter-snipe Eliza Doolittle as a lady among high society. Taken under his wing Eliza is given rigorous coaching in elocution and manners in preparation for the ultimate test, her appearance at an ambassador s reception.