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The Book
Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw’s play about the power of phonetics to disrupt the social protection of income inequality, was first staged in London in 1914, two years before the film East is East opened in cinemas. This was presumably not a coincidence, and both dramas capitalize on public fascination (tinged at this time with fear) with the distinction – seeming increasingly fragile – between upper and lower class culture, and in this case specifically the East and West Ends of London of the time. Both stories come to the same comforting conclusion. That people are people? No. That East is East.
Actually, the end of the play is more ambiguous than the end of the film, as plays are apt to be. Eliza Doolittle learns a great deal that she will never unlearn, and even in 1914 one part of the audience actually felt that “the happy ending” would have her marrying the boorish Mr. Higgins. Shaw himself spent decades fighting this, beginning with a quite wonderful postscript added in 1916. Despite these efforts, My Fair Lady in 1956 gave in to the foolish romantics; it is, after all a musical, not a play. By that time the class miscegenation was more socially acceptable – and the character of Higgins had evolved a bit as well. At least let’s hope so, for 1956 Eliza’s sake.
The Movie
In fact, the film does not follow the play very closely – and for reasons beyond the little problem of copyright infringement. Centering the action on phonetics would be tough going in a silent film. Instead it follows very much the standard plot of pretty much all cinematic romance – boy wins girl, boy loses girl, beyond all hope they end up together – in heaven, only without the inconvenience of dying. Was that a spoiler? No, this is a movie, and though not an American film, clearly influenced by American film romance. As usual, what makes the film wonderful are the details.
Florence Turner is amazing as Vicky, the fiercely independent protagonist. But the film also takes advantage of not being a play, tied to indoor sets; Vicky’s world is not as circumscribed as that of Eliza Doolittle. Vicky’s family, poor as they are, get their own working summer vacation picking hops out in the country in Kent. Those sequences are certainly more beautiful and striking to the audience than the grand houses Vicky also comes to know – and which we all see all the time in film, if not in real life.
What play and film have in common is their celebration of the strength and integrity of the central character, their exploration of the multiple facets of upper and lower class London culture, and the desire of the audience to see people find happiness, whatever life may throw at them. Would that we all be as lucky in our own lives!