Description: Professor Henry Higgins boasts to a friend that he can teach a flower girl with a thick Cockney accent to "speak like a lady." She overhears him. A few days later, she appears at his front door offering to pay for speech lessons. Pygmalion is a popular play written by George Bernard Shaw. The screenplay for the movie was also written by Shaw. The play served as the basis for the musical My Fair Lady.

Benefits: Pygmalion describes how accent can determine economic opportunity and social status. It also provides an introduction to phonetics and to the Greek myth of Pygmalion. The movie allows children to work through the romantic situations of Eliza, Higgins and Eliza's friend, Freddie. Eliza demonstrates an inner strength that will not accept the limitations of a class system that denies the intrinsic value of the individual. Higgins, immersed in his studies, is blind to most human emotions. This black and white version is appropriate for older children who are studying drama, who love My Fair Lady, or who are learning about the Greek myths.