MAJOR BARBARA (1941)

Cast

Plot

George Bernard Shaw's satiric comedy about wealth and poverty is brought to the screen with wonderful performances by Rex Harrison and Wendy Hiller. Hiller, who took the title role at Bernard Shaw's insistence, plays Major Barbara Undershaft, a major in the Salvation Army.Barbara, who champions the downtrodden with an idealistic fervor, that is seen as naive by her armaments pedaling father (Robert Morley).In love with Barbara is the young Greek scholar Adolphus Cusins (Rex Harrison), whose attentions go unreturned since Barbara is blind to anything beyond her crusade against wealth.Apart from the main leads there is an early appearance by Deborah Kerr and a particularly manic performance by Robert Newman.The plays social satire remains as sharp as when it was written and there is something strangely old-fashioned about the displacement of the egocentric by the grander creed of social responsibility.