It is reported that polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) films are transparency when pressed, and it is called piezo-optical effect of PDLC films. The concepts of stressed liquid crystal, sheared liquid crystal and stretched liquid crystal for PDLC films are described respectively. The pictures of piezo-optical effect, polarized photographs of PDLC films, spectral analysis of electro-optical property and spectral analysis of piezo-optical effect are given. The principle of piezo-optical effect of PDLC films is also proposed, which believes that only if liquid crystal molecules in each micro-droplet are well orientated, the PDLC films will show transparency, no matter liquid crystal molecules in different droplets are well orientated or not. The piezo-optical effect of PDLC films poses questions to basic sciences of liquid crystal and may be applied in a lot of new press-optical applications without electricity (press-windows, functional glass, optical fiber press sensor, etc.).