Watch The Importance of Being Earnest For Free

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Copyright 10 March 1953 by British Film Makers, Ltd. (In notice: 1952). Released in the U.S. by Universal International Films: 22 December 1952. New York opening at the Baronet: 22 December 1952. U.K. release through General Film Distributors: 1 September 1952. Australian release through British Empire Films: 11 December 1952. SYNOPSIS: Two young men-about-town lead double lives. One is a sophisticated worldly in London and a doting guardian in Hertfordshire; the other uses an imaginary relative to cover his sprees. COMMENT: There may have been no particular reason for filming "Ernest" in 1952, but this is certainly a splendid example of how to go about it. Asquith and his associates have captured the style and elegance of the period with admirable skill and expertise. This Technicolor film is a delight to the eye, a choice parade of period wallpaper and nineteenth-century bric-a-brac. The players fit the mood perfectly, bringing to their work an over-emphasis that is part of the style of the play.The most interesting role in the story is that of Lady Bracknell, an aristocratic bulldozer. This character was well known to be one of the most famous portraits in the gallery of Edith Evans, so it is great to see it on the screen.Michael Redgrave and Michael Denison play the two secretive young men with just the right amount of flourish. Dorothy Tutin proved a very interesting and decorative new-comer in a placid little part. Oddly, her movie career never really took off. Although she is listed with no less than 54 titles at IMDb, this is the only one I could recall. Mind you, aside from "The Beggar's Opera", "A Tale of Two Cities", "Cromwell" and :Savage Messiah", most of her acting was in TV series episodes.This is not a film which will cause you to fall off your chair, laughing. Its virtues are theatrical, literary and ornamental. But it is an effective and faithful adaptation of Wilde's play. ANOTHER VIEW: Well, when I caught up with the movie again on TV, I laughed. Often. Loud. Particularly in the First Act. Perhaps the play doesn't really suit a big screen and plays better in a more intimate atmosphere. And about 95% of the film is the same as the play. But disregarding the fact that the order and locality of some scenes has been changed, only about 85% of the play is represented in the film. Asquith has an irritating habit of cutting Wilde's wittiest lines. But with such a stylishly Victorian production and such charismatic playing (even from the normally dull Michael Denison), only the most rabid purists will notice.

This "Importance of Being Earnest" is a funny movie derived from Oscar Wilde's best play. There are no clunkers in the cast and hardly a wrong step is made, even when Wilde is altered.Dame Edith Evans did not make her stage debut until fifteen years after "Earnest" first premiered, so Oscar Wilde could not have had her in mind when he created the role of Lady Bracknell; but she is so perfect it becomes difficult to imagine anyone else in the part, ever. She manages to squeeze every note of the music of human language into simple words like "found" and "handbag." Margaret Rutherford and Miles Malleson, two famous and prolific actors of the "British dotty school" come very close to being ideal for their more minor parts of (respectfully) Miss Prism and Dr. Chasuble.For the young lovers, the women are well chosen and make a fine contrast. Sultry-voiced Joan Greenwood has had a solid film career to this point (including the Alec Guiness classic "Man in a White Suit") and she knows how to deliver a comic line. Then new-comer Dorthy Tutin is so good with her lines, you'd think she was an old-hand, rather than a fresh-faced, twenty-two year old newcomer making her first major film appearance.The "young men" are sometimes thought of as more problematic. Michael Redgrave (unfortunately known these days more for being the father of Vanessa and Lynn than for his great acting) was in his forties. Mainly stage-bound actor Michael Denison was in his thirties. Denison wonderfully limns the all-important character of Algernon Moncrieff. He's young-looking and exuberant and delivers his lines with great care and consideration (Algernon is an easy character to go hammy with and Denison avoids that trap).For his part, Redgrave compensates for his age by an exquisitely-honed performance. Not only is his delivery spot-on, he practically gives a workshop on how to get a laugh with a slight twitch of a mustache or the roll of an eye. Redgrave and Denison seem to be having a high old time with their roles, while taking them seriously and never overacting.Also, be on the look-out for long-time supporting actor Richard Wattis as "Seton." Blink, and you'll miss him, as he flits in to raise a supercilious eyebrow or two.Some Wilde purists may object to the expurgation of lines. Many of the lines cut are the sort of thing that probably just struck Wilde as "a good idea at the time" and no one will miss them. Other lines may have been cut to keep this movie short, light and frothy. Wilde could be very funny, but he could also be unnecessarily cruel. I don't think he would have been a nice man to know, the way he could sling around hurtful lines to humorous effect. All his characters have been accused of "talking like Wilde" -- which is true to different degrees. A few of the missing lines were genuine, polished gems and it was a pity they weren't included. Also, the sub-plot of Grisby, which only appears in longer versions of the play, does not rear its ugly head in this short version (and good riddance). I, for one, am glad they kept the movie light and without a mean bone in its body.The movie has also been changed subtly from the stage. The stage version has the action taking place on a minimum of sets. The movie remains bound to the sound-stage and never really ventures out of doors (even in the outdoors scenes) but it adds a few more sets and more mobility. For instance, it begins in Jack's flat rather than in Algernon's. For me, this works even better than the stage version and gives Jack a good reason to throw one of Algernon's lines back in his face.So, you have a good play shorn of overmuch dialogue and a solid cast acting their hearts out. I don't know why I call it "Almost Perfect."

Long regarded as the definitive version of Oscar Wilde's classic play, Asquith's adaptation still suffers from the faults of the original despite being heavily edited (running at what ought to be a brisk 90 minutes)."Earnest" is a social satire, a comedy of nonsensical manners and civilities, the like of which Wilde continually penned, and its plot - whilst relying heavily on co-incidence - is satisfyingly circular and consistent. The problem lies with the fact that very little actually happens, and what does happen occurs very, very slowly due to the sheer verbosity of the dialogue. Now, much of this is what gives the play its charm and it cannot be denied that the syntax and vocabulary has a beauty all of its own. However, one can admire a work of art whilst not necessarily liking it. An Oscar Wilde play is whimsical and not to be taken altogether seriously, which means that, though they are witty, they are ultimately quite superficial - this coupled with the sheer amount of dialogue often makes a Wilde play seem far longer than it actually is. I often think that Wilde's plays are far better when read than actually performed, as when performed they are often far too much to take in in one go. You feel pinned to the chair by the waves of dry wit."The Importance of Being Earnest" therefore has a delightful plot, and equally delightful characters, but remains just as slow as Wilde's other plays, especially when directed in such a languid fashion as this version. For a dialogue heavy comedy such as this to entirely work, a sense of energy much be cultivated (I was recently in a theatrical adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray which suffered from having very little energy at all and ultimately proved a chore for the audience to watch) which is all but lacking here as the characters go about everything quite calmly and stoically. Of course, this is arguably in keeping with the source material but makes the film difficult for modern viewers to sit through. A shame as the majority of the cast is first rate; in particular, Michael Denison is superb as Algernon, though it is difficult to single out anybody in particular (interesting, though, that Rutherford's Miss Prism is often used as the focus of relevant artwork for the film given that the role is really quite small, even more so in this adaptation - it is perhaps tantamount to Rutherford's performance that her Miss Prism is so well remembered). I must admit to not really enjoying Edith Evans' portrayal of Lady Bracknell, though that may be more due to the character as written; though Evans is very much the gorgon of which Jack Worthing speaks, the witticisms Wilde scribes for her are far better when delivered as casual rapid-fire lines, as opposed to the over-emphasised and long delivery that an actress feels compelled to give when playing Bracknell. Evans stretches out lines to breaking point so that when she has finished a sentence one quite forgets as to how it began.The play itself deserves to remain a classic of its genre though perhaps is more likely to be admired than actively enjoyed, certainly in this incarnation.

"The Importance of Being Earnest" is basically an adaptation of the Oscar Wilde's play for the screen, in other words, a stagy film. Nothing wrong with that, many films succeeded quite well this way, but here the caricatural acting spoils the overall effect. This is a theatrical film with performances that could work well on the stage, aided by the complicity and laughter of an audience. The acting could be even exaggerated if the film were made differently. "The Importance of Being Earnest" should have used fully the possibilities allowed by the play - respectability, social conventions, cynicism, hypocrisy, joie de vivre .... all living together under the same roof. This could have been dynamite if it had been handled right.Unfortunately, the actors are quick in using voices, smiles, eyebrows... to enhance every comic situation - this was not necessary! Oscar Wilde's play needs no underlining. In the "Importance of Being Earnest" there's a crescendo that should be considered. It starts as a light comedy, growing up slowly (innuendos and double entendres contend with respectability) ending finally in an explosion of laughter bursting out of a cathedral of joy. When I read the play as a teenager I liked it a lot - so much, in fact, that I read it again some years ago and I was hoping to repeat the fun with this film. Well, this did not occur. The film is just slightly funny. The story should be treated with the daring and irreverence that were Oscar Wilde's qualities. What we see instead is a "classic" comedy more appropriate perhaps for a museum.