158 The Importance of Being Earnest

[Martha]

The Importance of Being Earnest

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Oscar Wilde's comic jewel sparkles in Anthony Asquith's film adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest. Featuring brilliantly polished performances by Michael Redgrave, Joan Greenwood, and Dame Edith Evans, the enduringly hilarious story of two young women who think themselves engaged to the same nonexistent man is given the grand Technicolor treatment. Seldom has a classic stage comedy been so engagingly transferred to the screen. The Criterion Collection is proud to present The Importance of Being Earnest on DVD for the first time.

Special Features

- New digital transfer
- Rare production stills
- Original theatrical trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired

Criterionforum.org user rating averages

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[Matt]

Almar Haflidason's review from the BBC:

Despite a few tweaks to Oscar Wilde's frighteningly witty play, director and writer Anthony Asquith serves up a truly delightful screen version of "The Importance of Being Earnest".

The complaint of the time, and occasionally since, is that Asquith's direction is mired in theatrical rather than cinematic technique. Those who offer such criticisms are clearly missing the point. Weaker films ultimately demand a greater use of the camera. But "Earnest" is built upon a delightful play of words, misunderstanding and confusion that intertwine and incredibly deliver a conclusion, all with consummately elegant wit.

Filmed in unashamedly glorious Technicolor, the film follows the play's three acts, each divided by the lowering of a red curtain. Events are set in the seemingly carefree world of Victorian England where the two young and wealthy dandies of the piece, the earnest Jack Worthing (Redgrave) and the dashing Algernon Moncrieff (Denison) dwell.

Jack is in love with the delightful Gwendolen Fairfax (Greenwood), whom he courts in the city under the name of Ernest. Unfortunately Algernon falls for Jack's ward Cecily (Tutin) and in an attempt to woo her, he pretends to be Jack's brother Ernest.

Complications naturally abound from this farcical situation with Gwendolen's mother, the fearsome Lady Bracknell (Evans) bitterly opposing any union due to Jack having been found as an orphaned baby in a handbag.

All the performances are a sheer delight to watch with plaudits going to Margaret Rutherford as the wonderfully dotty Miss Prism and Edith Evans as the formidable Lady Bracknell.

[blindside8zao]

Redgrave and Denison are a very delightful pair in this. It is very theatrical but I believe that the films opening and closing with the curtains admits this from the start.

[tryavna]

Yeah, it's definitely employing the same sort of framing device that Olivier uses in Henry V (i.e., that film opens and closes as if it were a performance at the historic Globe theater). Both "admissions" -- so to speak -- do a lot to defuse any complaints that the films are overly theatrical by emphasizing that each film's style lies in that very theatricality. Personally, I like both films very much. But I probably prefer Ernest because I think Branagh's production of Henry V is even better than Olivier's. But the remake of Ernest comes nowhere close to capturing the charm of Asquith's original.

[Narshty]

It's also got the truly legendary Edith Evans. Anyone who loves her as Lady Bracknell (which should mean everyone) should see her give one of the most frightening performances of all time in The Queen of Spades, made a few years earlier.

[Feego]

A poster on the IMDb says that the male spectator sitting down in the balcony at the very beginning of the film is director Anthony Asquith. I can see a resemblance, but I haven't been able to find any conclusive evidence that it really is him. Does anyone here know for sure if the man in the opening scene actually is Asquith?

[HarryLong]

It's also got the truly legendary Edith Evans. Anyone who loves her as Lady Bracknell (which should mean everyone) should see her give one of the most frightening performances of all time in The Queen of Spades, made a few years earlier.

It also offers an equally nasty performance from Anton Walbrook.

[Ashirg]

Film is getting a blu-ray release in UK from Network on September 5th.