The Importance of Being Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest
October 15, 1952
Pinewood
Comedy, Historical
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I could've sworn I owned this movie, but it turns out it was on a tape I loaned to a friend and he lost, years ago.  Had I known that I no longer had the movie, I would've bought the DVD, and I will as soon as possible.  Rather than omit the film from the project, I cheated a little and rented it from Amazon.  This seems appropriate for a movie about dishonesty.

Also, every time I watch the movie (and I have seen it a couple times in recent years), I'm always a little surprised that it's in color.  Perhaps because I associate it with Kind Hearts and Coronets, I remember it as black & white.  Furthermore, it's a movie that deliberately looks like a stageplay (including framing scenes in a theatre at the beginning and end), and it's much more memorable for Wilde's wit than for any visual element.  (My review of the play is here:  http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2012/03/importance-of-being-earnest.html.)  That said, I like how there's a subtle use of color and theme, particularly in the costumes, as when Gwendolyn and her mother both wear butterfly hats, in a town scene where Algy has butterflies on his china; or when pink, blue, and flowers are used in sets and costumes for the scenes set in the country.

The movie is perfectly cast, more so in retrospect compared to the 2002 Colin Firth et al. mess.  Joan Greenwood is as slinky as she was in Kind Hearts and Coronets (although classier of course).  Michael Denison is utterly charming as Algy.  (Amusingly, he played John Worthing in the 1958 TV adaptation.)  Dame Edith Evans, as Lady Bracknell, makes the most of her lines, sometimes elongating syllables for extra effect (as with "found" and "handbag").  Margaret Rutherford and Miles Malleson make a cute elderly courting couple.  (He was the hangman in KHaC.)  The rest (it's a very small cast) are good, too, if less memorable.  (Richard Wattis, who plays the servant Seton, was the defence counsel in KHaC.)    It's not a perfect film-- for one thing, some of the best lines in the play didn't make it into the screenplay-- but it is worth a listen, and to a lesser degree a look.