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The Importance of Being Earnest [DVD]

Screenplay : Anthony Asquith (based on the play by Oscar Wilde)

MPAA Rating : NR

Year of Release : 1952

Stars : Michael Redgrave (Jack Worthing), Michael Denison (Algernon Moncrieff), Edith Evans (Lady Bracknell), Joan Greenwood (Gwendolyn Fairfax), Dorothy Tutin (Cecily Cardew), Margaret Rutherford (Miss Letitia Prism), Miles Malleson (Canon Chasuble)

As the most oft-produced of Oscar Wilde's plays and one of the great stage comedies of all time, The Importance of Being Earnest has reached a level of cultural familiarity that, surprisingly enough, has not detracted one bit from its ability to amuse. Not really laugh-out-loud funny, it is rather one that keeps you constantly smiling and chuckling because the wit and wisdom that were Wilde's hallmarks just keep coming. One after another, the lines of dialogue remind you of just how brilliant Wilde was with the written word and just how sad is the state of most comedic writing today.

The Importance of Being Earnest has been brought to the movie screen on several occasions (including a version recently directed by Oliver Parker), but the most celebrated cinematic rendition is the 1952 version directed by Anthony Asquith. The best thing one can say about Asquith's direction is that he gets out of the way. The enjoyment of this particular story is in the spoken word and the details of the performances, not in the showiness of the director's style. The only time a Wilde play can be ruined is when one tries to do too much with it, and Asquith, an expert in comedy (he codirected the wonderful 1938 film version of Pygmalion), knows just how to let Wilde's drawing-room farce play out to maximum effectiveness with a minimum of intrusion. (On a side note, Pygamlion was based on a play by George Bernard Shaw, who was one of the few critics to dismiss The Importance of Being Earnest when it debuted in London in 1895).

The story centers around two dandy bachelors in late-Victorian London, each of whom gets the most out of life by having two identities. Jack Worthing (Michael Redgrave) lives in the country, where he is in charge of the lovely 18-year-old Gwendolyn Fairfax (Joan Greenwood), the granddaughter of the gentleman who found Worthing as a baby left in a handbag in the cloakroom at Victoria's Station. However, when Jack finds himself restless in the country, he takes off to the city under the auspices that he is taking care of his devilish younger brother, Ernest, who is always getting into trouble. In the city, Jack goes by the name of Ernest and is friends with the clever Algernon Moncrieff (Michael Denison), who also has created a fake identity, this one "an invaluable permanent invalid" in the country named Bunbury, who often requires his attention.

Now, on to the romantic entanglements: Jack is in love with Algernon's cousin, Cecily Cardew (Dorothy Tutin), but he cannot marry her because Cecily's stern mother, Lady Bracknell (Edith Evans), won't hear of her daughter marrying a man whose only traceable heritage is a handbag. Things are further complicated when Algernon sneaks off to Jack's country manor and pretends to be the nonexistent Ernest. He promptly falls in love with and proposes to Gwendolyn, who has been secretly in love with the idea of Ernest for some time (all good girls are secretly attracted to troublemaking boys, after all).

This is just the set-up, however, for the last third of the story, which brings all the characters together at Jack's country manor for a complicated working out of all the false and mistaken identities, not to mention a few unexpected revelations. That the plot itself is a work of pure silliness is undeniable; the lavish ridiculousness of the narrative mechanics would be head-spinning if the story were actually about something. But, it is obvious that Wilde isn't trying to make any bold statements beyond the general silliness of the upper class and their steadfast rules and customs, which, more often than not, get in the way of human happiness. The closest Wilde came to describing what the story is about is when he rakishly described its philosophy as "we should treat all the trivial things of life seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality."

Any production of The Importance of Being Earnest relies heavily on the performances, and Asquith assembled a strong ensemble cast. Redgrave strikes just the right note as the dignified, but constantly flustered Jack, a man whose every intention gets undermined at one point or another (one of the funniest being when he shows up dressed in all black claiming that his nonexistent brother has died, only to find him in the form of Algernon right inside the house). As Algernon, Michael Denison is slick and clever, and he delivers the best of Wilde's lines with gusto (my favorite being, "All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his."). Joan Greenwood brings the needed fresh-faced innocence to Gwendolyn, and Dorothy Tutin is perfectly proper as Cecily, particularly when being proposed to (she chides Jack for not having enough experience proposing).

And, of course, Dame Edith Evans, who played the role of Lady Bracknell on stage for three decades, absolutely holds the screen every time she appears, puffed up with self-importance and trilling every syllable of her oh-so-proper dialogue. Her stifling hauteur is like a force of nature. The interrogation scene in which she questions Jack as to his suitability for her daughter is a striking moment of comedy as social critique, as Wilde gets right to the heart of the British obsession with lineage. Despite his worldly success and obvious devotion to her daughter, Bracknell cannot possibly imagine allowing into her family a man who hasn't got one of his own.

Shot in lavish Technicolor but restricted to a few well-designed sets, The Importance of Being Earnest is a small cinematic gem. One gets the feeling, though, that this particular story is probably best left on the stage, as there is little the cinema can offer it that Wilde did not already perfect in his writing. It may not ultimately be about anything other than its own grin-inducing absurdity, but The Importance of Being Earnest will always be a hallmark of comedy and a high point to which all others who think themselves witty should aspire.

Copyright © 2002 James Kendrick