THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST [1952 / 2016] [Blu-ray] [UK Release] Oscar Wilde’s Classic Comedy of Manners, Morales and Matrimony! The Most Uproarious Comedy of the Century!
Award-winning director Anthony Asquith's sumptuous adaptation of Oscar Wilde's famous comedy assembles one of the greatest casts ever seen in a British film and still remains the definitive screen adaptation earning a Golden Lion nomination at the Venice Film Festival and a BAFTA® nomination for newcomer Dorothy Tutin. Featured here in a stunning new High Definition transfer from original film elements, this classic of British cinema has never looked better.
Two eligible bachelors, Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, are in trouble. Jack Worthing's unworthy habit of representing himself as his imaginary brother Ernest and Algernon's adoption of an equally fictitious and perpetually sickly friend has allowed them both latitude in their personal lives that they would otherwise have not enjoyed. Their respective deceptions start to unravel, however, when both chaps become mortally wounded by Cupid's arrow setting up a series of events which will change their lives forever!
FILM FACT No1: Awards and Nominations: 1952 Venice Film Festival: Win: International Award: Best Production Design for Carmen Dillon. Nominated: Golden Lion: Director Anthony Asquith. 1953 BAFTA® Awards: Nominated: Most Promising Newcomer to Film for Dorothy Tutin.
FILM FACT No2: ‘THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST’ [1952] was the first English-language film version of Oscar Wilde's classic tale of social pretension and mistaken identity. The film recorded for posterity two of the most acclaimed stage performances of the 20th century, Michael Redgrave's interpretation of Jack Worthing and Dame Edith Evans' legendary Lady Bracknell. ‘THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST’ was the third and final collaboration for Redgrave and director Anthony Asquith. They also had worked together on ‘The Winslow Boy’ [1948], often hailed as Michael Redgrave's finest film performance. It was also Anthony Asquith's third collaboration with Margaret Rutherford. In ‘The V.I.P.s’ [1963], their fourth and last film together, he directed her to an Oscar® for Best Supporting Actress. ‘THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST’ was a pioneering work in the development of Technicolor. In place of the garish colour palettes that had dominated earlier Technicolor films using the process, this one used a subtle array of pastels to capture the light, witty tone of Oscar Wilde's original play.
Cast: Michael Redgrave, Richard Wattis, Michael Denison, Walter Hudd, Dame Edith Evans, Joan Greenwood, Dorothy Tutin, Margaret Rutherford, Miles Malleson, Aubrey Mather and Ivor Barnard (uncredited)
Director: Anthony Asquith
Producers: Earl St. John and Teddy Baird
Screenplay: Anthony Asquith (uncredited) and Oscar Wilde (play) (uncredited)
Composer: Benjamin Frankel
Cinematography: Desmond Dickinson (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
Audio: English: 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio
English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English SDH
Running Time: 95 minutes
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 1
Studio: The Rank Organisation / Network
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST’ [1952] is Oscar Wilde’s comic jewel that sparkles in this 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 non-existent man is given the grand Technicolor treatment. Seldom has a classic stage comedy been so engagingly transferred to the silver screen. “We live; I regret to say, in an age of surfaces.” So says Aunt Augusta, Lady Bracknell [Dame Edith Evans], perhaps Oscar Wilde’s greatest creation, in his greatest play, subtitled a “Trivial Comedy for Serious People” and now released in its definitive 1952 Technicolour version.
If you're looking for the definitive example of dry British wit, look no further than ‘THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST’ [1952]. Of course, it helps to have Oscar Wilde's beloved play as source material, but this exquisite adaptation has a charmed life of its own, with a perfectly matched director Anthony Asquith was raised in the rarefied, upper-class atmosphere of Oscar Wilde's play and a once-in-a-lifetime cast. Mix these ingredients with Oscar Wilde's inimitable repartee, and you've got a comedic soufflé that's been cooked to perfection. Opening with a proscenium nod to its theatrical origins, the film turns Oscar Wilde's comedy of clever deception and mixed identities into a cinematic tour-de-force treat, and while the 10-member cast is uniformly superb, special credit must be given to Dame Edith Evans, reprising her stage role as the imperiously stuffy Aunt Augusta, Lady Bracknell and to hear her Wilde-ly hilarious inflections and elongated syllables is to witness British comedy in its purest form, fully deserving of the royal Network treatment.
The film opens with members of a Victorian theatre audience taking to their seats. When they open their programmes, the film's credits are revealed, printed inside. Once the curtain rises, one of the viewers uses her eyeglasses to take us into the action, shortly after which we are shown a mixture of location and studio shots. The curtain falls again at the end of the last act. Although this might have made the film seem too stage-bound, it actually helps in giving the eccentric characters and outrageous plot the grounding in theatrical tradition that any faithful adaptation needs to succeed, though inevitably even Anthony Asquith's best efforts result in a charming cross-breed of true comedy.
Jack Worthing [Michael Redgrave] is in love with Gwendolen Fairfax [Joan Greenwood] and is intimidated by her Aunt Augusta, Lady Bracknell [Dame Edith Evans] because she makes all of Gwendolen Fairfax’s decisions. Jack Worthing has also been claiming to be named Ernest because “in the country I am Jack Worthing, in the city I am Ernest.” As Ernest, he goes to the city from his country home and visits Gwendolen, while in the country he is Jack Worthing and looks after his young ward Cecily Cardew [Dorothy Tutin]. His best friend and moocher is Aunt Augusta, Lady Bracknell’s nephew Algernon Moncrieff [Michael Denison]. When Algernon Moncrieff hears about Ernest Worthing’s 18 year old ward Cecily Cardew he decides to go to Jack Worthing’s country home and pretend to be his brother Ernest Worthing.
At times it can get very confusing, especially with a scenario where Algernon Moncrieff pretends to be Ernest Worthing in the country and falls in love with Cecily Cardew and Ernest Worthing shows up in the country, except now he is actually Jack Worthing and informs Cecily Cardew of Ernest Worthing’s (aka Algernon Moncrieff) outrageous behaviour in the city and tries to keep Algernon Moncrieff away from her. That is until Gwendolen Fairfax shows up looking for Ernest Worthing, who is Jack Worthing. She and Cecily Cardew hit it off right away and eventually confide in one another about each other’s fiancée. Gwendolen Fairfax is engaged to and loves Jack, who she knows as Ernest while Cecily Cardew claims that Ernest, believing Algernon Moncrieff to be Ernest Worthing, is engaged to marry her. They eventually figure out that Ernest is Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff is actually Algernon Moncrieff, and neither one really is Ernest Worthing nor does either one have a brother. Soon after, both men are prepared to re-christen themselves to be named Ernest Worthing because both women prefer that name, and it only gets more confusing from there.
There is also a Miss Prism [Margaret Rutherford] who looks after and educates Cecily Cardew and a Canon Chasuble [Miles Malleson] who is interested in Miss Prism; they have a lot to do in the third act. Aunt Augusta, Lady Bracknell has a big part to play too. Yet after all the craziness Oscar Wilde sums the story up perfectly. No loose ends are left and all your questions are answered. What are striking about this version of the play are the performances and the glorious colours of the cinematography. Each actor plays their part with the pomp that comes with the territory of being an aristocrat during the Victorian era but they somehow seem legit. The performances are not constrained or held back, as one might imagine, and the actors walk about as comfortable with their dialogue as they are with their costumes.
Anthony Asquith made only five films in colour and ‘THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST’ [1952] was his first. Shunning the characteristic boldness and garishness of early Technicolor, Anthony Asquith's palette largely consists of pastel shades, reserving the exaggerated qualities of the process for Lady Bracknell's costumes. Dame Edith Evans enters the film wearing a vivid purple coloured dress and a hat that appears to be made from peacock feathers, shortly before uttering Oscar Wilde's immortal line, "Rise, sir, from this semi-recumbent posture!"
Oscar Wilde's actual play “The Importance of Being Earnest” opened at London's St James' theatre on Valentine's Day 1895. Its initial run, however, was cut short by Oscar Wilde's prosecution for immorality, which ironically was brought by one of his social acquaintances of the time, the then Home Secretary and later Prime Minister Herbert Asquith. In a somewhat bizarre turn, Herbert Asquith's son Anthony Asquith eventually made the first film version.
Blu-ray Image Quality – ‘THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST’ is brought to you via The Rank Organisation and the Network company with this stunning 1080p Technicolor quality print, with an equally impressive 1.37:1 aspect ratio, showing off this totally brilliant film at its best it has ever been seen via a Blu-ray disc, that looks absolutely marvellous, and the best picture quality the best I have ever seen, which up to now has only been available on an inferior DVD format. ‘THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST’ was scanned to 2K resolution from a 35mm intermediate negative, which was produced via a three-strip pro-masters, and restored in High Definition at its correct theatrical aspect ratio. The restoration involved both automated and manual removal of film defects, and corrections of any major faults using a Phoenix and MTI. The image has also been colour corrected. The only slight problem is well into the start of the film you see a hair in the gate at the top middle part of the screen, what a shame they could not have got rid of it. Please Note: Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – ‘THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST’ is brought to you via The Rank Organisation with a 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio, unfortunately due to some technical problem the sound was very low, so I had to crank up the volume quite high, but despite that it was as good as it gets and I found no technical problems, especially with the source of the audio master and of course the age of the film.
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: A Profile of ‘THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST’ [1999] [480i] [1.37:1] [24:06] This documentary is presented to us by The Carlton Film Collection and they declare “We Announce With Pride A Motion Picture Achievement of Rare Distinction and Distraction ‘THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST,’ Oscar Wilde’s Superb Comedy.” Here the female announcer declares that in 1952 Oscar Wilde’s satirical masterpiece was brought to the big screen by The Rank Organisation, and it was the last major work in Oscar Wilde’s career, and wrote the play in three weeks while on a seaside holiday, that had a combination of biting satire and extraordinary wit, wrapped up in a complex and hilarious plot, and it opened to critical acclaim in 1895, in the same year as his much publicised trial, where he appeared at the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) on the 3rd April, 1895. Stephen Fry [Actor/Writer] talks about when he first saw the film when he was around 10 or 11 years of age and had a profound effect on him, because he had never heard language in a film before, because he had never actually seen the stage production performance and to Stephen it was like hearing music to his ears, because he could not believe people used the same language as Stephen use to speak like and to an extent that to him was so beautiful and such dazzling wit and could not believe you do such things with words. Stephen also reckons that he felt that Oscar Wilde would have adored Anthony Asquith treatment of his play, especially if Oscar Wilde had been around when film was invented, and Stephen also feels that the film is like an actual stage play, especially the way the actors deliver their lines so eloquently. With the film it brought together many of the extraordinary leading British acting talent, at the peak of their careers, and we find out that Michael Denison was instrumental in bringing the story to the silver screen. Here we meet Dulcie Gray [Actress/Widow of Michael Denison] and tells how her husband Michael was so keen to be in the film and to actually play the part of Algernon Moncrieff, but before it could happen, they had to buy the rights to make the film. We find out that originally the actor John Gielgud was asked to direct the film, but turned it down, so eventually Anthony Asquith was approached and agreed to direct the film, because previously he had great success with the films like ‘Way To The Stars’ [1945], ‘We Dive At Dawn’ [1943] and ‘Pygmalion’ [1938]. Anthony Asquith was also very keen to encourage new talented actors to appear in his films, and especially Dorothy Tutin [Actress] who tells us in this documentary that she remembers vividly for her part in having to do a film test and felt she looked absolutely ghastly and also felt it was a great disaster, to the point of feeling she would not get the part in the film, but Anthony Asquith gave a her a second chance to do another film test and of course it was a great success, as the first film Dorothy felt very nervous and so of course it was success a second time around, and in fact it was Dorothy’s first screen debut, and says she felt she had the funniest lines playing opposite Michael Denison, and says it was a great joy working with this very nice actor, who was also very kind and helpful and also sent a nice note giving him great praise. They talk about the marvellous performance by Dame Edith Evans, who of course had the best and memorable lines written by Oscar Wilde, and her character portrayed in the film is all about status, money and wealth, and Dorothy Tutin says that even when the camera stopped rolling Dame Edith Evans could still be a force to be reckon with and was also very daunting. Dorothy Tutin also talked about Margaret Rutherford who she thought was a magic actress and was also very charming, to such an extent adored her and of course was totally perfectly cast for the film. ‘THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST’ was released in 1952 to enormous acclaim, and it is still regarded today as the definitive version of Oscar Wilde’s most popular work, and was also absurdly perfect, because all the actors gave such remarkable performances, and also gave the performance of their lives, to really make it such a really wonderful film. Written by Claire Tomas and David Lemon. Produced by Claire Tomas, David Lemon, Emma Chilves, Sian Facer and Simon Wheeler. Cinematography by Nish Patel.
Special Feature: Production Gallery [2016] [1080p] [3:36] Here we get to view a selection of 72 stunning Black-and-White promotional production images from the film. There is also some rare images that did not appear in the film, plus behind-the-scene images.
Special Feature: Portrait Gallery [2016] [1080p] [2:39] Here we get to view a selection of 53 stunning rare Black-and-White promotional portrait images of most of the main actors in the film.
Special Feature: Publicity Gallery [2016] [1080p] [2:33] Here we get to view a selection of 51 colour images of mainly cinema posters, as well as other types of rare publicity material.
Special Feature: Premiere Gallery [2016] [1080p] [00:39] Here we get to view a selection of 13 colour images of the rare Programme that was handed out to patrons who attended the Gala Premier of the film on Tuesday 26th June, 1952 at the ODEON Theatre in Leicester Square. Plus we also get some rare photographs of the people attending the Premier in the Victorian costumes of the period of the film.
BONUS: Beautiful stunning 16 page designed booklet by Professor Neil Sinyard, entitled “The Play’s the Thing.” Viewing Notes by Neil Sinyard. It gives an in-depth look at Anthony Asquith‘s ‘THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST’ film and is a fascinating read. Professor Neil Sinyard is an Emeritus Professor of Film Studies, University of Hull, in the United Kingdom and a Visiting Professor of Film, University of Lincoln, in the United Kingdom. Professor Neil Sinyard has published over twenty books on the cinema, including studies of directors like Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg, Richard Lester, Jack Clayton and Nicolas Roeg, as well as books on silent movies, film comedy, film adaption and representations of childhood on film. As well as publications of well over a hundred articles on the cinema for periodicals and newspapers.
Finally, Oscar Wilde will always be remembered as one of the wittiest and very sharp tongued playwright in the history of the English language and we are reminded of that fact whenever we watch one of his immortal plays. For over a hundred years his plays have been performed on various stages all around the world, but they have only been turned into films a handful of times. Director Anthony Asquith’s interpretation of Oscar Wilde’s ‘THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST’ [1952] is the most accurate of the Oscar Wilde’s adaptations and still one of the most popular. The title The Importance of Being Earnest is one of many plays on words, using the words “earnest” and the name “Ernest” in their proper contexts. Underneath all the wordplay is a biting social satire that conveys its true meaning with ease. This film version has stood the test of time because Wilde’s insights are still topical toward what we, in our contemporary society can be like and because it’s just darned funny. You will find something new every time you watch this brilliant tour-de-force film and that’s a really neat trick to pull. Oscar Wilde criticised the Victorians in every way that he could and showcased their faults through comedy. He was a notorious homosexual and master aesthetician who put his take on society and on romance into his writings. And the fact that he coated his writings with humour made the pill easier to swallow. The achievements in Technicolor are stellar: as we watch production values go through the roof we are able to see spectacular greens, blues, reds, and purples on persons and on wallpapers and capturing this comedy on film and its best, and the only version you ever need see is this one and one to add to your Blu-ray Collection and one Blu-ray you will want to view time after time. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
