Classic Film Guide

Importance of Being Earnest, The (1952) - full review!

Anthony Asquith directed and wrote the screenplay for this Oscar Wilde comedy play. It stars Michael Redgrave AND Michael Denison as the titled character(s) - a play on words, Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff respectively. Ernest is actually a fictional character invented, and later played by, Jack in order to get out of social engagements and other situations with which he'd rather not deal. In other words, whenever he needs an excuse to get away, he says he has to go visit Ernest. Needless to say, the pseudonym also allows him to ‘play’ without fear of being found out or tarnishing his real name and reputation. However, he's charmed his way into near nuptials with Algernon's cousin Gwendolen Fairfax (Joan Greenwood) as Ernest. He hadn't known but does learn that she had foreseen marrying someone actually named Ernest, and therefore had attached a special importance to the name. Now Jack has to decide whether to be earnest, by telling her his real name, or have his name changed!

Algernon, who uses just such a pseudonym of his own for the same reasons, learns of Jack's and ‘blackmails’ him into revealing his true name. While doing this, Algernon learns that Jack has a comely young ward in the country named Cecily Cardew (Dorothy Tutin), who knows Worthing by his real name and thinks Ernest is Jack's thief of a brother that needs ‘saving’. Margaret Rutherford plays Miss Letitia Prism, who runs the country household for Jack. Over the years as Cecily’s guardian, Jack has told her tales of Ernest that captured her imagination such that she's grown a crush on this faux person. Based on Jack's glowing description of Cecily, Algernon decides to travel out into the country to meet her and, quickly assessing the situation, exploits her by taking the name of Ernest for himself!

When Jack returns to his country home, he discovers and is incensed by what he finds - Algernon as Ernest wooing his ward Cecily. However, after much discussions, he decides to begrudgingly accept it for the time being; both men begin arrangements with Canon Chasuble (Miles Malleson) to have their names changed to Ernest, in order to satisfy their would-be fiancées. However, Gwendolen's mother Lady Augusta Bracknell (Edith Evans), who has never approved of Jack (per his mysterious heritage; he was found in a bag in a London railway station!) and had earlier squashed their engagement, arrives to find out what's going on and speak her peace, during which some interesting family ties are learned.

Purchase this DVD now at Movies Unlimited - Buy it NOW!

Find your movie or DVD now @:Find your movie at MoviesUnlimited.com.

Most Recent Additions:

Casanova Brown (1944) - full review!

I Want You (1951) - full review!

A Bill of Divorcement (1932) - full review!

Patterns (1956) - full review!

Last Train from Gun Hill (1959) - full review!

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) - full review!

Hour of the Gun (1967) - full review!

The Slender Thread (1965)

To Sir, with Love (1967) - full review!

You'll Never Get Rich (1941) - full review!

The Actress (1953) - full review!

Mannequin (1937) - full review!

All My Sons (1948) - full review!

Mourning Becomes Electra (1947) - full review!

State Fair (1945) - full review!

Billy Budd (1962) - full review!

Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951) - full review!

The Bachelor Party (1957) - full review!

The Glenn Miller Story (1954) - full review!

The Southerner (1945) - full review!

The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming (1966)

Never on Sunday (1960) - full review!

Blume in Love (1973)

The Arrangement (1969) - full review!

A Summer Place (1959) - full review!

Miracle in the Rain (1956) - full review!

Love Letters (1945) - full review!

Dr. Cyclops (1940)

Tulsa (1949)

The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944) - full review!

The Absent Minded Professor (1961)

20000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)

Come and Get It (1936) - full review!

The Prize (1963) - full review!

This Is the Army (1943) - full review!

Macao (1952)

The Yakuza (1974)

Home from the Hill (1960) - full review!

Hangmen Also Die (1943) - full review!

The Shop on Main Street (1965) - full review!

The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (1969) - full review!

Interiors (1978)

The Garden of Allah (1936)

A Gathering of Eagles (1963) - full review!

This Happy Breed (1944) - full review!

Detective Story (1951)

Red-Headed Woman (1932) - full review!

Waterloo Bridge (1931) - full review!

Baby Face (1933) - full review!

Three Smart Girls (1936)

Titanic (1943) - full review!

Cover Girl (1944) - full review!

Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)

The Barefoot Contessa (1954)

Saratoga Trunk (1945) - full review!

The Kid From Brooklyn (1946)

The Comedians (1967)

The Sandpiper (1965)

The Drowning Pool (1975)

Kid Glove Killer (1942)

Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

Kameradschaft (1931)

The Young Philadelphians (1959) - full review!

Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967)

Pocket Money (1972) - full review!

The MacKintosh Man (1973)

The Left Handed Gun (1958)

Week-End at the Waldorf (1945)

Judge Priest (1934) - full review!

The Canterville Ghost (1944)

The Cockeyed Miracle (1946)

Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935) - full review!

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)

 

[Home] [Hitchcock] [Oscar's Best] [Essays] [Essential Films] [TCM Picks] [Obscure Films] [Links] [Other Reviews] [Academy Awards] [Silent Films] [Movie Index]