The Importance of Being Earnest

As the Bard noted, the play's the thing, but Anthony Asquith's lavishly mounted 1952 film of Oscar Wilde's enduring comedy of false and mistaken identities is the next best thing. A bit stagey, but perfectly cast and impeccably performed, the film stars Michael Redgrave and Michael Denison as Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, two gents who pass themselves off as "Earnest" to pursue the women they love: Algernon's cousin Cecily (Dorothy Tutin) and Jack's ward Gwendolyn (Joan Greenwood). Further complicating this farcical romance is Cecily's disapproving mother Lady Bracknell (Edith Evans). The cast seems born to deliver such Wilde witticisms as "To lose one parent is a misfortune; to lose both is carelessness" and "All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That is his." Extras on this disc are limited to production stills, film historian Bruce Eder's contextual notes, and the original theatrical preview, which looks the worse for wear. But the film itself, transferred from a pristine 35mm composite print, looks dazzling. Highly recommended. (K. Lee Benson)