SYNOPSIS

It's a question that's haunted men for ages. How can you have fun without paying the price? Jack Worthing thinks he has the perfect answer by being a proper landed gentleman in the country and passing himself off as his imaginary, less respectable brother Ernest in the city, where he has been courting the beautiful Gwendolen Fairfax. But when his friend Algernon discovers the ruse -- and the existence of Jack's very pretty, very rich ward Cecily -- the stage is set for a comedy of mistaken identities.

Director-Screenplay: Anthony Asquith
Producer: Teddy Baird
Based on the play by Oscar Wilde
Cinematography: Desmond Dickinson
Editing: John D. Guthridge
Art Direction: Carmen Dillon
Music: Benjamin Frankel
Cast: Michael Redgrave (Jack Worthing), Michael Denison (Algernon Moncrieff), Edith Evans (Lady Bracknell), Joan Greenwood (Gwendolen Fairfax), Dorothy Tutin (Cecily Cardew), Margaret Rutherford (Miss Prism), Miles Malleson (Canon Chasuble), Aubrey Mather (Merriman)
C-95m.

Why THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST Is Essential

The Importance of Being Earnest 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 Redgrave's finest film performance.

It was also 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 color palettes that had dominated most earlier films using the process, this one used a subtle array of pastels to capture the light, witty tone of Wilde's original play.

by Frank Miller