The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Anthony Asquith's version for Rank announces its intentions right at the beginning, with a shot of an Edwardian-style theater and the curtain rising on a proscenium stage. The camera zooms in on the stage, and the action begins. From then on Asquith is determined to remind us of the material's stage-origins: most of the scenes are shot either in shot/reverse shot or two-shot sequences, focusing on the actors' expressions. His cast do not let him down: Michael Redgrave has a supreme range of facial expressions as he tries to deal with ever- changing (and often farcical) situations, contrasting starkly with Michael Denison's more laid-back Algernon Moncrieff, who views the entire action as a huge joke. The two younger women Gwendolyn (Joan Greenwood) and Cicely (Dorothy Tutin) are just wonderful; their cat- fight over Jack (Redgrave) contains several long takes, in which Asquith focuses as much on their reactions as their line-delivery; they try to sustain a veneer of politeness, when it is clear that they thoroughly dislike one another. Dame Edith Evans and Margaret Rutherford repeat the roles they already played in the classic stage productions in London during the 1930s and 1940s: Evans is thoroughly theatrical as Lady Bracknell, her line-delivery full of pregnant pauses and deliberate emphases "A HandBAAAAAg????" Rutherford is much less emphatic, her bird-like gestures and breathy delivery suggesting someone who has spent a lifetime repressing her feelings, but has at last discovered the capacity to love, as she has a (very polite) liaison with Dr. Chasuble (Miles Malleson). Mention must also be made of Yvonne Caffin's costume- designs; she uses a garish color palette (suggesting a lack of sophistication among the characters) and clothes the female characters in wonderfully overstated Victorian dresses. The size of Tutin's sleeves, contrasted with the shocking pink of Greenwood's parasol, is a wonder to behold. The sets (by Carmen Dillon) are equally vulgar, each nook and cranny being stuffed with things, showing the acquisitive nature of all the characters. While this version of THE IMPORTANCE might not work too well cinematically - it is best appreciated by those with a working knowledge of Wilde's text - it preserves for ever some performances which can only be described as definitive.

Delightful film adaptation of Oscar Wilde's superb play about Victorian-era English manners and mix-ups. The play and performances are so close to Mr. Wilde's original words, you really can't go wrong; although, on close inspection, there are clearly some logistical problems. For example, it is shot beautifully, but without a flourish or imagination worthy of Wilde. And, cameras emphasize things that wouldn't have mattered with the otherwise marvelous cast on stage. To be fair, the film acknowledges this in its execution.Everyone is exemplary, but elderly Aunt Edith Evans really demands to be seen. She possess the role of "Lady Augusta Bracknell" for all eternity, and would be famous for merely uttering the two words "A handbag?" but, every word and phoneme slips sardonically from the mind of Oscar Wilde to dame Edith's tongue. Ms. Evans should have received some "Best Supporting Actress" notice, but this was released in 1952, not 1948, and American voters were favoring homegrown material.Pity.******** The Importance of Being Earnest (6/2/52) Anthony Asquith ~ Michael Redgrave, Michael Denison, Edith Evans, Joan Greenwood

I saw this a billion years ago on TV with a friend. We both enjoyed it. I was happy to see it released on Criterion, but it really doesn't hold up.It takes a very slight idea and converts it into polite fare. But one would have to value the dull, superficial, unexamined, boozhie lives these characters aspire to, to enjoy the movie. With characters willing to make lifelong commitments to someone they've known for less than a day, or reverse firmly-held convictions a few times in half an hour, Wilde is mocking every one of these conventional figures. I feel his contempt, and I find it legitimate. So it's hard to get worked up about plot resolution when I never valued A marrying B, or the like, even as a flimsy pretext to tease out a few jokes. The supposedly intricate plot barely reaches a mild muddle, before it's remedy is being engineered. You'll be taking mental note that we don't construct jokes like this anymore, as the characters spin their wheels to escape paper-thin conflicts.The Dorian Gray movie is a mixed bag but the George Sanders role is the single best embodiment of Wilde's mischievous wit. And 'An Ideal Husband' is a different genre but is more enjoyable.

Dodgson's ChapelI've finally come around to this film of the famous play. The 2002 version wasn't done well and was the subject of one of my very first IMDb comments. The problem there was that the movie tried to be a movie instead of a play, and failed. This one tries only to be a non- distracting film of a play. In fact, I suppose the script is precisely that of the play with no muddling.It works marvelously and in the process becomes more of a workable movie than the later project which tried so hard.I think the reason is simple. The play had a coherent soul. (Oh, how I wonder how rare it is that we have someone that can do this, and what a tragedy that we torture them for being "deviant." Or whether certain types or art demand this on both sides.) That soul is placed in the heart of language, not situation. Its the words that matter, in fact it is the word/name "earnest," and the delicious notion that a baby can be mistaken for a book, in "moment of mental abstraction."Much of the humor or words reflected against contemporary society is based on oblivious extension of phrases and is directly influenced by Lewis Carroll, a somewhat older member of the Oxford community. Its rather wonderful seeing how this meme evolved on the stage, jumping from one clever writer to another until being extinguished by silent films. Its far more interesting than Uranian matters.But we have it here again, unsullied. The speech of Lady Bracknell has to be one of the funniest and sharpest sequence of words ever woven.I should mention a device. The play starts as a play. We see the audience, who looks much like the characters. The curtain goes up and the reality moves to the stage.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.