VHS : The Importance of Being Earnest
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In association with Amazon.com
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starring: Michael Redgrave, Richard Wattis, Michael Denison, Walter Hudd, Edith Evansdirected by: Anthony Asquith
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780792844624
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Original recording reissued, NTSC
ISBN: 0792844629
Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Release Date: April 04, 2000
Running Time: 120 minutes
Sales Rank: 13972
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
If you're looking for the definitive example of dry British wit, look no further than The Importance of Being Earnest. 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 rarified, upper-class atmosphere of Wilde's play) and a once-in-a-lifetime cast. Mix these ingredients with 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 Wilde's comedy of clever deception and mixed identities into a cinematic 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 Lady Bracknell. To hear her Wilde-ly hilarious inflections and elongated syllables is to witness British comedy in its purest form, fully deserving of the royal Criterion treatment. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Missed the Play, Enjoyed the DVD of It.
Written by Oscar Wilde, as a comedy of manners and more's of his time, it's about deception and using aliases, creating a non existent brother (or so it seems) as an excuse for a gentleman named Jack to take numerous trips to London. In actuality, the visitations are to young Cecily as Ernest. A British cast lend respectability to a controversial subject along the lines of 'Dangerous Liasions.'
Filmed in 1952, the costumes were beautiful in my beloved technicolor. Michael Redgrave ... Read More
Rating: - Fun romp with tradition script
With very few exceptions, this is a screen production of the traditional stage show. As such, it is very faithful to the Wilde script, which is very helpful for those who want to see the traditional staging. The pair of Prism and Chasuble were perhaps [SPOILER NOTICE] a little old for the sudden romance that springs up between them [SPOILER ENDED], and the humor perhaps a little subtle for many American audiences, especially younger audiences, but it is a fun, faithful performance.
Rating:  - The Essential Earnest
Thank God for the DVD! For, without the invention of this miracle of communication, how on earth would the future generations ever know the real joy of watching and witnessing some of the most wonderful moments in the history of the world!
Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of being Earnest" is the absolute epitomy of the writer's art and the Anthony Asquith production of the film with the wonderful Michael Redgrave, the superb Dame Edith Evans and the equally marvellous talents of Dame Margaret ... Read More
Rating: - The best of Oscar Wilde.
This 1952 version of Wilde's most popular play benefits greatly from its great cast. Dame Edith Evans had been performing Lady Bracknell for years on stage before finally bringing her characterization to the screen, thank goodness. The technicolor is breathtaking.
Rating: - It Really Is Important To Be Earnest
Jack "Earnest" Worthing (Michael Redgrave), a sometime London socialite and othertime country gentleman who desires the hand of the lovely Gwendolyn, is willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen. Gwendolyn Fairfax is Earnest's love interest and is played by Joanne Greenwood. I developed a crush on Ms. Greenwood after seeing her in Kind Hearts and Coronets. I love her smokey voice and understated "I'm smoldering under my petticoats" glances. Edith Evans - a powerful performer - plays the Lady Augusta ... Read More
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