The Importance of Being Earnest (1952) on Netflix
Jack Worthing hides behind the name Ernest while courting Gwendolen Fairfax. His friend Algernon Moncrieff invents an imaginary character, Bunbury, and has his eye on Jack's ward, Cecily Cardew.
- Netflix4.1/5
- IMDb7.4/106,967 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes88%
Trailer
Plot summary
Two gentlemen in London each pass under a name that is not their own. Jack Worthing hides behind Ernest while courting Gwendolen Fairfax, who holds that the man she loves must carry that name, and he dreads her learning who he is. Algernon Moncrieff, Jack's friend and Gwendolen's cousin, has created an imaginary character called Bunbury. Algernon is drawn to Jack's ward in the country, Cecily Cardew. At tea, Jack and Gwendolen declare their love, and Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen's mother, asks Jack about his family. He cannot name his parents, having been left as a baby in a handbag in a railway cloakroom at Victoria Station, and Lady Bracknell refuses the match.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Importance of Being Earnest (1952)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Denison approached John Gielgud, who had played John Worthing in a famous 1939 stage production of Earnest, to direct the film and play the male lead, a pairing Associated British's Robert Clark wanted, but Gielgud turned it down, unsure the play would make a movie and not wanting to act in it again.
- Edith Evans's outraged delivery of the line "A handbag?" became legendary; Ian McKellen wrote that it is so acclaimed and strongly remembered that it inhibits audiences and actors years later, making the role of Lady Bracknell a challenge for anyone else.
- The film marked the screen debut of Dorothy Tutin, who was recommended to director Anthony Asquith by Michael Redgrave after he saw her on stage in Henry V.
- Michael Denison recalled that the film was shot in unusually long takes with little elaborate cutting, a departure from the normal method of filming, with the cigarette-case scene on the first day filmed in large chunks.
