The Importance of Being Earnest

Set in late Victorian England, this comedy follows two friends who each adopt the same invented identity to escape their obligations. Jack, who lives in the country as guardian to his young ward Cecily, has told everyone he has a reckless brother named Ernest in London, a pretext that lets him visit the city freely. His friend Algernon uses the same trick, claiming a sickly friend named Bunbury whenever he wants to avoid tedious social duties. Complications arise because both men also present themselves as Ernest to the women they are courting, Gwendolen and Cecily, each of whom has set her heart on marrying a man by that name. When the two women meet and the lies collide, a series of mistaken identities unfolds, and Lady Bracknell's interrogation of Jack's origins adds further obstacles.

Anthony Asquith directed and wrote the screenplay, adapting Oscar Wilde's play for the screen. The film came after his work on Pygmalion and We Dive at Dawn, and before Orders to Kill. Michael Redgrave plays Jack, with Michael Denison as Algernon, Edith Evans as Lady Bracknell, Joan Greenwood as Gwendolen, Dorothy Tutin as Cecily and Margaret Rutherford as Miss Prism. Produced by Teddy Baird for British companies including the J. Arthur Rank Organisation, the film runs 95 minutes. On IMDb it holds a 7.4 rating from around 6,900 votes, and on TMDB a 7.2 from a much smaller number of votes.