There's nothing to fault with this film adaptation of Oscar Wilde and much to delight. Someone else says it's long on style but short on substance. I disagree: it's long on both.
Like The Importance of Being Earnest, released five years later, An Ideal Husband involves a sticky situation that somehow must be resolved. In some Wilde works, such as Picture of Dorian Gray, the resolution is tragic, but not in Earnest or Husband; both epigrammatize delightfully to the end. But while Earnest's situation is the stuff of farce, Husband's is serious indeed. However, surrounding the afflicted Sir Robert and Lady Chiltern, there is a bevy of comic characters and their priceless Wildian witticisms to maintain a humorous tone even through a serious plot line.
The cast is perfect, with Michael Wilding providing the key Wildian insouciance. Even Paulette Goddard's snake-in-the-garden isn't oppressive but determinedly cheerful. And we have C. Aubrey Smith playing C. Aubrey: "Quite right! Quite right!" Finally, the lovely Diana Wynyard's Lady Chiltern learns that we love each other for our imperfection rather than some impossible perfection. Glynis Johns' part is only needed at the end, but it's a delight to see her popping up in the meantime.
The look of this color production is lush, in the Korda way. The exteriors are wonderful London prospects. The costumes, as they would be in Earnest, are wonders of polychrome and texture.
This movie deserves a far higher average score than it's given. I give it a 10 to raise the average but also because I think An Ideal Husband deserves a 10.
Like The Importance of Being Earnest, released five years later, An Ideal Husband involves a sticky situation that somehow must be resolved. In some Wilde works, such as Picture of Dorian Gray, the resolution is tragic, but not in Earnest or Husband; both epigrammatize delightfully to the end. But while Earnest's situation is the stuff of farce, Husband's is serious indeed. However, surrounding the afflicted Sir Robert and Lady Chiltern, there is a bevy of comic characters and their priceless Wildian witticisms to maintain a humorous tone even through a serious plot line.
The cast is perfect, with Michael Wilding providing the key Wildian insouciance. Even Paulette Goddard's snake-in-the-garden isn't oppressive but determinedly cheerful. And we have C. Aubrey Smith playing C. Aubrey: "Quite right! Quite right!" Finally, the lovely Diana Wynyard's Lady Chiltern learns that we love each other for our imperfection rather than some impossible perfection. Glynis Johns' part is only needed at the end, but it's a delight to see her popping up in the meantime.
The look of this color production is lush, in the Korda way. The exteriors are wonderful London prospects. The costumes, as they would be in Earnest, are wonders of polychrome and texture.
This movie deserves a far higher average score than it's given. I give it a 10 to raise the average but also because I think An Ideal Husband deserves a 10.