The Importance of Being Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest (1952) is Anthony Asquith's comedy you can watch online on iFILM. This Technicolor take on Oscar Wilde's play follows two gentlemen who lie their way into a glorious mess.

Jack has invented a wayward younger brother named Ernest as an excuse to slip away to the city. His friend Algernon borrows the very same name for his own escapades. The trouble is that both of their sweethearts, Gwendolen and Cecily, are set on marrying a man called Ernest and no one else. What follows is a cascade of mistaken identities, drawing-room barbs and unmaskings. Michael Redgrave and Michael Denison play the two charming liars, while Edith Evans, as the formidable Lady Bracknell, delivers her thunderous "A handbag?" for the ages.

Asquith stages it as unabashed filmed theater — as if you'd been seated in the front row — and for Wilde's epigrams that frame is perfect. Bright, lavish and wall-to-wall with wit, it's English banter at its purest. Best for anyone who prefers a verbal duel to a car chase. Stream The Importance of Being Earnest online on iFILM.