Oscar Wilde

1960
16
1h 38min

NOTE IMDb

MA NOTE

Phyllis Calvert and Robert Morley in Oscar Wilde (1960)

Legal Drama Tragedy Biography Drama History

Ajouter une intrigue dans votre languePlaywright Oscar Wilde's homosexuality is exposed when he brings a libel action against his lover's father, leading to his own prosecution.Playwright Oscar Wilde's homosexuality is exposed when he brings a libel action against his lover's father, leading to his own prosecution.Playwright Oscar Wilde's homosexuality is exposed when he brings a libel action against his lover's father, leading to his own prosecution.

Voir les informations de production sur IMDbPro

NOTE IMDb

6,8/10

642

MA NOTE

Voir les informations de production sur IMDbPro

Anecdotes
This was the more modest of the two biopics of Oscar Wilde which opened in Britain, where both were made, in 1960. The two films were announced by rival companies within a few days of each other, began filming almost simultaneously, and were released in cinemas only a few days apart. This black-and-white, low-budget version made it onto the screen first, but was dismissed by most critics, and failed at the box-office. The other movie, "Les procès d'Oscar Wilde (1960)," was lavishly produced in Technicolor and Technirama and featured a star-studded cast led by Peter Finch as Wilde. It got rave reviews, but it, too, failed financially.

Gaffes
When the Marquis of Queensberry writes his insulting note - "To Oscar Wilde, posing as a Sodomite" - the club desk clerk to whom he has given it consults a dictionary for the meaning of the word. The definition is clearly cut and pasted from another source, and in addition, it has been cut and pasted, perhaps deliberately, into the middle of the dictionary's definition for "sentimental."

Citations
Oscar Wilde: [to Lord Alfred] Shall I tell you of the great drama of my life? It is that I put my genius into my life, but only my talent into my work. Writing *bores* me so.

Crédits fous
Opening credits are shown over the background of Wilde's tomb, specifically over his name on the side of the structure.

Avis des utilisateurs22

Commenter

Commentaire à la une

6/10

Worth-seeing for Morley's performance...

In Victorian England, with homosexuality forbidden and punishable by up to two years in prison, celebrated playwright and author Oscar Wilde finds himself defending his lifestyle in court after initiating a libel suit against the Marquis of Queensberry--also the tyrannical father of Wilde's young lover, who has accused the two men of "unnatural acts". Director Gregory Ratoff, working from Jo Eisinger's screenplay adaptation of Leslie and Sewell Stokes' 1936 play, gets a wonderful rhythm going in the film's early sequences--aided by Robert Morley's superb reprisal of his stage role as Wilde. Still, the later trial sequences (though well-performed and necessarily claustrophobic) are hardly suspenseful or exciting. Morley's Wilde is put through the proverbial legal wringer, while his useless counsel seems to want nothing more than to concede defeat. The finale, too, with Wilde freed but destitute and delusional, is disheartening. The Oscar Wilde story is certainly one of high drama and decadence, yet this document just scratches the surface of its possibilities. **1/2 from ****