The Importance of Being Earnest – 1951 | 95 mins | Comedy | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Director Anthony Asquith’s screen adaptation of the Oscar Wilde play, The Importance of Being Earnest. Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, two wealthy and eligible bachelors of the 90′s, are in love. The former with Gwendolyn, who is the latter’s cousin, and the latter with Cecily, who is the formers ward. Due to Jack’s ignoble habit of representing himself as his imaginary brother, Ernest, when in town, and Algernon’s adoption of Ernest’s name and wicked reputation to speed his courtship of Cecily, both girls believe themselves to be engaged to the non-existent Ernest.

When Jack discovers this, he goes into deep mourning, announcing that his brother has been killed by a severe chill in Paris, but the girls see through this deception. Obliged to admit that neither is really called Ernest, the two men separately agree to be re-christened in that name to prove their devotion. They reckon, however, without the intervention of the formidable Lady Bracknell, Gwendolyn’s mother and Algernon’s aunt, who opposes everything until Miss Prism, Cecily’s governess and a devoted family retainer, brings to light an old skeleton in the family cupboard and makes it clear that one of the men, is in fact, ‘earnest’.

Excerpt© ‘Puffin Asquith’ by R.J. Minney.