![]() Sir Ralph Richardson plays the prosecutor at the libel trial, and it is deeply sad and moving to see him chisel away at Wilde until there is nothing left of the man. He makes the most of this opportunity, really chewing up the role in a delightful way. I can’t think of another film where he was the lead. (Oddly, another film about Wilde, a Technicolor production with a much larger budget, was released in the same month! I haven’t seen it.) I’ve always enjoyed Robert Morley, but always in supporting roles. This is all portrayed superbly in this black and white film. He went to France and died soon after, aged forty-four. At the last one he wrote his last important work, “The Balled of Reading Gaol.” He was released after the full two years, a broken man. He was bounced around between several prisons. The judge: “This is the worst case I have ever tried.” Two years was “totally inadequate for a case such as this.” Wilde was shipped off for hard labor, which soon destroyed his health. Poor Bosie urged Wilde to sue for libel (or at least that’s how it is portrayed in the movie), a disastrous mistake, because he was eviscerated in court, lost the case, and had to pay #9’s legal expenses, which left him bankrupt.Įven worse, the verdict left him open to a charge of public indecency, which was brought, and of which he was found guilty. #9 couldn’t stand the scandal of his son and Wilde cavorting around (foolishly) in public, and accused Wilde of being a sodomite. Amazon Prime Video is celebrating Pride month with a page dedicated to LGBTQ+ films. He got involved with a childish and dissolute young fop of the nobility, Lord Alfred Douglas (known as Bosie), the son of the son of a bitch John Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry. Resisting everything but temptation: The best Oscar Wilde movies. I’ve seen three or four films of it, and it always delights me.īut homosexuality was a crime in England. He wrote five plays, including one of the funniest comedies ever, The Importance of Being Earnest. He wrote short fiction, the best known being The Picture of Dorian Gray. He was the greatest wit of the times, endlessly quotable today. He was homosexual (a word never actually uttered in this film, though we hear of “The love that dare not speak its name”) though able to function as a straight man, fathering two sons. The story of Oscar Wilde is one of the great tragedies of the Victorian age. ![]()
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