Beautifully Filmed in Technicolor with a Script that Incorporates Many of Wilde's Famous Witticisms. Peter Finch is Not Physically what One Conjures when an Image of the Successful Playwright and Author Comes in the Mind, but He is Playing the Gay Martyr as the Man in His Forties and Not the Flamboyant Peacock of His Early Manhood.
It is a Daring Film for its Time and was Predictably Shunned by Some Theatres and had No Air Time on American TV for Decades. But it is All Done with a Subtlety and Sensitivity that is Palatable for Any Audience and is a Heartfelt and Sad Rendition of what led to Oscar Wilde's Imprisonment for Two Years for the Crime of Practicing Homosexuality.
The Acting is Superb All Around with Lionel Jeffries as Lord Queensberry (yes, of boxing rules fame) as a Villain Worth Hating and by All Accounts Fairly Accurate. The Movie Moves Along at a Steady Pace and is Informative and Entertaining but Ultimately Downbeat.
It is Only a Small Portion of the Life of Oscar Wilde and is this Slice that was Decidedly Devastating. Not Only for His Hard Labor Prison Term but the Insensitivity of His Wife that Forbade Oscar from Ever Seeing His Children Again. He Never Recovered and Died Penniless.
The Film Ends as He is Released from Incarceration and Never goes into the Post Traumatic Downfall. The Trials both Personally and Judicially were Enough Sadness in an Otherwise "Gay" Life (happy and carefree) and Lifestyle (Bisexual) of the Most Quoted Man of His Era.
It is a Daring Film for its Time and was Predictably Shunned by Some Theatres and had No Air Time on American TV for Decades. But it is All Done with a Subtlety and Sensitivity that is Palatable for Any Audience and is a Heartfelt and Sad Rendition of what led to Oscar Wilde's Imprisonment for Two Years for the Crime of Practicing Homosexuality.
The Acting is Superb All Around with Lionel Jeffries as Lord Queensberry (yes, of boxing rules fame) as a Villain Worth Hating and by All Accounts Fairly Accurate. The Movie Moves Along at a Steady Pace and is Informative and Entertaining but Ultimately Downbeat.
It is Only a Small Portion of the Life of Oscar Wilde and is this Slice that was Decidedly Devastating. Not Only for His Hard Labor Prison Term but the Insensitivity of His Wife that Forbade Oscar from Ever Seeing His Children Again. He Never Recovered and Died Penniless.
The Film Ends as He is Released from Incarceration and Never goes into the Post Traumatic Downfall. The Trials both Personally and Judicially were Enough Sadness in an Otherwise "Gay" Life (happy and carefree) and Lifestyle (Bisexual) of the Most Quoted Man of His Era.