Un mari idéal

This is visually a beatiful costume film by Cecil Beaton. Add Oscar Wilde's brittle dialogue, put Paulette Goddard in the leading role as Mrs. Chesney with England's top drawer supporting cast (Michael Wilding, Diana Wynyard, Glynis Johns and Hugh Williams) and you have excellent drawing room comedy.

Goddard holds her own opposite such a luminous cast as this. Upon her entrance in Beaton's exquisite gown with feathers in her hat, she dominates the screen with her glamour. There is an elegance in Goddard that wasn't seen too much in previous roles. She has matured into a fine actress from her early days of romantic comedy and DeMille epics. Nice change.

This film doesn't have a very good reputation, e.g., "slow moving" (Maltin) and "a slight, stiff play is swamped by the cast" (Halliwell). IMDb comments are mixed. Well, it does have the limitations one would expect from Korda filming a period play in lavish Technicolor. It is pictorially static, with overly bright colors. For the most part, the actors' voices are animated but their bodies are strangely inert. But in general I thought this wasn't that bad an adaptation, somewhat better than the trendy 1999 version, if only because Korda understood the period he was filming. It seems to me that Wilde's plot complications have been smoothed out a bit here (his name is not even on the credits!) so that the solution follows the problem too quickly and the whole thing can be over in 96 minutes and still have a spectacular recreation of crowds in period costume at the Ascot races. (Perhaps this is an unfair comment since IMDb notes that an original version was a half-hour longer.) With the casting and the spirited performance of Goddard, Mrs. Cheveley becomes the most animated and virile character in the film. Lady Chiltern's conception of morality should stem from a vigorous, naive idealistic vision. She should be a dynamic, slightly-otherworldly treasure with a fairytale view of the world and be the core of the film, for the plot hinges on her vision of purity. The casting and somewhat stodgy performance of Wynyard in the role weakens the story. The character becomes merely an upright, slightly stuffy moralist. Hmmm. Perhaps the criticisms directed at the film are justified. In spite of this, I quite enjoyed this, my third go-around with the play. The Importance of Being Earnest is perhaps more witty and amusing, but this story has a much more provocative drama at its core, with interesting things to say about ethics, morality and idealism. I find it odd that it is universally described as a comedy. Certainly there's a lot of pithy, epigrammatic dialogue, and some light moments, but the basic story is a clear-cut moral drama. The anguish of Sir Chiltern and his wife is real, the stakes are high and virtually life-threatening, and the moral decisions are agonizing.

"An Ideal Husband" from 1947 is not Oscar Wilde's most famous comedy, but it is funny nevertheless. This production is directed by Sir Alexander Korda with an English cast with the exception of Paulette Goddard. Goddard plays a "woman with a past," the overly-made up Lady Chevely, who attempts to blackmail Sir Robert Chiltern (Hugh Williams) so that he will encourage support for what is, in essence, a scam in which she has invested. Williams turns to a friend, Viscount Arthur Goring (Michael Wilding) for advice.

This is the type of material that can be hilarious or just charmingly witty, and Korda opted for the latter. As good as it is, the film is nearly upstaged by some of the most gorgeous costumes ever seen, designed by Cecil Beaton. They are truly eye-popping, as is the beautiful color process used in the film.

Everyone is good, including a young, pretty Glynis Johns as Chiltern's as yet unmarried sister, and Lady Diana Wynward as the very moral Lady Chiltern.

This film compares well with the 1999 version starring Rupert Everett, Cate Blanchett, and Julianne Moore. Moore perhaps exhibited a little more class than Goddard, but Goddard still does a good job. Well, you could certainly believe she was a "woman with a past" at any rate.

Very enjoyable.

This adaptation of the Oscar Wilde story "An Ideal Husband" works pretty well as light entertainment despite some shortcomings. It focuses on the dilemma of a prominent British politician, who wants to expose a financial fraud but who has been threatened with personal ruin if he does. The plot that follows does not really fulfill all of the potential of the situation, but that is probably a deliberate decision, as the story focuses more on the sights, atmosphere, and ways of upper-class society.

It often moves slowly in order to call attention to the sometimes extravagant habits of the characters; sometimes this is effective, sometimes less so. Once it gets going, the pace picks up a little. There are some moments of good subtle humor and commentary, with some of the funniest scenes perhaps being those with Michael Wilding as a wastrel son being confronted by father C. Aubrey Smith. Paulette Goddard is pretty good in an underplayed role as the villainness.

Overall, it scores higher on style than on substance, but perhaps that is exactly as intended, and it is entertaining enough to be worth seeing.

Avoided this for years because of its underwhelming reputation, and was delighted by a recent TCM showing. It's a fine filming of a muckraking Wilde comedy, in which, typically of the author, observations about class and sex and money are often dropped in, not to further the plot, just to allow Wilde to epigrammatically vent as only he could. It's a ravishing production in eye-popping Technicolor, swamped by Cecil Beaton gowns and played by a most competent cast. If Diana Wynyard's moral righteousness becomes a little wearying, I suspect it's the character rather than her playing of it, and she's matched splendidly by Hugh Williams' tortured, blackmailed statesman. Michael Wilding was never better, Glynis Johns is young and comely, and Paulette Goddard not only maintains a convincing accent but absolutely catches the charm, opportunism, and wise verbal sparring the character needs. It's a fine companion piece to the matchless "Importance of Being Earnest" of five years later, and much more eye-catchingly cinematic.