Plot

In 1890s London rakish Algy runs into friend Jack who's in town to propose to Algy's cousin Gwendolen. Algy discovers Jack has a brother 'Ernest' and a ward called Cecily. While Jack deals with Gwendolen's mother, Algy tries to meet Cecily. Hilarity ensues when both arrive in the country posing as 'Ernest'!

Oscar Wilde's comic jewel sparkles in Anthony Asquith's film adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest. Featuring brilliantly polished performances by Michael Redgrave, Joan Greenwood, and Dame Edith Evans, the enduringly hilarious story of two young women who think themselves engaged to the same nonexistent man is given the grand Technicolor treatment. Seldom has a classic stage comedy been so engagingly transferred to the screen.

A star-studded version of Oscar Wilde's classic comedy. The Importance Of Being Earnest follows the fortunes of two wealthy and eligible, lovestruck bachelors Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, and the frothy and frivolous catalogue of events which follow them. Jack is romantically involved with Gwendolen Fairfax, while Jack's ward, Cecily Cardew, is the object of Algernon's affections. It is due to Jack's unworthy habit of representing himself as his imaginary brother, Ernest, and to Algernon's deceitful adoption of Ernest's name and reputation to simplify his courtship, that each of the girls believes herself to be engaged to the non-existent Ernest. A simple solution occurs to each - but neither reckons with the forceful Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen's mother and Algernon's aunt, whose consent is withheld. It is left to Miss Prism whose secret passion for the Reverend Dr Chasuble causes so much enjoyable confusion to create a way out that is acceptable to all parties in this, one of Oscar Wilde's best loved plays.