1959 would have been a good year as even the name Oscar Wilde was a scandal in the 50's. Many more people would I think have gone to see it and its stark black and white photography would not have let the audience off the hook, nor would they have been overwhelmed by colour and lush surroundings. That it came to the screen the same year as ' The Trials of Oscar Wilde ' in colour and glamour of course detracted an audience from seeing two films on the subject, as people back then were not used to and did not want to get used to homosexuality as ' entertainment '. Much of screen going was entertainment then and of course the very straight acting Peter Finch did not pose a threat. Robert Morley was older, wittier and slightly camp with his humour and as one reviewer truthfully said Lord Alfred Douglas was played by an actor too old for the role. John Fraser was much younger, beautiful to look at and he played his role quite differently than John Neville. He was a nastier ' Bosie ' than Neville as Yvonne Mitchell was more vindictive in the role of Wilde's wife than Phyllis Calvert. Both films work excellently and it is very hard to say that one is better than the other, and yet for me the Morley ' Oscar Wilde ' has more painful bite and much grittier in its tragedy. It was also daring to show the interior of a male brothel before the court scene, so you knew that Wilde was creating a more ideal relationship between younger and older than it really was. The Paris scene is also a stroke of genius in my opinion with the word ' gay ' ending the film and hysterical laughter. Wilde was in hell and Gregory Ratoff was not afraid of showing it. In the Peter Finch film he is seen off at the station by not only his wife but ' Bosie ' as well, and the last shot of the film was John Fraser. Less powerful than the terrifying vision of a man beyond all living hope in the Morley version. Reviewers have mentioned the scenes with Robert Morley and Ralph Richardson. The acting in them is so relentlessly fine that it takes the breath away. But above all in this version you get the whole black and white morality of an appallingly cruel society, and once the wheels of vindictiveness start working you realise that it is the end, not only for Wilde but of all those homosexuals who afterwards were targeted viciously until the middle of the 1960's. The UK had found a new witch hunt after the doors had been opened upon that backstreet brothel, and the suffering seemingly endless for more than half a century to come. See this rare to find film if you can. TCM used to show it. I hope they still do.
Review of Oscar Wilde
