The Trials of Oscar Wilde

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The Trials of Oscar Wilde
The Trials of Oscar Wilde poster.jpg
Directed by Ken Hughes
Screenplay by Montgomery Hyde
Ken Hughes
Based onThe Stringed Lute
by John Furnell
Produced by Irving Allen
Albert R. Broccoli
Harold Huth
Starring Peter Finch
Yvonne Mitchell
James Mason
Nigel Patrick
Lionel Jeffries
John Fraser
Cinematography Ted Moore
Edited by Geoffrey Foot
Music by Ron Goodwin
Production
company
Distributed by Eros Films [1]
Release date
  • 28 May 1960 (1960-05-28)(London)
[1]
Running time
123 minutes [2]
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£270,000 [3] [4] or £296,500 [5]

The Trials of Oscar Wilde, also known as The Man with the Green Carnation and The Green Carnation, is a 1960 British drama film based on the libel and subsequent criminal cases involving Oscar Wilde and the Marquess of Queensberry. It was written by Allen and Ken Hughes, directed by Hughes, and co-produced by Irving Allen, Albert R. Broccoli and Harold Huth. The screenplay was by Ken Hughes and Montgomery Hyde, based on an unperformed play The Stringed Lute by John Furnell (the pseudonym of Phyllis Macqueen). [6] The film was made by Warwick Films and released by Eros Films.

Contents

It stars Peter Finch as Wilde, Lionel Jeffries as Queensberry, and John Fraser as Bosie (Lord Alfred Douglas) with James Mason, Nigel Patrick, Yvonne Mitchell, Maxine Audley, Paul Rogers and James Booth.

Cast

Production

In November 1959, Ken Hughes said he hoped for Laurence Olivier or Alec Guinness to play the title role. "I know American actors who would run a mile rather than play a part like this, but the film will be a flop unless Wilde is played by someone of stature," said Hughes. "We are going to have some stiff legal problems. We shall approach the Queensberry family. The Marquis will be shown as the villain and I don't know how his family will like that. As for Wilde, the film will show him deserving pity, a genius living in a superficial fantasy world." [7]

Vyvyan Holland (Wilde's son) said "the film company has not approached me. I should be very glad to act as advisor although I cannot say I would approve until I have seen the script.” [7]

In February 1960, it was announced Peter Finch would play the role for a fee of £25,000. "I'm scared stiff," said Finch. "Mind you the fact it's such a challenge is one reason I'm so keen. It's exciting to do something everybody says you can't." [8]

It was one of two films about Wilde released in 1960, the other being 20th Century Fox' Oscar Wilde starring Robert Morley. According to production designer Ken Adam, producer Irving Allen set up four editing rooms for the production, working in parallel during principal photography; this meant that the film could be screened in the West End seven weeks after the start of filming. [9] [1] The production was filmed in Technirama. [1]

Release

The film was released at midnight on Saturday, 28 May 1960 at Studio One in London before its general release on 30 May 1960. [1] It was released a week after Oscar Wilde. [1] Producers of both films originally refused to change their movie titles. Eventually, after confusion at various cinemas, Warwick announced they would release The Trials of Oscar Wilde as The Green Carnation. [10]

Reception

Critical

In his review of the film, Bosley Crowther wrote: "Mr. Wilde himself could not have expected his rare personality or his unfortunate encounters with British justice on a morals charge to have been more sympathetically or affectingly dramatized. In comparison to that other British picture about the same subject that opened [in New York City] last week, this one is more impressive in every respect, save one." [11] Crowther concludes the review saying "The only thing is you wonder if this is a fairly true account, if Mr. Wilde was as noble and heroic as he is made to appear. And if he was, what was he doing with those cheap and shady young men? It looks to us as if they are trying to whitewash a most unpleasant case, which is one of the more notorious and less ennobling in literary history." [11]

John Simon described The Trials of Oscar Wilde as "an unjustly neglected movie". [12]

Variety magazine, commenting on the performances, said "Peter Finch gives a moving and subtle performance as the ill-starred playwright. Before his downfall he gives the man the charm that he undoubtedly had....John Fraser as handsome young Lord Alfred Douglas is suitably vain, selfish, vindictive and petulant and the relationship between the two is more understandable. Where Trials suffers in comparison with the B&W film is in the remarkable impact of the libel case court sequence. James Mason never provides the strength and bitter logic necessary for the dramatic cut-and-thrust when Wilde is in the witness box." [13]

The film has been called "Hughes' one undeniable classic." [14]

Box office

Kine Weekly called it a "money maker" at the British box office in 1960. [15]

Accolades

AwardCategoryNominee(s)ResultRef.
British Academy Film Awards Best Film from any Source Ken Hughes Nominated [16]
Best British Film Nominated
Best British Actor Peter Finch Won
John Fraser Nominated
Best British Screenplay Ken HughesNominated
Golden Globe Awards Best English-Language Foreign Film Won [17]
Moscow International Film Festival Grand PrixKen HughesNominated [18]
Best ActorPeter FinchWon
Best DecoratorBill ConstableWon
Best Costume DesignerTerence MorganWon

Influence

The film was the inspiration for a promotional film made for the Rolling Stones song "We Love You"; the 1967 film, directed by Peter Whitehead, featured Mick Jagger as Wilde, Keith Richards as the judge in the Wilde trial, and Marianne Faithfull as Bosie. [19]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oscar Wilde</span> Irish poet, playwright, and aesthete (1854–1900)

Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his criminal conviction for gross indecency for homosexual acts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry</span> British nobleman (1844–1900)

John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, was a British nobleman of the Victorian era, remembered for his atheism, his outspoken views, his brutish manner, for lending his name to the "Queensberry Rules" that form the basis of modern boxing, and for his role in the downfall of the Irish author and playwright Oscar Wilde.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lord Alfred Douglas</span> English poet and journalist (1870–1945)

Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas, also known as Bosie Douglas, was an English poet and journalist, and a lover of Oscar Wilde. At Oxford he edited an undergraduate journal, The Spirit Lamp, that carried a homoerotic subtext, and met Wilde, starting a close but stormy relationship. Douglas's father, the Marquess of Queensberry, abhorred it and set out to humiliate Wilde, publicly accusing him of homosexuality. Wilde sued him for criminal libel, but some intimate notes were found and Wilde was later imprisoned. On his release, he briefly lived with Douglas in Naples, but they had separated by the time Wilde died in 1900. Douglas married a poet, Olive Custance, in 1902 and had a son, Raymond.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robbie Ross</span> British journalist and art critic; lover of Oscar Wilde (1869–1918)

Robert Baldwin Ross was a British journalist, art critic and art dealer, best known for his relationship with Oscar Wilde, to whom he was a devoted friend and literary executor. A grandson of the Canadian reform leader Robert Baldwin, and son of John Ross and Augusta Elizabeth Baldwin, Ross was a pivotal figure on the London literary and artistic scene from the mid-1890s to his early death, and mentored several literary figures, including Siegfried Sassoon. His open homosexuality, in a period when male homosexual acts were illegal, brought him many hardships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marquess of Queensberry</span> Title in the Peerage of Scotland

Marquess of Queensberry is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. The title has been held since its creation in 1682 by a member of the Douglas family. The Marquesses also held the title of Duke of Queensberry from 1684 to 1810, when it was inherited by the Duke of Buccleuch.

<i>Wilde</i> (film) 1997 film by Brian Gilbert

Wilde is a 1997 British biographical romantic drama film directed by Brian Gilbert. The screenplay, written by Julian Mitchell, is based on Richard Ellmann's 1987 biography of Oscar Wilde. The film chronicles the turmoil in Wilde's life after he discovers his homosexuality. It stars Stephen Fry in the title role, with Jude Law, Vanessa Redgrave, Jennifer Ehle, Gemma Jones, Judy Parfitt, Michael Sheen, Zoë Wanamaker, and Tom Wilkinson in supporting roles.

<i>Cromwell</i> (film) 1970 British film directed by Ken Hughes

Cromwell is a 1970 British historical drama film written and directed by Ken Hughes. It is based on the life of Oliver Cromwell, who rose to lead the Parliamentary forces during the later parts of the English Civil War and, as Lord Protector, ruled Great Britain and Ireland in the 1650s. It features an ensemble cast, led by Richard Harris as Cromwell and Alec Guinness as King Charles I, with Robert Morley as Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester and Timothy Dalton as Prince Rupert of the Rhine.

<i>Oscar Wilde</i> (film) 1960 British film

Oscar Wilde is a 1960 biographical film about Oscar Wilde, made by Vantage Films and released by 20th Century Fox. The film was directed by Gregory Ratoff and produced by William Kirby, from a screenplay by Jo Eisinger, based on the play Oscar Wilde by Leslie Stokes and Sewell Stokes. The film starred Robert Morley, Ralph Richardson, Phyllis Calvert and Alexander Knox.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francis Douglas, Viscount Drumlanrig</span> British baron

Francis Archibald Douglas, Viscount Drumlanrig, also 1st Baron Kelhead in his own right, was a British nobleman and Liberal politician.

Kenneth Graham Hughes was an English film director, writer and producer. He was the co-writer and director of the children's film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968). He has been called "a filmmaker whose output was consistently interesting and entertaining, and deserved more critical attention than it has received."

<i>Salomes Last Dance</i> 1988 British film

Salome's Last Dance is a 1988 British film written and directed by Ken Russell. Although most of the action is a verbatim performance of Oscar Wilde's 1891 play Salome, which is itself based on a story from the New Testament, there is also a framing narrative that was written by Russell.

Francis Martin Sewell Stokes was an English novelist, biographer, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and prison visitor. He collaborated on a number of occasions with his brother, Leslie Stokes, an actor and later in life a BBC radio producer, with whom he shared a flat for many years overlooking the British Museum.

Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde is a 1997 play written and directed by Moisés Kaufman. It deals with Oscar Wilde's three trials on the matter of his relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas and other men.

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<i>De Profundis</i> (letter) 1897 letter written by Oscar Wilde

De Profundis is a letter written by Oscar Wilde during his imprisonment in Reading Gaol, to "Bosie".

Oscar Wilde's life and death have generated numerous biographies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Travers Humphreys</span>

Sir Richard Somers Travers Christmas Humphreys was a noted British barrister and judge who, during a sixty-year legal career, was involved in the cases of Oscar Wilde and the murderers Hawley Harvey Crippen, George Joseph Smith and John George Haigh, the 'Acid Bath Murderer', among many others.

Christopher Sclater Millard was the author of the first bibliography of the works of Oscar Wilde as well as several books on Wilde. Millard's bibliography was instrumental in enabling Wilde's literary executor, Robert Baldwin Ross, to establish copyright on behalf of his estate.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Myers, Harold (1 June 1960). "A Queer Rivalry: 2 'Oscar Wildes'". Variety . p. 7. Retrieved 2 February 2021 via Archive.org.
  2. Release information from the BFI National Archive Film & TV Database
  3. Alexander Walker, Hollywood, England, Stein and Day, 1974 p138
  4. Film Makers’ ‘Rusty Swords’ Date: Saturday, May 14, 1960 Publication: The Daily Telegraph p13
  5. Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 360
  6. John Furnell (pseud. Phyllis Macqueen)
  7. 1 2 Goring, Edward (17 November 1959). "Oscar Wilde's life story to be filmed". Daily Mail . p. 1.
  8. Tanfield, Paul (16 February 1960). "Mr Finch signs for Oscar Wilde and £25,000". Daily Mail . p. 12.
  9. A Kubrick Masterclass with Sir Ken Adam, Hosted by Sir Christopher Frayling Archived 2 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine , from The Script Factory
  10. "Warwick Gives in on 'Wilde' Title Change". Variety . 31 August 1960. p. 20 via Archive.org.
  11. 1 2 Crowther, Bosley (28 June 1960). "Wilde Absolved: Writer's 'Trials' Get New Examination". The New York Times .
  12. Simon, John (1983). John Simon: Something to Declare Twelve Years Of Films From Abroad. Clarkson N. Potter Inc. p. 19.
  13. Rich. (1 June 1960). "Film Reviews: The Trials of Oscar Wilde". Variety . p. 6. Retrieved 2 February 2021 via Archive.org.
  14. Vagg, Stephen (14 November 2020). "Ken Hughes Forgotten Auteur". Filmink.
  15. Billings, Josh (15 December 1960). "It's Britain 1, 2, 3 again in the 1960 box office stakes". Kine Weekly. p. 9.
  16. "BAFTA Awards (1961)". British Academy of Film and Television Arts . Retrieved 23 November 2013.
  17. "The Trials of Oscar Wilde – Golden Globes". HFPA . Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  18. "2nd Moscow International Film Festival (1961)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 11 November 2012.
  19. Oscar in Popular Culture [ permanent dead link ], from Issue no 45 (July 2008) of The Oscholars