Movie review - "The Trials of Oscar Wilde" (1960) ****

The movie whose financial failure helped kill Warwick Productions, but it's easily the best thing they ever did - the same goes for writer-director Ken Hughes and many of the cast and crew, except for maybe Peter Finch, although it ranks up there. It's marvellously handled, told with tact and sensitivity - nothing is laid on with a trowel, but it's clear that Wilde is having an affair with Bosie, it torments his wife and enrages Bosie's father; it's also clear Robbie Ross is gay too although at one stage he says "these allegations against you aren't true are they?"

Finch was a notorious womanising boozer and he doesn't come across as "soft" as say Stephen Fry but he's got the sensitivity, ego, sympathy, and intelligence - as well as the infatuation for Bosie (John Fraser, very well cast as a beautiful spoilt brat), his dogged determination to stand up for something he believes is right even though it's idiotic. (Then again, Liberace sued for defamation and won.)

The support cast is superb. James Mason is terrifying as the imposing Carson (the legendary QC who also inspired the hero in The Winslow Boy and led the Ulster Union movement); Lionel Jeffries, who normally played comic characters, is scary as the mad Queensbury. Ken Adams' art direction is a delight - theatre foyers, plush living rooms, Queensbury's cold and huge mansion, the courtrooms.

Main gripe: the second half of the film goes on too long. We get all three trials and repetitive scenes of Queensbury tormenting Wilde and Wilde feeling low. It doesn't help I guess that Wilde is so passive. The tragedy of the last act is well conveyed with poor old Oscar getting out of prison and heading off to Paris. An excellent film, a shining example of the subject matter you can tackle within a G rating.