Oscar Wilde’s legacy has never been more secure than it has been since the advent of cinema. The great Irish wordsmith was very quickly committed to film when a range of artists decided that they would mount small but captivating productions and preserve them on film for both audiences that weren’t witness to the incredible stage work being done based on his work, as well as for future viewers, who would likely benefit from seeing the plays, novels and pieces of non-fiction writing being captured to have some kind of permanence. It’s this process that has allowed Wilde to remain immortal, someone whose life may have been relatively short (and what was not spent writing was mostly mired with controversy and public affairs that shook up his already tumultuous life), but whose musings on society and its many bizarre conventions has made him an artist whose work continues to reverberate over a century since his death. One of his more famous works is An Ideal Husband, his bitterly caustic tale of love and deception amongst the politically active upper class – and while it may not be as insightfully hilarious as his magnum opus, The Importance of Being Earnest, it remains a fascinating text that is constantly challenging the audience to look deeper. It was adapted into a tremendously entertaining film by Alexander Korda, who brings his experience as someone who had been working in cinema from some of its earliest days in the silent era to this production, which would ultimately serve to be his penultimate directorial effort, a worthy entry into the latter portion of his exceptional career that seemed to bear striking resemblance to Wilde’s own interest in gentle but provocative satire.

When it comes to Wilde’s work, it is easy to read his writing and understand what an exceptionally gifted artist he was. However, for many of his texts, the most effective way to experience them was through seeing them in motion, which is the precise reason behind his status as one of the most celebrated playwrights of any generation. Whether on stage or recorded on film, there is constant value in seeing his work performed by actors who commit fully to delivering his sparkling dialogue, playing off each other with incredible consistency. There’s something about having the opportunity to experience these stories in action that is incredibly poignant, and Korda understands how valuable the theatrical process is, even if it is done through the medium of film. As a result, his adaptation of An Ideal Husband is fascinating in ways that may not have entirely been intentional, such as the staging of the play (which is now allowed to be expanded beyond the more limited space in which the theatrical productions had to be constructed. Korda utilizes space exceptionally well – he understands that Wilde’s work simply can’t be condensed into the often stifling categorization of a stuffy period comedy, especially since these may be set in a very distinct temporal and geographical space, but are effervescent and light on their feet, requiring a constantly lighthearted tone that almost betrays the very deep narrative, which touches on issues far bigger than we’d expect from a delightful comedy such as this – and it all coalesces in a very peculiar but captivating story that is centred on a few themes that remain pressing, even by contemporary standards.

Few artists have been able to capture the spirit of social hypocrisy better than Wilde – and while he did touch on the working class on a few occasions, his most significant works tend to be focused on high society and their various affairs, which form the foundation for many of his greatest and most unforgettable works. Wilde was someone whose wit was often found through the process of punching upwards, satirizing those who he knew would not suffer from his scathing wit, with the most notable consequence being a brief moment of embarrassment that comes as a result of the esteemed writer’s ability to see through the upper-class facade that they all so deeply depend on in order to maintain the image of perfection that is so incredibly important to them. The film orbits around the theme of political corruption, using this very serious subject as the starting point for this actively engaging satire that is as equally committed to the intricate details of the socio-political machinations of the time as it was the cultural perceptions that were dominant during this era, and which work together in symbiosis, drawing out the humour inherent to the situation, while grounding it within a recognizable and historically-accurate depiction of the social and cultural milieu in which it takes place. For those interested in the past at all, An Ideal Husband offers a very striking balance of historical context and period-appropriate detail, while for viewers who may be seeking out something purely entertaining may find themselves being challenged more than they expected, which is simply just another tremendously effective aspect of this otherwise layered film that carries itself with a certain sardonic sophistication.

The perfect collision between great characters and a story that means something more than just being a cheaply-constructed satire ultimately converges in an incredibly interesting work, and a great deal of what makes An Ideal Husband successful comes in the form of the actors who take on these roles. Much like Wilde’s other work, the story depends on the quality of the performances, and Korda does cast his film exceptionally well, utilizing a cast plucked from both sides of the Atlantic. At a cursory glance, the ensemble does seem slightly more subdued in terms of big personalities (especially since later adaptations of Wilde’s work tended to become highly coveted by most actors, many of whom saw it as a rite of passage), but it more than makes up for its more obscure by the sheer strength of the actor’s performances. Paulette Godard is arguably the most recognizable actor in terms of her body of work in film, and in playing the film’s primary antagonist, she is given the opportunity to challenge herself in a way that many films with female villains often struggle to fully embrace – but even reducing her to just this classification betrays the story, which really depends on the interactions between the various castmembers – Michael Wilding, Hugh Williams, Diana Wynyard and Glynis Johns all get excellent moments, and fit perfectly into Wilde’s peculiar world, which we soon discover is far more engaging when it comes to defining his characters than we’d initially expect – the actors make the dialogue effective, rather than the other way around, and while it may not be the kind of star-studded affair we’ve come to expect from Wilde’s work, An Ideal Husband does have many moments of genuine brilliance on behalf of its actors.

For those unprepared, whether for this specific piece or Wilde’s work in general, An Ideal Husband may be a difficult film to grasp, since it is not the easiest film to decode in terms of tone and register. There are some genuinely funny moments, but it often feels like it is depending too much on the more serious side, rather than the humourous aspects that are often associated with Wilde’s work – the jokes are scattered, and the more offbeat qualities begin to fade into the background, not so much to the point where they entirely disappear, but where their visibility becomes increasingly more sporadic, leading us to wonder whether the text was originally designed as a comedy or a drama. We know that An Ideal Husband is one of Wilde’s great works of humour, but it all depends on how it is executed, with all of his work being witty enough to be entertaining, but also having a sheen of neutrality that allows various artists to adapt the work in their way, emphasizing the points that are more aligned with their vision, and placing the less favourable or effective qualities into the foreground. In the case of this adaptation, Korda was more invested in the side of the story that was aligned with the social and political upheaval (especially considering it was made in the aftermath of the Second World War), so it does ultimately make sense these were the ideas that drew him to the production, and which he makes sure to develop into this radically funny and deeply fascinating character study that uses the words of one of history’s greatest writers as the starting point for an insightful, jovial celebration of romance and brutal indictment of political corruption, two wildly disparate concepts that we soon discover are far more compatible than we expected at the outset.