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Trials of Oscar Wilde [VHS]

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This excellent film seems to have been missed out by the market.
The storyline is true to history and the production is very good.
With stars such has peter finch & james mason it really should be made available on DVD.

Looks like a bootleg copy made from television. Maybe someday an actual dvd will be made of this film. How can amazon sell such low quality merchandise?

The Trials of Oscar Wilde, 1960 film

Oscar Wilde was an author and playwright who is best remembered today for his conviction for "indecent behavior". This movie provides a biography and shows the trials that ended his public life in Great Britain. This story is set in the 1890s, sometimes called "the gay 90's". This era had the worst economic depression of the 19th century in America. Wilde was married with two children when the story begins. He was a gentleman, one who had an income without being in trade. His literary talents are shown by his successful novels and plays. The leisure class of London loved his plays. If you don't know much about Oscar Wilde this is a short history of his life and times.

The film shows Wilde's life as an aesthete and successful novelist and playwright. His spending exceeded his income. [This is a sign of a hidden psychological flaw.] He had a close friendship with a young man half his age, Lord Alfred. Both are gentlemen. Lord Alfred's father, the Marquis of Queensbury (famous for his rules on boxing) strongly objected to their relationship. He left a written message accusing Wilde of "posing as a Sodomite". [In England the truth is no defense against libel.] Against legal advice Wilde sued the Marquis. The first jury refused a guilty verdict by failing to agree. The next jury found him guilty. Wilde had to pay the costs of the plaintiff, which bankrupted him. His books and plays no longer sold.

The aftermath is a criminal investigation that ended up charging Wilde with "indecent behavior". [The film follows Victorian censorship rules.] The high point of the trial comes when Wilde admits consorting with an "ugly" man; this contradicts his pose as an aesthete interested only in beauty! Wilde was convicted of these unnamed acts and given two years at hard labor. His wife was independently wealthy. [Perhaps Wilde's real crime was consorting with lower class thieves, not his social peers. The latter never squealed.] Upon his release he became a "remittance man" who received £150 a year from his wife as long as he stayed away from Lord Alfred (and out of Great Britain).

His young friend Lord Alfred is presented as an emotionally disturbed man who would be avoided by anyone with common sense. You can read "Royal Babylon" to learn about the aristocratic society of that era. I don't know of any one book that documents the upper class of America in those days. Here are two items. The story of drinking champaign out of a woman's shoe came from a "resort" in Chicago ("Sex in the Second City"). Having a nude woman pop out of cake for a bachelor party came from New York city ("The Devil in the White City").Would there be a market for such a book today? The Muckrakers published stories about corrupt practices, but their magazines were put out of business ("The Brass Check").
This movie was also named "The Green Carnation" after his favorite flower.