The Trials of Oscar Wilde 1960 Peter Finch



The Trials of Oscar Wilde also known as The Man with the Green Carnation and The Green Carnation, is a 1960 British 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 the play The Stringed Lute by John Furnell. The film was made by Warwick Films and released by United Artists.

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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.

The film won the Golden Globe Award for Best English-Language Foreign Film. Peter Finch won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and the film also received four other BAFTA nominations including Best British Film, Best Film from any source and for John Fraser as Best British Actor. Peter Finch (tied with Bambang Hermanto) also received the Best Actor Award at the 2nd Moscow International Film Festival

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.”[4] 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.”[4]

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

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46 Replies to “The Trials of Oscar Wilde 1960 Peter Finch”

  1. In 1918 boise went on the stand and said Wilde was the greatest force for evil that had appeared in Europe in the last 350 years. And that England was being destroyed by perverts at the highest level

  2. Interesting the role of the prime minister at this time.
    Rosebery.

    A suspected homosexual/ bi sexual.
    Had relationship with marquis of queensbury's son, who mysteriously died from gunshot to the head!

  3. Maybe his biggest mistake of Wilde in the second trial shown here was to say "I am a lover of youth." Had he an unconscious desire for self-destruction?

  4. For Wilde to reply "No he was extremely ugly" when asked on the stand did he kiss some man at a party was his biggest mistake. He should simply have said "no" and left it at that.

  5. Hypocrisy in it's care and feeding, is such strange business of it's
    mostly male dedicatees, hiding from self being it's main, lifetime
    preoccupation. It is greater than vicious to these, for the torment
    it extracts thus.

  6. I love this film, but I would strongly advise viewers not to miss the other version of his life starring Robert Morley. It's on YouTube and it's a masterpiece. The courtroom scenes – with Ralph Richardson as Sir Edward Carson – will have you on the edge of your seat, even although we already know the sad outcome. A strangely neglected film – all the actors are at the top of their game. Hope you enjoy it!

  7. The proceedings of this movie have shown that it is impossible to fight an unjust law through an unjust and bigoted "justice" system without money and or fame. As is seen with the so called prosecution's gallery of "criminals" young men who were doing the same thing as Wilde, but because they were poor and unknown; they could be induced to testify against their own wishes in order to get lesser sentences etc… When Wilde says about his bail, "a common fellow would not have been so penalized." When in truth the common fellow would be in jail as guilty as they wouldn't have the clout or money to chance an actual trial. This all says volumes about then and now. This can be applied to many things in society that are in the justice system that are unfair and unjust and therefore to rehabilitate such a travesty and sham system has to be taken from outside that body of government. For how can a precedent fueled system, with a long history of proven injustice be expected to change? The last judge talking about men "of honour"? The hypocrisy is blinding! The laws must be changed and it's unfortunate and sickening that the law makers and changers are too busy fighting each other and trying to get money for their respective parties to in any efficient way do their proper job getting rid of bad and unjust laws. Very sad and very poignant now as ever!

  8. Wouldn't the withdrawal of the complaint just stop the case and the Dad would be let go and the case dismissed? If they were going to rule on the case why would the prosecution even withdraw the case at all?

  9. So freedom of speech as applied to public figures wasn't a thing in England. Is this still the case? I'm wondering of course about the tabloids and all the junk written in them about public figures. I'm assuming at least some of it is untrue and could therefore be prosecuted? What strange wording of the note the enraged father left. The meaning would seem to imply that Oscar Wilde was not a "sodomite" but was merely "posing" as one. Wouldn't that be much more provable? As, according to his friend whom first confronted Wilde in the club, stating that he was acting in a way that at the very least "looked" like he was a couple with Bose. Not that I think that what the angry father did was, in any way, okay. In fact it's very sad that he obsessed over it until he lost his son!

  10. This really has nothing to do with this interesting film. However, I'm curious about the "old wives tale" that colds are caused by getting wet or being out in the cold. Do you suppose that all of the people who were stricken ill after getting wet or going out in the cold were actually faking it or that it was psychosomatic? I bet it's likely both, but a lot of it will be conditioning by being fussed over after coming into the house after being cold and or wet. Especially when times were harder!

  11. Kudos to screenwriters Montgomery Hyde and Ken Hughes! Their dialogue was so sharp. You would think they had the transcripts from the trials, although I saw no stenographer on staff. Oscar Wilde would have enjoyed this. Deserving of every award well-earned. Glad they passed over Alec Guinness and Laurence Olivier. Peter Finch was just right. Unfortunately, life is often a matter of choices and consequences. Choices can often be controlled, but consequences may be beyond our repair.

  12. Oscar buggers loads of rent boys …. gets called a bugger …. sues for libel ….. ruins his life. Not quite the genius he told everyone he was. Today he would get a Knighthood and his own chat show.

  13. Oscar's mistake was putting more importance on Bozie, than his wife and children. Bozie was such a brat, and Oscar lost his family in the end.

  14. “But we who live in prison, and in whose lives there is no event but sorrow, have to measure time by throbs of pain, and the record of bitter moments. We have nothing else to think of. Suffering ― curious as it may sound to you ― is the means by which we exist, because it is the only means by which we become conscious of existing; and the remembrance of suffering in the past is necessary to us as the warrant, the evidence, of our continued identity.”

  15. The British have a unique way with words. Their vernacular exceeds the American language which there is no comparison. This movie demonstrates this with the character's language and dialect. Regarding the magnificent playwright over this subject of Immoral Behavior. We call perverted Sin…………. No Comments!

  16. in a way I don't feel sorry for him he didn't care for anyone his children or wife he just threw them away without a thought all for personal gratification on the whims of a spoilt lunatic

  17. It seems that Oscar Wilde felt guilty about his homosexuality; If you look at his most successful works they all involve deceit & guilt. This seems to be quite common in Victorian popular culture eg Robert Louis Stephenson's "Doctor Jekyll & Mister Hyde". In Victorian 'Society' outward respectability was everything; People seen to attend church services on Sunday while abusing their employees the rest of the week.

  18. Wilder lost his wealth, wife, and two precious children for a male prostitute.
    Terribly sad for him and family. The pain to his children was tremendous.
    Glad they had a wonderful mother to love and care for them.

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