THE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE

A year before Basil Dearden's groundbreaking "Victim" Ken Hughes gave us "The Trials of Oscar Wilde" and while the word 'homosexual' is never uttered no other mainstream film before it tackled the subject with such a degree of frankness, leaving audiences in no doubt as to what the film was 'about' from the very opening scene. Of course, Wilde's 'trials' are of great historical importance in that, not only was the reputation of a great artist destroyed, but subsequently the case opened up a debate of homosexuality that lasted for several decades. It could even be argued that this film, as much as "Victim", was tantamount in helping change the law in the UK.

It is a deeply serious film with none of the anachronisms we usually associate with biopics and historical dramas and it's beautifully acted by the entire cast. Peter Finch is a superb Wilde, (he won a BAFTA for his performance), John Fraser. A perfectly petulant Bosie, Nigel Patrick, a suitably sardonic defender and Yvonne Mitchell, a wonderfully underplayed Constance while James Mason is brilliant as Sir Edward Carson, defender of the Marquis of Queensbury in the initial case, (his cross-examination of Wilde is a tour-de-force).

It is also a beautiful looking film, superbly photographed in widescreen by Ted Moore and designed by Ken Adam. At exactly the same time as the Hughes film came out there was another version of the same events simply entitled "Oscar Wilde" with Robert Morley in the title role and while Morley was splendidly cast the film itself was vastly inferior.