Oscar Wilde (1960 Film)
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In Len Brown's 2008 book Meetings With Morrissey, this film is mentioned:
Some months later, one afternoon in my Brixton flat, I’m surprised to see an obscure film version of Oscar Wilde’s life was being shown on television, starring the corpulent Robert Morley as Oscar opposite Ralph Richardson’s Carson (the Irish school-friend of Wilde who later defeated him in court). Although it’s understandably vague about the nature of Wilde’s crimes — the film was made when homosexuality was still illegal in Britain — Gregory Ratoff’s Oscar Wilde (1960) is nevertheless a moving and sympathetic take on the Irish playwright’s tragic life. Alongside John Neville portraying Lord Alfred Douglas, and Dennis Price as Wilde’s intimate and loyal friend Robert Ross, close Morrissey observers should also note the presence of Tony Doonan as the 17-year old rent boy and blackmailer Alfred Wood. Doonan’s suicidal brother, Patric, would later be immortalised in one of Morrissey’s finest solo tracks, ‘Now My Heart Is Full’ on Vauxhall & I. As the end credits roll, the phone rings and Morrissey’s soft, warmly camp voice starts talking about the film, as if our earlier Wilde conversation is still in full swing. “It’s a very rarely shown film made in the same year as The Trials Of Oscar Wilde, another film which starred Peter Finch as Wilde. Because The Trials Of Oscar Wilde was made in colour it really largely overshadowed the Morley version. Also The Trials Of Oscar Wilde was tremendous. And Robert Morley I couldn’t really accept.” He wasn’t a very attractive Wilde. He laughs: “No, not to me anyway.”
Wikipedia Information
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Oscar Wilde is a 1960 biographical film about Oscar Wilde, made by Vantage Films and released by 20th Century Fox. The film was directed by Gregory Ratoff and produced by William Kirby, from a screenplay by Jo Eisinger, based on the play Oscar Wilde by Leslie Stokes and Sewell Stokes. The film starred Robert Morley (as Oscar Wilde), Ralph Richardson, Phyllis Calvert and Alexander Knox.