Apart from multiple " made @-@ for @-@ television " versions , The Importance of Being Earnest have been adapted for the English @-@ language cinema at least three times , first in 1952 by Anthony Asquith who adapted the screenplay and directed it . Michael Denison ( Algernon ) , Michael Redgrave ( Jack ) , Edith Evans ( Lady Bracknell ) , Dorothy Tutin ( Cecily ) , Joan Greenwood ( Gwendolen ) , and Margaret Rutherford ( Miss Prism ) and Miles Malleson ( Canon Chasuble ) was among the cast . In 1992 Kurt Baker directed a version using an all @-@ black cast with Daryl Keith Roach as Jack , Wren T. Brown as Algernon , Ann Weldon as Lady Bracknell , Lanei Chapman as Cecily , Chris Calloway as Gwendolen , CCH Pounder as Miss Prism , and Brock Peters as Doctor Chasuble , set in the United States . Oliver Parker , an English director who had previously adapted An Ideal Husband by Wilde , made the 2002 film ; it star Colin Firth ( Jack ) , Rupert Everett ( Algy ) , Judi Dench ( Lady Bracknell ) , Reese Witherspoon ( Cecily ) , Frances O 'Connor ( Gwendolen ) , Anna Massey ( Miss Prism ) , and Tom Wilkinson ( Canon Chasuble ) . Parker 's adaptation include the dunning solicitor Mr. Gribsby who pursue Jack to Hertfordshire ( present in Wilde 's original draft , but cut at the behest of the play 's first producer ) . Algernon too is pursued by a group of creditors in the opening scene .