Lady Windermere's Fan (1925)
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch

Film Review

Given that the main virtue of Oscar Wilde's plays is the author's unrivalled penchant for le bon mot it seems unlikely that any film adaptation made in the silent era could ever do justice to his work.  Ernst Lubitsch was probably the only filmmaker working in Hollywood in the 1920s who was capable of pulling off this perilous stunt, as his inspired adaptation of Wilde's social comedy Lady Windermere's Fan amply demonstrates.  So confident is he in his own abilities that Lubitsch doesn't even quote Wilde in the film's inter-titles (of which there are surprisingly very few).  The Irish playwright's words may be missing but Lubitsch still manages to capture the essence of his play, and even gives it a deeper meaning by imbuing the characters with a greater sense of reality.  In his play, Wilde invites us to laugh as his wickedly caricatured characters; in his film, Lubitsch compels us to sympathise with his more sensitively drawn characters.

Early in Lubitsch's Hollywood career, Lady Windermere's Fan was the fourth of five films that the director made for Warner Brothers, and one of the most successful.  Taking top billing was a young British actor who would become one of the most sought-after actors in Hollywood with the advent of sound, Ronald Colman.  Robbed of his greatest asset - his distinctive, cultivated voice - Colman still has a charismatic presence and is perfectly suited for the role of the sympathetic cad, Lord Darlington.  May McAvoy and Bert Lytell are equally impressive as the Windermeres, but the accolade for the best performance has to go to Irene Rich.  The latter's portrayal of Mrs Erlynne has a subtle poignancy about it - in contrast to the scheming social climber of Wilde's play, she is a more fragile and complex character, a victim of an unforgiving system that has ruined her life.  Meanwhile, Carrie Daumery provides plenty of amusement value as the prim and vain Duchess of Berwick.

Whereas Wilde uses verbal wit to mock the double standards and affected behaviour of the upper classes, Lubitsch achieves the same end through ingenious visual comedy.  In the film's one great set-piece, the impeccably turned out socialites are far more interested in examining each other than the horses on the racetrack.  Whilst the film retains the structure of the play, Lubitsch makes some minor alterations, for example revealing Mrs Erlynne's relationship to Lady Windermere earlier in the story to introduce an element of suspense and make the motives clearer.  Lubitsch gives his characters more in the way of psychological depth, making them more ambiguous, less stereotypical than in Wilde's play.  Lubitsch's Lady Windermere's Fan is as cruel and perceptive a satire as the original, but it has more warmth and humanity to it, and, even though it contains not a jot of Wilde's scalpel-edged dialogue, it remains one of cinema's best adaptations of an Oscar Wilde play.

Film Synopsis

Unaware that his wife is being courted behind his back by the eligible bachelor Lord Darlington, Lord Windermere is disturbed when he receives a letter from a woman, Mrs Erlynne, he has never met before, offering him information of some importance.  A social pariah after an earlier indiscretion, Mrs Erlynne has recently returned to London with insufficient means to re-enter society.  She reveals to Lord Windermere that she is his wife's mother, the mother who was thought to have died some years ago.  To avoid causing his wife distress, Lord Windermere agrees to give money to Mrs Erlynne if she will continue to keep her secret.  When Lady Windermere discovers that her husband has been writing cheques to Mrs Erlynne she draws the obvious conclusion that he has taken a mistress.   Without delay, she heads for Lord Darlington's apartment, heedless of the scandal that she is bound to bring upon herself...