Lady Windermere's Fan (1925)

Director:

Ernst Lubitsch

Writers:

Oscar Wilde (play)
Julien Josephson (adaptation)

Release Date:

26 December 1925 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

Mrs Erlynne, the mother of Lady Windermere - her daughter does not know about her - wants to be introduced in society...

Plot Keywords:

Mother Daughter Relationship | England | Scandal | Letter | Comedy Of Manners

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Ronald Colman	...	Lord Darlington
May McAvoy	...	Lady Windermere
Bert Lytell	...	Lord Windermere
Irene Rich	...	Mrs. Erlynne
Edward Martindel	...	Lord Augustus Lorton (as Edw. Martindel)
Carrie Daumery	...	The Duchess of Berwick (as Mme. Daumery)

Runtime:

USA:89 min (2004 National Film Preservation Foundation print) | Denmark:82 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

USA:Approved | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Canada:G (Ontario) | Portugal:17 (director's cut)

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

On 28 March 2008, composer Yati Durant premiered a new score for clarinet, piano, string quartet and electronics at the Cologne Philharmonic in Cologne, Germany. The composition was commissioned by the Cologne Philharmonic and the U.S. Consulate General.

Quotes:

Opening title card: Lady Windermere faced the grave problem of seating her dinner guests.

Movie Connections:

Version of Abanico de Lady Windermere, El (1944)

A beautifully well-realized adaptation of Oscar Wilde's play

When a stage play is turned into a movie the results can be dire, especially when the play is a dialog-driven comedy of manners, full of quips and epigrams. Unless it's handled carefully even a great play might feel 'canned' and lifeless on screen, amounting to little more than what Alfred Hitchcock dismissed as "photographs of people talking." A few exceptions come to mind: the two versions of HOLIDAY made in the '30s, THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, the Rex Harrison/Margaret Rutherford BLITHE SPIRIT, and a handful of other faithful stage-to-screen adaptations that managed to be lively and entertaining despite heavy reliance on dialog. But these films are surpassed in achievement by an adaptation from 1925 which perfectly captured the spirit of the play it presented without even quoting it!

Before seeing LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN at the Museum of Modern Art this summer I re-read Oscar Wilde's play, which I enjoyed, but I didn't have high hopes for the movie, despite the fact that it was directed by the great Ernst Lubitsch. I imagined the movie would consist of actors standing around in tuxes and evening gowns pretending to mouth witty sayings, which would then be presented to us in numerous intertitles; but because I admire Lubitsch's sound films a great deal I thought I'd give it a try. Plus, I thought it'd be interesting to see how Ronald Colman comes off in a silent film, deprived of that famous voice. What a pleasant surprise to find that this is one of the best sophisticated comedies of the silent screen. The flavor of Wilde's play is distilled to its essence, and clearly conveyed without relying on a single one of his famous epigrams. (Interestingly, a recent biography of Lubitsch says that the film quotes only two or three lines from the play, but if so I didn't catch them.) How is this possible?

When the notorious Mrs. Erlynne (Irene Rich) appears at the Ascot race track, the reaction of "society" is quickly made clear to us by the scandalized facial expressions of the ladies present-- who, nonetheless, can't stop looking at her or talking about her. The tone of their remarks is obvious from their sour expressions. The men appear to be interested in Mrs. Erlynne, too. She is shown, montage fashion, from many different angles, through lorgnettes and binoculars, long-shot, extreme long-shot and close-up, and while the horse race is reduced to mere background. It's a funny and informative sequence, yet it isn't in Wilde's play. In another scene that more closely follows the text, Lord Darlington (Colman) calls on Lord and Lady Windermere at their home. He is formally announced, and pretends briefly that he actually came to see Lord Windermere on some minor matter. But when Windermere conveniently leaves on other business, Darlington, shown in a stately long-shot, marches resolutely up to Lady Windermere (May McAvoy), looking for all the world like Buster Keaton in SEVEN CHANCES, and announces that he is in love with her. She drops into a chair. He drops into a chair. They both look miserable. Fade-out. No additional dialog necessary!

Another sequence that occurs late in the film perfectly epitomizes the famous Lubitsch Touch while deftly conveying the spirit of Wilde's play: an intertitle announces that "The relations between a man and a woman can be told by the way he presses her doorbell." Various ways in which this is so are then demonstrated. You wouldn't think that a close-up shot of a doorbell and a gentleman's gloved hand could be so suggestive, but Lubitsch manages to suggest a great deal.

The black & white cinematography of LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN positively shimmers (happily, this is one silent film that has been well preserved). The acting is quite restrained by the standards of the day, and even without his voice Ronald Colman is attractive and compelling, while Irene Rich gives the performance of her career. It's a wonderful adaptation of a great play which can stand on its own as cinema-- and it may come as a surprise to those who believe silent film comedy begins and ends with Ben Turpin and the Keystone Kops.