{"id":9330,"date":"2009-08-24T11:04:08","date_gmt":"2009-08-24T18:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=9330"},"modified":"2021-01-29T19:04:33","modified_gmt":"2021-01-30T02:04:33","slug":"lady-windermeres-fan-1925","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=9330","title":{"rendered":"Lady Windermere&#8217;s Fan (1925)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Lady Windermere faced the grave problem of seating her dinner guests&#8230;&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Lady-Windermeres-Fan-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Lady-Windermeres-Fan-Poster-226x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"226\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-66912\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Lady-Windermeres-Fan-Poster-226x300.png 226w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Lady-Windermeres-Fan-Poster-97x128.png 97w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Lady-Windermeres-Fan-Poster-204x270.png 204w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Lady-Windermeres-Fan-Poster.png 681w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 226px) 100vw, 226px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA socially outcast woman (Irene Rich) blackmails Lady Windermere&#8217;s husband (Bert Lytell) in exchange for not revealing to Lady Windermere (May McAvoy) that she is actually her mother; meanwhile, rakish Lord Darlington (Ronald Colman) has designs on Lady Windermere; Lady Windermere suspects her husband of having an affair with Mrs. Erlynne (Rich); and Mrs. Erlynne hopes to be able to re-enter society by marrying eligible bachelor Lord Augustus (Edward Martindel).\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Blackmail<\/li>\n<li>Ernst Lubitsch Films<\/li>\n<li>Mistaken Identities<\/li>\n<li>Morality Police<\/li>\n<li>Play Adaptations<\/li>\n<li>Ronald Colman Films<\/li>\n<li>Silent Films<\/li>\n<li>Social Climbers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nIt was brave of Ernst Lubitsch to attempt to translate Oscar Wilde&#8217;s first play into a silent film, given that &#8212; by virtue of the format &#8212; he was unable to incorporate much of Wilde&#8217;s lauded verbal repartee. The resulting movie shows evidence of Lubitsch&#8217;s visual creativity, but is ultimately not entirely successful, primarily because there&#8217;s little evidence of Wilde&#8217;s trademark wit: while <em>&#8230;Fan<\/em> is nominally a romantic comedy, it comes across here as more of a melodramatic soaper (<em>a la<\/em> Olive Higgins Prouty&#8217;s <em>Stella Dallas<\/em>). Guest-star Ronald Colman (on loan from Samuel Goldwyn) is given little to do as Lord Darlington, whose infatuation with Lady Windermere functions merely as a plot contrivance; the other actors are serviceable in their respective roles, but not particularly noteworthy. What lingers longest in one&#8217;s memory of the film are Lubitsch&#8217;s directorial &#8220;touches&#8221; &#8212; as when he strategically uses his camera to show the characters&#8217; isolation from one another, or to enhance several of the story&#8217;s classic misunderstandings. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Creative direction by Lubitsch<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/lubitsch-exit.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/lubitsch-exit.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9334\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/lubitsch-garden.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/lubitsch-garden.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9335\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/lubitsch-race.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/lubitsch-race.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9336\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Sophie Wachner&#8217;s glamorous gowns<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/lubitsch-gowns.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/lubitsch-gowns.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9337\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though Lubitsch fans will certainly be curious to check it out. Listed as a film with historical importance in the back of Peary&#8217;s book.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0016004\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Lady Windermere faced the grave problem of seating her dinner guests&#8230;&#8221; Synopsis: A socially outcast woman (Irene Rich) blackmails Lady Windermere&#8217;s husband (Bert Lytell) in exchange for not revealing to Lady Windermere (May McAvoy) that she is actually her mother; meanwhile, rakish Lord Darlington (Ronald Colman) has designs on Lady Windermere; Lady Windermere suspects her husband of having an affair with Mrs. Erlynne (Rich); and Mrs. Erlynne hopes to be able to re-enter society by marrying eligible bachelor Lord Augustus&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=9330\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9330"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66914,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9330\/revisions\/66914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}