The Fan *** (1949, Jeanne Crain, Madeleine Carroll, George Sanders, Richard Greene) – Classic Movie Review 4,686

Madeleine Carroll is excellent as the scandalous middle-aged Mrs Erlynne in a smooth, civilised, well-dressed film of Oscar Wilde’s 1892 play Lady Windermere’s Fan in 1949 with the cut-down title of The Fan.

Producer-director Otto Preminger films Oscar Wilde’s 1892 stage play Lady Windermere’s Fan for the 20th Century Fox studio in 1949 with the cut-down title of The Fan. Weirdly, for works based on a witty dialogue-led play, a 1916 silent movie and Spanish and Chinese adaptations preceded it, as well as Ernst Lubitsch’s 1925 version of Lady Windermere’s Fan.

In her final movie, Madeleine Carroll plays the central character of the scandalous middle-aged Mrs Erlynne in a smooth, civilised, well-dressed film version of Wilde’s play about the scandal that follows Lady Windermere’s loss of a fan in compromising circumstances. It is not Wilde’s best play, The Importance of Being Earnest is of course, but it is a very, very good one.

Carroll is excellent in a commanding performance and the Wildean-style actor George Sanders is ideally cast and perfectly fine and dandy as Lord Robert Darlington, while the indispensable, imperious Martita Hunt shines as the Duchess of Berwick, though Richard Greene and Jeanne Crain are not really ideal as Lord Arthur and Lady Margaret Windermere.

The then modern-day start and finish, set in a post-World War Two London auction house, with Wilde’s other plays raided for one-liners, are a mistake. It runs only 79 minutes, so it is smart moving.

Also in the cast are Richard Ney as James Hopper, Hugh Dempster as Lord Augustus Lorton, John Sutton, Virginia McDowall, Hugh Murray, Frank Elliott, John Burton and Trevor Ward.

Screenwriter Walter Reisch recalled: ‘It was just too Victorian, too elegant, and too slow. Everyone spoke like everyone else in very stilted and mechanical dialogue. Brilliant, the most wonderful dialogue on earth, but totally inhuman. Otto was left alone and it was dragged out. Nobody was hurt by the picture, and nobody was elated either.’

Apparently, 20th Century Fox studio boss Daryll F Zanuck was not a fan.

The Fan is directed by Otto Preminger, runs 79 minutes, is made and released by 20th Century Fox, is written by Walter Reisch, Dorothy Parker and Ross Evans, is shot in black and white by Joseph LaShelle, is produced by Otto Preminger, is scored by Daniele Amfitheatrof, and is designed by Leland Fuller and Lyle R Wheeler, with the attractive costumes designed by René Hubert and Charles Le Maire.

It was released on April 1, 1949.

The cast are Jeanne Crain as Lady Margaret Windermere, Madeleine Carroll as Mrs Erlynne, Richard Greene as Lord Arthur Windermere, George Sanders as Lord Robert Darlington, Martita Hunt as Duchess of Berwick, John Sutton as Cecil Graham, Hugh Dempster as Lord Augustus Lorton, Richard Ney as James Hopper, Virginia McDowall as Lady Agatha, and Randy Stuart as American Girl, Hugh Murray, Frank Elliott, John Burton and Trevor Ward.

The film went down badly with critics (‘most of Wilde’s brittle wit and satire has been lost’) and public alike, and Madeleine Carroll retired from the movies – much too soon, aged 43. Carroll had damaged her career by abandoning it to devote herself to the war effort by helping wounded servicemen and children from 1942-46, after the death of her sister Marguerite in the London Blitz. She worked as nurse in the line of fire on troop trains and in field hospitals for the Red Cross in Italy.

Carroll was the world’s highest paid actress in 1938, earning $250,000. But after World War Two she made only three more films, High Fury, An Innocent Affair and The Fan. Two of her best films are with Alfred Hitchcock – The 39 Steps and Secret Agent. Her most popular films also include My Favorite Blonde, The Prisoner of Zenda and North West Mounted Police.

May McAvoy stars as Lady Windermere and Ronald Colman stars as Lord Darlington in the 1925 silent version of The Fan by Ernst Lubitsch, filmed as Lady Windermere’s Fan, which is available on DVD.

It was remade in 2004 as A Good Woman, with Helen Hunt.

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 4,686

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