Lady Windermere’s Fan *** (1925, May McAvoy, Ronald Colman, Irene Rich, Bert Lytell) – Classic Movie Review 6059

May McAvoy stars as Lady Windermere and Ronald Colman stars as Lord Darlington in Ernst Lubitsch’s 1925 silent version of Oscar Wilde’s classic 1892 play Lady Windermere’s Fan, which is happily available now on DVD.

A non-speaking Oscar Wilde film seems a strange idea now. How could a silent medium convey those Wildean epigrams? Easy: take one great director (Lubitsch), assemble a perfect cast (Colman as Lord Darlington, Irene Rich as Mrs Erlynne, Bert Lytell as Lord Windermere and petite McAvoy as Lady Windermere), add elegant photography by Van Enger and what you get is a Wilde delight.

Not a single line of Wilde’s witty dialogue appears in the intertitles. This silent classic is now restored in a beautifully preserved version that does full justice to its visuals.

Also in the cast are Edward Martindel, Billie Bennett, Carrie Daumery, Wilson Benge, Mrs Cowper- Cowper, Helen Dubar and Larry Steers.

It runs 79 minutes, was released by Warner Bros, is written by Julien Josephson, is shot in black and white by Charles Van Enger, is produced by Darryl F Zanuck, and designed by Harold Grieve and Edgar G Ulmer.

It was remade in 1949 as The Fan and again in 2004 as A Good Woman, with Helen Hunt.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6059

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