LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 529, 12 August 1949, Page 19

LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN

(20th Century-Fox) { F Oscar Wilde isn’t dovelvins in his grave he may be stirripg restlessly at this adaptation of his frst comedy. It must have been a quaint fancy that decided the director to present the action of the film in a series of flashbacks as told by one octogenarian to another in blitzed, post-war London. At, an auction of property salvaged from bombed-out houses Madeleine Carroll, heavily disguised-in fact wunrecognisable under her wig and make-up-spots the fan but can’t claim it until she has produced someone to establish her identity. So she looks up her old friend George Sanders (not so well disguised) who is unfortunately suffering from senile amnesia and doesn’t know her. Ta jog his memory she tells him the story of how she first acquired the fan. Miss Carroll, we shortly discover, is none other than the Mrs. Erlynne of

the play, living on after all these years, and George Sanders is Lord» Darlington. Lady Windermere turns out to. be Jeanne Crain (not a very good pick) and Lord W. is Richard Greene. Despite its mainly English cast, however, the film doesn’t really catch fire until the latter stages. In its earlier part only an occasional glitter of Wildean wit flashes through the murk of stilted verbiage and indifferent playing. Much of the original dialogue has been cut away, but Wilde can’t be completely ruined by such summary treatment, and the climacti¢ scene where the fan is discovered in Lord Darlington’s room and Lady Windermere’s reputation is saved only by Mrs. Erlynne’s presence of mind, helps to pull the game out of the fire. The most satisfying comedy comes, unexpectedly, from two minor characters, the Duchess of a" and Lord Augustus.