The Fan Details

No Oscar!

With a cast which includes George Sanders, Madeleine Carroll, Richard Greene, Jeanne Crain, John Sutton and Martita Hunt and a script courtesy of Oscar Wilde one might justifiably expect an entertaining screen version of 'Lady Windermere's Fan'. Unfortunately Otto Preminger, who produces and directs, is not the right person for stylish comedy (cf 'Czarina' with Tallulah Bankhead) or costume drama (cf 'Forever Amber') so, predictably, this version is not particularly successful, being rather ponderously directed. It is not helped by having a gratuitous modern day (it was made in 1949) framing sequence with Sanders and Carroll in heavily aged make-up. Of the cast,

George Sanders comes off best as Lord Darlington as might be expected, his drawl being ideal for Wildean epigrams (see also 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'), but Madeleine Carroll does not strike quite the right note as Mrs Erlynne, and Jeanne Crain is not up to Lady Windermere.

Not in the same class as Alexander Korda's 'An Ideal Husband' with Paulette Goddard and Michael Wilding, or Asquith's 'The Importance of Being Earnest' with Edith Evans and Joan Greenwood.