Alicia I love this movie so much

GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

clanciai Oscar Wilde shines through all the way with his remarkable wit and knowledge of human nature, here especially about women. Dorothy Parker adding to it makes it a double treat. Here you find Oscar Wilde amazingly updated to after the second world war with its rationing and bombed ruins of London, adding an extra spice of melancholy and sadness to the glittering wit and intrigue of fin de siècle refinement. All the actors are outstanding, Otto Preminger bringing out the best of them all, not only George Sanders and Madeleine Carroll in double performances as both young and old; but also Jeanne Crain and Richard Greene are exactly adapted to their involuntary parts of having to feign their demeanour and treading uncertainly on a precarious path of extreme human delicacy. You are led to believe the worst of Madeleine Carroll at first, and indeed she is a fallen lady, but she has learned something of it and conveys the wisdom of her experience in a wondrous way according to the best of Oscar Wilde's sharp human studies. This is a film for wits to relish, and Otto Preminger surprises once again with delivering something entirely new even to his own experience.

bkoganbing Save for the casting of Jeanne Crain who was too white bread and too American to be a proper English lady, this version of Lady Windermere's Fan this is a decent enough production. It could also have used the lighter touch of Ernest Lubitsch instead of Otto Preminger.Simply entitled The Fan Oscar Wilde's plot is told in flashback by two of the surviving principals of the story. Madeleine Carroll as the adventuress Mrs. Erlynne and the cynical Lord Darlington played by the always cynical George Sanders. Both have survived into the post World War II era in their dotage and it takes a while for Sanders to realize who is this old woman pursuing him. In her younger days Mrs. Erlynne was quite the adventuress looking to break into London society by whatever means. Through a little clever maneuvering she's got Richard Greene as Lord Windermere running interference for her in her object to get to Hugh Dempster and his title. Of course Jeanne Crain thinks the man she thought was as in love with her as she with him is now two timing him. All their little manoeuvrings are recorded with appropriate comments by Sanders who is Wilde himself.But Carroll has her reasons for saving Crain from making a fool of herself at the cost of Carroll's own plans for advancement.Watching this I thought Gene Tierney might have carried it off and she was the original choice for the title role. The one who could have done it best was Vivien Leigh. I can't believe Darryl Zanuck didn't try to get her back in America for the role.Greene is properly dashing as the Victorian Lord, but Sanders was a man born to serve up Oscar Wilde's lines with relish. Sad that the lead was weak or this might have been a classic film.

vincentlynch-moonoi I was looking forward to this old film because of its cast -- the lovely and talented Jeanne Crain, Madeleine Carroll, Richard Greene, and the always interesting George Sanders. Unfortunately, the first third of the film was rather disappointing...almost dull. But then, the mystery begins and things get far more interesting -- why is Richard Geene paying large sums of money to Madeleine Carroll? Is it an affair? Almost certainly...except that it isn't.Jeanne Crain was, in my view, one of the loveliest actresses of her era, and she shines here, although I would say this film is more of an ensemble cast than a star vehicle. Madeleine Carroll -- in her last film -- is absolutely riveting here, not to mention mysterious. It's a rather odd film for George Sanders in that he's the character he so often played in the parts of the film that are flashbacks, but a very elderly gentleman for much of the story. Richard Greene, whose career pretty much stalled after the way, was still doing nicely here...a fine and underrated actor, though this is far from his best role.I was a little disappointed at the end of the film that we have no idea what happened to Jeanne Crain and Richard Greene. Dead in the war? We never know.Personally, I slightly preferred the 2004 film adaptation of the Oscar Wilde story -- "A Good Woman", which takes place in Italy. It starred Helen Hunt, Scarlett Johansson, and Tom Wilkinson. It had its own flaws, but it didn't suffer from the first third of the film being awkward. Although, I thought the rest of the Jeanne Crain version was better. Kind of a toss up, really.

beduran The story of "Lady Windemere's Fan" is a touching portrait of repression and hypocrisy in England during the Victorian era. The pivotal character in the movie is the charming, mysterious wise and beautiful middle-age woman played by Madeleine Carroll, who returns to the conservative upper-class milieu that had banished and rejected her decades ago. She manages to come to terms with the most delicate and unresolved aspects of her past, but she has to pay a very high price for that. Nevertheless, she is a survivor and in her eighties she will be able to make a balance and reflect on that crucial episode of her past. Madeleine Carroll and George Sanders are perfectly cast as the middle-age charmers and schemers, and also sound believable as the frail but smart octogenarian survivors, and deliver great performances on the hands of Preminger, who is able to maintain a good rhythm and to capture what we might figure is the Victorian society's aristocratic milieu of gossips and intrigues. I also enjoyed Martita Hunt as a typical upper-class eccentric, manipulative and witty matron; and thought that both Richard Greene and Jeanne Crain were OK as the younger Windemere couple. I think that this underrated little gem deserves a wider distribution. I am very lucky that in Spain the DVD of "The Fan" has been released in September 2007.