Lady Windermere's Fan is a 1925 silent film based on
the play of the same name by
Oscar Wilde. The film was directed by
Ernst Lubitsch and featured
Ronald Colman as Lord Darlington. It was added to the
National Film Registry in 2002.
In addition to the tropes present in the original play, this film includes examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: The film starts off by showing how Lord Windermere gets involved with Mrs. Erlynne, which is Back Story in the original play. In fact, it takes the film over half an hour to get to the play's first scene.
- Adaptation Name Change: In the play, Lady Windermere and Mrs. Erlynne have the same first name, Margaret. In this film, Lady Windermere's first name is still Margaret, but Mrs. Erlynne's first name is changed to Edith.
- Adapted Out: Cecil Graham, Mr. Hopper, and Lady Agatha are cut from the story.
- Revealing Hug: At the end, Lord Windermere hugs his wife as he tells her that Mrs. Erlynne really is bad after all. Lady Windermere's face reveals her guilty feelings to the audience.
- Setting Update: The play was written in 1892, but the film is set in the contemporary 1920s, with automobiles and flapper fashions. This is a case of Early Adaptation Weirdness, since modern productions almost always treat it as a Victorian period piece, save for the 2004 film version where they set it to the 1930s.
