Best Films - 1925
by Andre Soares
Bert Lytell is the nice husband, May McAvoy the jealous wife, Ronald Colman the other man, and Irene Rich (not in the picture) the scene stealer in Ernst Lubitsch’s delightful film version of Oscar Wilde’s play Lady Windermere’s Fan. In the film, Rich plays Mrs. Erlynne, a woman of the world in search of a lordly husband. McAvoy is her clueless daughter, Lady Windermere: she doesn’t know her mother’s identity and mistakenly believes that Mrs. Erlynne has set her sights on Lord Windermere (Lytell). Petulant child that she is, Lady Windermere goes after eligible bachelor Lord Darlington (Colman), eventually forgetting her fan at his place. All is taken care of at the end, of course, but Julien Josephson’s adaptation keeps us alternately intrigued and amused throughout.
Not surprisingly, Lubitsch’s magical touch fully captures Wilde’s flair and sophistication. Surprisingly, however, Lubitsch also makes Lady Windermere’s Fan flow just like a talkie. One reads the witty dialogue — titles by Maude Fulton and Erik Yorke — but it feels as if one is actually hearing it. Of the four leading players, only Ronald Colman would have a stellar career in talking pictures.
FILM
Ben-Hur
The Big Parade
Her Sister from Paris
Lady Windermere’s Fan
The Merry Widow
DIRECTOR
Sidney Franklin (Her Sister from Paris)
Ernst Lubitsch (Lady Windermere’s Fan)
King Vidor (The Big Parade)
ACTOR
John Gilbert (The Big Parade)
ACTRESS
Belle Bennett (Stella Dallas)
Eleanor Boardman (The Way of a Girl)
Betty Bronson (Are Parents People?)
Irene Rich (Lady Windermere’s Fan)
Norma Shearer (Lady of the Night)
Constance Talmadge (Her Sister from Paris)
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Edward Martindel (Lady Windermere’s Fan)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Renée Adorée (The Big Parade)
Alice Joyce (Stella Dallas)
Lois Moran (Stella Dallas)
SCREENPLAY
Julien Josephson (script) Maude Fulton & Erik Yorke (titles) (Lady Windermere’s Fan)
Hans Kräly (Her Sister from Paris)
Laurence Stallings & Harry Behn (script) Joseph W. Farnham (titles) (The Big Parade)
CINEMATOGRAPHY
John Arnold (The Big Parade)
George Barnes (The Eagle)
Harry Fischbeck & Harold S. Sintzenich (Sally of the Sawdust)
Oliver T. Marsh, Ben F. Reynolds & William H. Daniels (The Merry Widow)
Hal Mohr (The Monster)
Karl Struss, Clyde de Vinna, Percy Hilburn & René Guissart (Ben-Hur)
Edouard Tissé & V. Popov (Bronenosets Potyomkin / The Battleship Potemkin)
Charles Van Enger (Lady Windermere’s Fan)
Charles Van Enger & Virgil Miller (The Phantom of the Opera)
"Best Films of …" Annual List
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