The film opens in a post-World War II Londonauction house, where an elderly woman is trying to acquire an attractive fan she claims was once hers. A flashback to the Victorian era of Wilde's play reveals she is the scandalous Mrs. Erlynne, who in middle age becomes entangled with Lord Arthur Windermere, whose young and beautiful but socially conservative wife Margaret tends to judge others harshly. Lord Windermere financially supports Mrs. Erlynne, allowing her to live in the elegant manner to which she's accustomed, and the couple become the favorite subject of local gossips. When Margaret hears the stories, she mistakenly believes the two are involved in a clandestine affair and subsequently allows herself to succumb to the charms of Lord Robert Darlington, who has made no secret of his ongoing romantic interest in her. In order to ensure the younger woman does not make the same mistakes she has in the past, Mrs. Erlynne reveals a shocking secret: she is Lady Windermere's mother, who Margaret was told had died when the woman abandoned her husband and daughter for another man. In order to protect the girl's reputation, Mrs. Erlynne sacrifices her own happiness by placing herself in a compromising position that jeopardizes her pending marriage to Augustus Lorton.
who worked on the script later recalled it as a "a non-Zanuck picture. Nothing could be further removed from his way of thinking than Oscar Wilde, or Lady Windemere, or Mrs. Erlynne. It was just too Victorian, too elegant, and too slow. Everyone spoke like everyone else, very stilted and mechanical dialogue—brilliant, the most wonderful dialogue on earth, but totally inhuman. Zanuck just didn't care for it, so Otto was left alone and it was dragged out... Nobody was hurt by the picture, and nobody was elated either."
Critical reception
In his review in The New York Times, Bosley Crowther observed, "Most of the brittle wit and satire of Mr. Wilde's conversation piece has been lost in the making of this... nicely costumed picture is a strangely uninspired nostalgic romance." TV Guide rates the film two out of a possible four stars and comments, "Preminger's version, despite a strong cast, was bowdlerized by the scripters into a soapy mess... As is too often the case with filmed classics, dialog was sacrificed to further a perverted plot. Wilde's witty aphorisms were excised, and with them went any merit the film might have had."
