Lady Windermere's Fan (1985)

A young wife (Helena Little) suspects her husband (Tim Woodward) of having an affair with a notorious older woman (Stephanie Turner). When her husband insists the woman be invited to a party they are having, the wife deliberates on leaving her husband for an admirer (Kenneth Cranham, whose performance is godawful). Based on the 1892 play by Oscar Wilde and directed by Tony Smith. Wilde's play has been filmed numerous times including a silent version by Ernst Lubitsch in 1925 and a sound version in 1949 directed by Otto Preminger. Wilde's examination of British society and its hypocrisy toward a certain kind of woman while hiding behind a false respectability itself. The story's "good" woman reveals herself to be potentially capable of a bad act while the "bad" woman makes a sacrifice out of love. Unfortunately, the majority of this production is rather dull with the exception of Sara Kestelman's gossip mongering Duchess. But it comes alive in its final scene where Little and Turner rise to the occasion thus ending it on a satisfying conclusion. With Robert Lang and Amanda Royle.