A Good Woman

A Good Woman is a 2004 drama film directed by Mike Barker. The screenplay by Howard Himelstein is based on the 1892 play Lady Windermere’s Fan by Oscar Wilde. It is the third screen version of the work, following a 1925 Ernst Lubitsch silent film and Otto Preminger’s 1949 adaptation entitled The Fan.

Set in 1930, the film opens in New York City, where femme fatale Mrs. Erlynne finds that she is no longer welcomed by either the high-ranking men she has seduced or the society wives she has betrayed. Selling her jewelry, she buys passage on a liner bound for Amalfi, Italy, where she apparently sets her sights on newlywed Robert Windemere. When his car frequently is seen parked outside her villa, local gossips become convinced the two are having an affair.

Robert’s demure wife Meg remains oblivious to the stories about the two circulating throughout the town, but when she discovers her husband’s check register with numerous stubs indicating payments to Erlynne, she suspects the worst. What she doesn’t know is that Erlynne actually is her mother, who has been extorting payments from Robert in return for keeping her secret.

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