the children's hour movie review

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The Children’s Hour (1961): A Haunting Examination of Rumors and Consequences

The children’s hour (1961).

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American drama romance film directed by William Wyler , starring Audrey Hepburn , Shirley MacLaine and James Garner .

The Children’s Hour is a biting (though somewhat muted) condemnation of the corrosive natures of homophobia and hatred, and its all-too-inevitable conclusion seals it as a crushing –and necessary– piece of cinema. Joe Muldoon – Battle Royale With Cheese

Story: A rebellious student at a girls’ school accuses two teachers of lesbianism. ( IMDb )

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– Retrospective & Movie Review –

In the annals of cinematic history, there are certain films that stand out not only for their technical prowess but also for their daring exploration of controversial themes. The Children’s Hour (1961), directed by the legendary William Wyler and based on Lillian Hellman ‘s play of the same name, is undeniably one of these remarkable cinematic achievements.

With its stellar cast and unflinching examination of the destructive power of lies and rumors, the film remains a poignant and thought-provoking piece of cinema.

Set in a prestigious all-girls boarding school, the story revolves around the lives of two dedicated teachers, Martha Dobie ( Audrey Hepburn ) and Karen Wright ( Shirley MacLaine ). The two friends are not only educators but also business partners, running the school with great care and devotion.

However, their lives take a tragic turn when a malicious and vindictive student named Mary Tilford ( Karen Balkin ) accuses them of engaging in a lesbian relationship.

What sets The Children’s Hour apart is its unapologetic exploration of homosexuality at a time when such themes were considered highly taboo in Hollywood. The film doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities of the characters’ predicament, and this boldness is a testament to Wyler ‘s direction and Hellman ‘s script.

The film forces the audience to confront the ugly consequences of prejudice, hatred, and moral hysteria.

Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine deliver tour-de-force performances as Martha and Karen, respectively. Hepburn , with her signature elegance and emotional depth, portrays Martha’s anguish and despair as she grapples with the false accusations that threaten to ruin her life.

MacLaine , on the other hand, gives a raw and powerful performance, conveying Karen’s heartbreak and desperation as she faces the loss of her career and reputation. The chemistry between these two Hollywood icons is palpable, and their performances are nothing short of mesmerizing.

James Garner plays the role of Dr. Joseph Cardin, a pivotal character who becomes entangled in the unfolding drama. Garner ‘s understated but emotionally resonant portrayal adds depth to the narrative and serves as a moral compass amidst the chaos. His character’s struggle to uncover the truth and expose the destructive lies is a central driving force in the film.

William Wyler ‘s direction is a masterclass in storytelling. He skillfully uses the confines of the school and the oppressive atmosphere of the small town to heighten the tension and isolation experienced by the characters.

The film’s cinematography, by the renowned Franz Planer , captures the beauty of the New England setting while also highlighting the darkness that lies beneath the surface.

The supporting cast, including Fay Bainter and Miriam Hopkins , contributes significantly to the film’s success, adding depth and complexity to the ensemble. Karen Balkin , as the manipulative Mary Tilford, is particularly chilling in her role, serving as a stark reminder of the destructive power of falsehoods.

The Children’s Hour doesn’t offer easy answers or tidy resolutions. Instead, it leaves the audience with a haunting sense of the damage that can be wrought by rumors and prejudice. It serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of empathy, tolerance, and the need to challenge societal norms that perpetuate injustice.

In conclusion, The Children’s Hour (1961) is a timeless and courageous exploration of a deeply relevant and provocative subject matter. With its exceptional performances, uncompromising storytelling, and social commentary, it remains a classic that continues to resonate with audiences today.

William Wyler ‘s direction, combined with the unforgettable performances of Audrey Hepburn , Shirley MacLaine , and James Garner , cements this film’s place in the pantheon of cinematic treasures. It is a film that challenges us to confront our own biases and prejudices, making it a must-watch for anyone interested in the power of cinema to provoke thought and reflection.

Stephen Galen Estevan

A cinephile whose love for the Silver Screen transcends eras and genres. Armed with a deep passion for films, from classic masterpieces to contemporary gems, I’m on a lifelong quest to explore all 100+ years of Cinema, one Frame at a time. Care to join the adventure?

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Little Movie Reviews

CLASSIC MOVIE REVIEW: THE CHILDREN’S HOUR (1961)

Classic film review #1, release date: december 19, 1961.

“A whisper, and then a silence:

Yet I know by their merry eyes

They are plotting and planning together

To take me by surprise.”

The Children’s Hour – Henry Wordsworth Longfellow

With films such as Moonlight and Call Me by Your Name , we have seen an increase in films involving homosexual relationships. But as so many of us know, the mentality of homosexual relationships wasn’t always as positive as we see now. The Children’s Hour , based on the 1934 play by Lillian Hellman, tells the story of Karen Wright and Martha Dobie, two young friends who co-run an all-girls school. When one of the mischievous students begins looking for a way to get back at these two teachers, she cooks up a rumor about Karen and Martha, and how these two woman were not just friends, but lovers. The rumor spreads like wildfire, and the public decides that these two woman had a “sinful, sexual knowledge of one another.” Thus, destroying Karen and Martha’s lives.

It’s hard to say, that even with the Hays Code in place, that this film is at the forefront of groundbreaking material. The people involved, from MacLaine to Hepburn, to Wyler to the studio, all held a piece of the puzzle in helping to revolutionize the topic of homosexuality. But for some, looking back now, they might see the movie as not very groundbreaking at all.  For those of you who have not seen this film, it is a must-see. Whether the ending makes you angry and sad, or angry and sad for different reasons, The Children’s Hour is a film that will help shape your outlook, not only on film, but on how real men and women might have dealt with their sexual preference during that time.

The Children’s Hour

Directed by:

Starring: Shirley MacLaine, Audrey Hepburn, and James Garner

Now, my goal is to go into some details about The Children’s Hour. Should you continue reading, there are spoilers from here on out. I do recommend, that if you have not seen this film, do not read any further. Please check out Amazon , YouTube , or VUDU , for a place to rent the movie.

In that same interview with MacLaine, she states “these days there would be a tremendous outcry. Why would Martha breakdown and say, ‘what’s wrong with me? I’m so polluted.’” But as I said, it’s easy to look back and think differently. During the same time period, we had films such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959). These two films, based on the plays of Tennessee Williams, danced around the topic of homosexuality by only hinting at the subject. So nevertheless, it wasn’t at all possible to be anymore forward thinking than the cast was at that time. They may have inched a tiny bit forward, but that tiny bit helped prepare for what was to come.

I find it interesting to look at films that focused on taboo subjects like this.  Much like the way Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) focused on a relationship of a mixed race couple, The Children’s Hour focuses on the relationship between two women. Though one film is much lighter than the other, I believe that films such as this, are important to watch. These films acknowledge how far we have come as a society, with similar subject matters, but also how far we still have to go.

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Metacritic reviews

The children's hour.

• 80 Variety Variety Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine, in the leading roles, beautifully complement each other. Hepburn’s soft sensitivity, mar- velous projection and emotional understatement result in a memorable portrayal. MacLaine’s enactment is almost equally rich in depth and substance.
• 75 TV Guide Magazine TV Guide Magazine The performances range from adequate (Balkin's) to exquisite (MacLaine's), and the movie broke new ground for 1961. These days the story wouldn't be all that controversial, but in 1934, when the play was first presented, it dealt with a different set of mores.
• 50 Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten Despite wonderful performances from all the actors, Wyler’s attempt to retell the story in a more forthright manner still seems to pussyfoot timidly around the issues.
• 50 The New Yorker Pauline Kael The New Yorker Pauline Kael Too self-conscious, though; the cinematography, by Franz Planer, may sometimes evoke Balthus, but the atmosphere is heavy and lugubrious.
• 50 USA Today Mike Clark USA Today Mike Clark We never get the scenes we really want to see, like the teacher-initiated slander trial or their snotty accuser's comeuppance. Instead, we get too many strained conversations. [21 Dec 1990, p.3D]
• 50 Chicago Reader Dave Kehr Chicago Reader Dave Kehr Miriam Hopkins, of the original cast, is around to lend a sense of continuity to the remake, but Wyler still seems unable to confront the material. This is Mature, Adult drama, and hence something of a bore.
• 40 The New York Times Bosley Crowther The New York Times Bosley Crowther It is hard to believe that Lillian Hellman's famous stage play, The Children's Hour, could have aged into such a cultural antique in the course of three decades as it looks in the new film version.
• See all 7 reviews on Metacritic.com
• See all external reviews for The Children's Hour

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The Children’s Hour

Lillian Hellman's study of the devastating effect of malicious slander and implied guilt comes to the screen for the second time in this crackling production of The Children's Hour. William Wyler, who directed the 1936 production (These Three), which veered away from the touchier, more sensational aspects of Hellman's Broadway play, this time has chosen to remain faithful to the original source.

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Lillian Hellman’s study of the devastating effect of malicious slander and implied guilt comes to the screen for the second time in this crackling production of The Children’s Hour. William Wyler, who directed the 1936 production (These Three), which veered away from the touchier, more sensational aspects of Hellman’s Broadway play, this time has chosen to remain faithful to the original source.

Story deals with an irresponsible, neurotic child who spreads a slanderous rumor of a lesbian relationship between the two headmistresses of the private school for girls she attends.

Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine, in the leading roles, beautifully complement each other. Hepburn’s soft sensitivity, mar- velous projection and emotional understatement result in a memorable portrayal. MacLaine’s enactment is almost equally rich in depth and substance. James Garner is effective as Hepburn’s betrothed, and Fay Bainter comes through with an outstanding portrayal of the impressionable grandmother who falls under the evil influence of the wicked child.

Popular on Variety

1961: Nominations: Best Supp. Actress, (Fay Bainter), B&W Cinematography, B&W Costume Design, B&W Art Direction

• Production: Mirisch. Director William Wyler; Producer William Wyler; Screenplay John Michael Hayes; Camera Franz Planer; Editor Robert Swink; Music Alex North;; Art Director Fernando Carrere
• Crew: (B&W) Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1961. Running time: 108 MIN.
• With: Audrey Hepburn Shirley MacLaine James Garner Miriam Hopkins Fay Bainter Karen Balkin

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The Children's Hour (1961) Directed by William Wyler

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Was It Good For The Gays: ‘The Children’s Hour’

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The children's hour.

If you’re going to make a movie about queer people, you’re likely going to get a divisive response. Does it reinforce negative stereotypes? Does it provide an accurate cross-section of the diverse LGBT community? How many think pieces will it incite? In this regular column, we’ll look at depictions of queers in cinema and ask, Was It Good For The Gays? Today, a look at William Wyler’s adaptation of Lillian Hellman’s play, The Children’s Hour .

Karen and Martha take the case to court, but they lose. Their reputation is ruined, their friendship is fractured, and Karen worries that her relationship with her fiancé, Joe, is destroyed. In a surprising turn, Martha admits that she has always felt a romantic love for Karen, and she is overcome with guilt — she blames herself for the entire mess and for Karen’s broken engagement. Her realization of her own sexuality, too, proves to much for her to deal with, and she hangs herself.

In 1961, Wyler adapted the play again, this time with a screenplay by John Michael Hayes which kept the original plot and lesbian theme. Starring Audrey Hepburn as Karen, Shirley MacLaine as Martha, and James Garner as Joe, The Children’s Hour is a good, if a bit melodramatic, drama that depicts how an unfortunate combination of gossip and a puritanical culture can destroy innocent lives.

But more importantly, was it good for the gays? Let’s break it down.

The Pros: Let’s just say that there isn’t much of a gay “theme” here. The women’s sexuality really has nothing to do with the story (not until the very ending, that is); rather, Hellman’s play and Wyler’s film simply invokes the idea of homosexuality to incite the moral panic of the students’ parents.

The Cons: Well, really, all of it is kinda bad. But let’s start at the most natural spot: Martha’s “coming out” scene.

It’s an absolutely heartbreaking scene, and one in which MacLaine delivers an astounding performance. What really hits me hard is how upset Martha is — she feels an incredible amount of guilt, blaming herself for destroying their reputations and ruining Karen’s relationship with Joe. But she also hates herself and what she is, what she has tried to hide from everyone including herself. She expresses guilt as if she has done something — anything — wrong, when in fact she hadn’t at all.

And Karen, as lovely as she is (it’s hard not to like Audrey Hepburn, really), responds in such a weird way: she’s convinced that Martha is just “tired and worn out,” that she’s not “guilty” of being a lesbian because she’s not gay. She rushes out after Martha admits her secret, and she’s naturally crushed when she returns to Martha’s room to find her hanging from the rafters. But Karen’s response to Martha’s breakdown is tragic, too, because she offers no real comfort when Martha screams that she feels so “sick and dirty.”

A valuable appendix to The Children’s Hour is the incredible documentary The Celluloid Closet , based on the book by film historian Vito Russo. In an interview for the documentary, MacLaine admits that at no point during the filming of The Children’s Hour did Wyler discuss with either her or Hepburn the lesbian themes. “We didn’t do the picture right,” she laments. “We were in the mindset of not understanding what we were basically doing.”

The Verdict: This is an easy one. As interesting and well-written The Children’s Hour is, it misses a major mark. It’s not really a queer movie at all, because no one involved in the film made an effort to understand the queer experience. It was simply a plot device, nothing more, but that dramatic scene still has an endearing effect on those who watch it.

At the end of the clip from The Celluloid Closet above, feminist and queer activist Susie Bright admits how harrowing the scene still is. It’s true: The Children’s Hour is tragic, not because of how slander can ruin lives but because of how upsetting — and incredibly recognizable — Martha’s admission of guilt really is. That’s the film’s major flaw. Many queer people still live in environments in which they are told that they are “sick and dirty,” either by those they know or the images of other queer people in film and TV. Martha’s outburst of self-loathing is all too familiar because it reiterates a lot of what we are told and tell ourselves, and still represents a major hill over which we have to climb to gain acceptance not just from everyone else — but also from ourselves.

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Eye For Film >> Movies >> The Children's Hour (1961) Film Review

The Children's Hour

Reviewed by: Jennie Kermode

As the fifth Glasgow Film Festival's retrospective has demonstrated, there are a lot of Audrey Hepburn fans out there. She's much loved for films like Funny Face and Breakfast At Tiffany's, yet she always wanted to take on meatier roles and show that she could do more than be charming and cute. In The Children's Hour she found one of the meatiest roles of her career. It's ironic, then, that this film, nominated for several Oscars in its day, is now so little known. However, its social impact continues to resonate today.

Hepburn plays Karen, a young teacher at a rural school for girls who works alongside Martha, a friend she has known since college (played by the equally wonderful Shirley MacLaine). She has a boyfriend (James Garner), a doctor who plans to marry her, and Martha clearly feels uncomfortable about this, but otherwise their lives are idyllic - they're finally in the black and their business looks set to prosper, plus they both clearly love their jobs.

The children they teach, however, are not all so content. In particular, young Mary, petulant and prone to tantrums, longs for her beloved grandmother to take her away. Chancing upon malicious words between frustrated adults, and witnessing a chaste, affectionate kiss, she concocts an allegation that adults are all too happy to accept and infer from. When word goes round that Karen and Martha are lesbians, horrified parents frantically pull their children out of the school, which collapses almost overnight.

So far, so disastrous. The women do what they can to fight the allegations and to stand up to the prejudice they encounter, supported by Karen's boyfriend. But the trouble is, Martha really is in love with Karen, and the situation forces her to confront aspects of her feelings - and her own identity - that she has no idea how to deal with.

Released in the same years as Victim , The Children's Hour never quite achieved the same iconic status (cynics will argue that the lesbian rights movement has always been the poor relation of gay men's campaigns), but it nevertheless had a profound impact on viewers when it was released. It wasn't new, being a remake of an earlier film by the same director which he had felt less able to speak freely with, and that in turn was based on a successful Broadway play, but it was a revelation to the millions of ordinary people who had little contact with the theatre. Forging its way into the mainstream thanks to its famous stars, it was one of the first films to present a lesbian as an ordinary person who might experience life and love like anyone else.

Though it looks dated in some ways now, with its lapses into melodrama problematic in places, The Children's Hour has strong characters whom modern audiences will have no difficulty relating to, and, sadly, its plot remains highly relevant - 25 per cent of people in a recent Scottish survey said that they felt lesbians were unsuitable to be primary school teachers. Watching it at this point in time, as well as providing a moving experience in itself, provides an opportunity to take stock and see where things have improved and where they haven't, and to ask ourselves why we're still so obsessed with people's private behaviour.

Director: William Wyler

Writer: Lillian Hellman

Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine, James Garner, Miriam Hopkins, Fay Bainter, Karen Balkin

Runtime: 107 minutes

Country: US

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Hays’d: Decoding the Classics — ‘The Children’s Hour’

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The Motion Picture Production Code, also known as the Hays Code after censor/stick-in-the-mud Will Hays, regulated film content for nearly 40 years, restricting, among other things, depictions of homosexuality. Filmmakers still managed to get around the Code, but gay characters were cloaked in innuendo, leading to some necessary decoding.

The overarching theme of 1961’s The Children’s Hour is that kids are the fucking worst. Oh, and that being a lesbian is a fate worse than, or at least akin to, death. Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine star as two schoolteachers whose lives are ruined when they are unjustly accused of “sinful, sexual knowledge of each other” by a mean-spirited, beady-eyed little troublemaker.

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Despite its self-proclaimed reputation for being progressive, Hollywood is always a decade, or three, behind the rest of society. Lillian Hellman’s play, The Children’s Hour, debuted amidst controversy in 1934. The play dealt explicitly with homosexuality, which up to that point, was illegal on the New York stage. But it was such a big, fat, stinkin’ hit, the powers-that-be let it slide. With dreams of box office receipts dancing in its head, Hollywood decided to adapt The Children’s Hour into a movie, but with the newly enacted Hays Code in place, the issue of homosexuality was completely scrubbed from the resulting film, 1936’s These Three, directed by William Wyler. Instead of a rumored lesbian relationship, one of the women was accused of having an affair with the other’s fiancé.  

Wyler decided to give it another go in 1961, by which point, the Production Code had relaxed some. To depict homosexuality, or “sexual perversion”, however, one had to cast it in the most unsympathetic and unflattering light possible. And The Children’s Hour is a prime example of that.

Auds plays Karen, a wisp of a thing engaged to a young, and incredibly handsome James Garner. Shirls plays her best friend and perpetual third wheel, Martha. Friends since college, Karen and Martha started a small school for girls. They’re just two sisters doing it for themselves! Martha, however, is wary of Karen’s upcoming marriage to her fiancé, Joe.

Little Mary Tilford, who makes the girl from The Bad Seed look like fucking Anne Frank, overhears Karen and Martha arguing one night and goes to spy on them.

Then, Mary’s roommates “accidentally” overhear Martha’s aunt, a fellow teacher there, refer to Martha’s jealous possession over Karen as “unnatural.”

Fun fact, Miriam Hopkins, who plays Martha;s aunt, played Martha in These Three. Merle Oberon, who played Karen, turned down the role of Mary’s grandmother, Mrs. Tilford (a damn fine Fay Bainter).

Anyway, these two incidents give Mary all the fuel she needs. After getting in trouble yet again, Mary tells her grandmother the damaging lie and forces her weak-willed schoolmate to corroborate her story.

Mrs. Tilford, out of a sense of moral indignation and moral rectitude, spreads the little girl’s lie and within no time, Karen and Martha’s school is forced to shutter and the two women are made pariahs.

They refuse to take this lying down and they tell Mrs. T to lawyer up ‘cause they’re taking her to court. Somehow they lose the libel suit — it’s never shown or explained in the film, one of its several glaring plot holes — and their lives are ruined. Joe sticks by Karen’s side, but she turns him away for reasons that are never really clear. Something about him doubting her, her doubting herself…more on that later.

The whole ordeal has really shaken poor Martha, though. She realizes that the lie is true, that she’s been in love with Karen this whole time…that she’s a lesbian.

It’s a great scene for a number of reasons. First, you have someone actually coming out on screen; admitting that she is a lesbian, that she deeply feels the love that dare not speak its name. Of course, no one ever says “gay” or “lesbian” or “homosexual”, but we all know what it is. Or do we?

Shirls Mac, in the 1995 documentary, The Celluloid Closet, claims that neither she nor Audrey knew what was actually going on:

“We might have been forerunners, but we weren’t really because we didn’t do the picture right. We were in the mindset of not understanding what we were basically doing…And when you look at it, to have Martha play that scene — and no one questioned it — what that meant, or what the alternatives could have been underneath the dialog, it’s mind boggling. The profundity of this subject was not in the lexicon of our rehearsal period. Audrey and I never talked about this. Isn’t that amazing? Truly amazing.”

I’m sorry, Shirls, but that dyke won’t hunt. How is it possible to not know what Martha is truly saying? How does one miss that closet door creaking open and that page boy haircut peeking out? For 1961, she’s practically screaming it on top of a parade float with a couple of X’s duct taped onto her breasts:

The scene is also remarkable in that, for a short while at least, it treats the romantic relationship between two women with uncharacteristic sympathy. Martha has been in love with her best friend and she’s only now beginning to realize it.

It’s a tale of unrequited love that humanizes Martha. And because she — a lesbian — has now garnered the audience’s sympathy, well…

Even after Mrs. Tilford comes to apologize. Even after Karen doesn’t shun her for admitting her feelings. Even after Karen asks her to come away with her. Martha hangs herself. She simply can’t live with the truth so her body is added to the pile of other queer characters killed just within their film’s final frames.

Shirley Mac added, “these days there would be a tremendous outcry, as well there should be. Why would Martha break down and say, ‘Oh my god, what’s wrong with me, I’m so polluted, I’ve ruined you’? She would fight! She would fight for her budding preference.”

But what of Karen? Karen, who not only broke off her engagement, but stood by her friend till the very end? Who’s to say that had she and Martha gone away together, they wouldn’t have become a dynamic and impossibly chic power lesbian couple in the downtown art scene in New York? Hell, Karen’s European, she seems pretty open:

Those positive depictions of the “homosexual lifestyle”, however, were still miles and decades and numerous dead queer characters away.

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The children’s hour: 60 years of progress.

Lover of all things cinema, Hayden Welch is a Chicago-based…

From Stonewall to the Harvey Milk assassination to the same-sex marriage supreme court decision, miles have been tread since the release of  William Wyler’s highly important and bold picture, The Children’s Hour . Sixty years on, let’s look back at how we achieved a greater amount of tolerance, and how to best progress.

When the masterful play of the same title was first published in 1934, homosexuality was so taboo that even a mention of the act was illegal. The State of New York gave The Children’s Hour the permission to continue its run due to the immense and overwhelming amount of love and support this gained critically. This bold and accepting play brought the discussion of LGBTQ+ rights to the forefront in a time where even uttering the phrase “homosexuality” was legally reprehensible. The Children’s Hour dared to make audiences uncomfortable and present the consequences of bigotry.

Making Small Strides

While many films that champion LGBTQ+ rights became mainstream throughout the late sixties and early seventies, The Children’s Hour is a unique case in many regards as it was not only one of the pioneering films – from a renowned and already well-established filmmaker with a great deal to lose – but one of the first within the mainstream to take a dark yet empathetic approach to just a subject. While what happens within the webbed and tumbling events of The Children’s Hour is anything but pleasant, William Wyler took an approach so prophetic that it comes across as a warning filled with a pleading sympathy.

It’s fascinating to view The Children’s Hour as the multi-layered trendsetting piece that we view it as today as the people behind this masterful film were not aware that they were making history. That being said, even the director has been quoted as saying he never had the intention of making it a gay-oriented drama and he was even pressured into cutting many of the more intimate scenes between the two critical darlings. Shirley MacLaine once said, “The profundity of this subject was not in the lexicon of our rehearsal period. Audrey and I never talked about this. Isn’t that amazing? Truly amazing.” It’s so interesting to be of that perspective, one wherein so much could have been executed with the grace of a freight train, causing harm to a disenfranchised community. Luckily, that’s not what we were served with, yet that parallel universe is far closer to ours than some would admit.

Controversy Within Community

What’s perhaps the most fascinating and unique feature of William Wyler’s bold drama is its reception. For those unaware, this piece deals with internalized homophobia and how society treated this marginalized group. This is not the typical route for a film about the LGBT+ community; typically the filmmaker deals explicitly with trauma or the day-to-day life of any specific sub-category of the community. That being addressed, I think it’s extremely interesting that this dramatic work of art has not been wholeheartedly embraced by the community it depicts. Writer Tyler Coates of Decider once said, “As interesting and well-written The Children’s Hour is, it misses a major mark. It’s not really a queer movie at all, because no one involved in the film made an effort to understand the queer experience.” While I disagree that it did “no effort” to understand the experience of a community I am a part of, I do agree with the sentiment that it was a stepping stone and not a finality.

While there have been films, books, and experiences that have progressed the movement in a more meaningful and productive way, I find the transitionary steps of societal integration to be much more compelling to study. Of course, anyone can agree that full-stop acceptance and progress is a wonderful thing – that’s why The Children’s Hour is such an enigma. It has this tonal air of love and empathy, yet it doesn’t quite do everything to could to fully implement normalcy of the movement into modern-day society.

I almost find it more important to try and understand the pieces that made us able to produce films that are more outwardly accepting and inclusive, and while The Children’s Hour is far from as politically correct and realistically depicted as it could be it’s certainly making strides to normalize the inclusion of these disenfranchised people, and finding ways to address these issues is commendable, even if there was, and still is, a long way to go.

Do you think The Children’s Hour is still a potent work today? Let us know in the comments below!

The Children’s Hour is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime.

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The Children’s Hour: Review

The Children’s Hour: Review. By Joe Muldoon.

In the November of 1810, two teachers (Marianne Woods and Jane Pirie) of an Edinburgh all-girls’ boarding school were falsely accused of having been sexually intimate on school grounds. Jane Cumming, a student at the school, deliberately gave false testimony that her sleep had frequently been disturbed by the teachers’ alleged activity, and the school’s students were all promptly withdrawn from the school. This infuriating event was turned into a play by Lillian Hellman in 1934, which was then adapted into a film by William Wyler in 1961 – this was Wyler’s first film since the classic 1959 epic Ben-Hur.

A decidedly faithful adaptation of Hellman’s play by the same name, The Children’s Hour is a rather devastating affair, something which is not helped by the fact that it is largely based in reality. Captivatingly leading the film are Audrey Hepburn (playing Karen Wright) and Shirley MacLaine (playing Martha Dobie), whose chemistry and camaraderie adds a touching note to what is ultimately a work of awful tragedy. As far as child actresses go, Veronica Cartwright (playing Rosalie Wells) did a magnificent job, because every scene in which she appears instilled within me a deep feeling of abject resentment towards her malevolent character.

Interestingly, Hellman’s play had already been adapted by Wyler back in 1936 under the title These Three, but its plot is noticeably different. A product of the horrific Hays Code, Wyler was forbidden from so much as hinting towards homosexuality, and so the film instead had Hepburn and MacLaine’s respective characters (played here by Merle Oberon and Miriam Hopkins) facing accusations of being embroiled within a love triangle with Karen’s fiancée, Dr. Joe Cardin (played by Joel McCrea in 1936 and James Garner in 1961).

The bitter irony is not lost on me that a play based upon the venomous nature of homophobia was itself subject to the intensely homophobic stipulations of the Hays Code . Given the era in which it was released, I also cannot help but wonder whether the actions of the bigoted Amelia Tilford (played scarily well by Fay Bainter) were looked upon by members of cinema audiences not with denunciation, but with support. The Children’s Hour is a biting (though somewhat muted) condemnation of the corrosive natures of homophobia and hatred, and its all-too-inevitable conclusion seals it as a crushing –and necessary– piece of cinema.

By Joe Muldoon

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The children's hour.

1961 Directed by William Wyler

One simple lie destroyed everything they had.

A private school for young girls is scandalized when one spiteful student, Mary Tilford, accuses the two young women who run the school of having a lesbian relationship.

Shirley MacLaine Audrey Hepburn James Garner Miriam Hopkins Fay Bainter Karen Balkin Veronica Cartwright Sally Brophy Mimi Gibson William Mims Hope Summers Jered Barclay William H. O'Brien Leoda Richards Harold Miller Pete Kellett

Director Director

William Wyler

Producers Producers

Robert Wyler Allen K. Wood William Wyler

Writers Writers

John Michael Hayes Lillian Hellman

Original Writer Original Writer

Lillian Hellman

Editor Editor

Robert Swink

Cinematography Cinematography

Franz Planer

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

Robert E. Relyea Jerome M. Siegel

Executive Producer Exec. Producer

Walter Mirisch

Art Direction Art Direction

Fernando Carrere

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Edward G. Boyle

Composer Composer

Sound sound.

Fred Lau Don Hall Buddy Myers

Costume Design Costume Design

Dorothy Jeakins

Makeup Makeup

Emile LaVigne Frank McCoy

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Joan St. Oegger

The Mirisch Company United Artists

Releases by Date

19 dec 1961, 21 apr 1962, 25 apr 1962, 16 sep 1962, 16 oct 1962, 02 jan 1963, 02 jul 2008, releases by country.

• Theatrical U
• Theatrical 12

Netherlands

• Physical 16 DVD
• Theatrical M/12
• Theatrical NR

108 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by clara ★★★★ 13

can children get the death penalty

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This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

the line "I have loved you the way they've said!" contained so much power it catapulted through time 58 years into the future and slapped me through my screen

Review by Sally Jane Black 12

Imagine what they must have thought fifty years ago, or more, seventy years ago when the play came out. Imagine the tut tutting heterosexuals identifying with Mrs. Tillford, or feeling bad not because someone is violently outed but because someone is slandered with being a lesbian. Imagine the vicious, homophobic response to this that thought this film was about gossip . (Imagine the vicious, homophobic intention to make this film about gossip.) Imagine what they must have told themselves as they made it, what those involved with this must have been saying to themselves as they made it. In Celluloid Closet , MacLaine tells us she and Hepburn didn't even discuss the queerness of their characters.

Certainly, the message about the destructive…

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Crazy how a film made in 1961 confirmed two of life’s most important facts: Homosexuality is not unnatural and kids are indeed the worst.

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martha deserved the world and the stars and the sun

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shirley maclaine: we look like a couple here audrey hepburn: yeah, a couple of besties!

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Review by stephanie ✨ ★★★★½ 5

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‘The Children’s Hour’: Sex, lies and Lillian Hellman

“The Children’s Hour” has two Seattle productions this year. It’s still a fascinating study of deceit, homophobia and its author’s demons.

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Sex and lies, lies and sex: two tall pillars in many a drama. But these recurrent themes can do much more than spice up a plot.

Consider Lillian Hellman’s groundbreaking play “The Children’s Hour.” It runs through Sunday, May 31, in a strong Arouet production at Ballard Underground. In September, Intiman Theatre presents its own version at Cornish Playhouse.

Mildew has settled on the more histrionic dialogue in Hellman’s 1934 script. In contrast to today’s explicit portrayal, the references to homosexuality seem cautiously tame.

‘The Children’s Hour’

By Lillian Hellman. Through Sunday, May 31, Arouet at Ballard Underground, 2220 N.W. Market St., Seattle; pay what you can (800-838-3006 or arouet.us ). Intiman Theatre’s production runs Sept. 9-27 at Cornish Playhouse, Seattle. Info: intiman.org .

Yet “The Children’s Hour” is a moral melodrama that can still pack a wallop. It remains historically and thematically provocative — as a reflection of fear-based bigotry and the ugly ramifications of deceit, and as a precis of the art and life of Hellman, a writer lionized for her boldness and demonized for her deceptions.

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The play was Hellman’s first, inspired by an historical incident that her novelist paramour Dashiell Hammett passed on when she was a young writer struggling to find her voice and métier.

In 1809, in the Drumsheugh Gardens section of Edinburgh, a boarding school for privileged girls run by two women was quaked by scandal. A student told her grandmother the founder-teachers were showing “inordinate affection” for each other at night, in a bedroom shared with their young pupils.

Within days the school lost all its students, and shut down. The teachers denied and fought the sexual allegations in court, winning a libel case and monetary damages. But the 10-year legal battle shattered their lives.

Hellman reset the story in small-town America, fictionalized freely, but borrowed many aspects of the Edinburgh incident.

In the play, Karen and Martha are dedicated teachers ruined by a pathologically manipulative student, Mary. Angry at being disciplined, Mary patches together a lie from bits of rumor, hearsay and a spicy French novel, and convinces her horrified grandma that the teachers are lesbian lovers.

The lie is a fast-working, invasive toxin. The scandal closes the school, fractures Karen’s relationship with her fiancé, Joe, and overwhelms Martha with shame as she faces her long-repressed homosexuality. (If anyone needed an “It Gets Better” campaign, it’s poor Martha.)

Watching “The Children’s Hour” now, it’s shocking how the reflexive bigotry of early 19th-century Scotland seemed right in step with American prejudices in the 1930s.

When the play debuted in 1934, New York state still banned any mention of homosexuality onstage, a law ignored by Hellman’s gutsy producers. But the content was deemed too controversial for a Pulitzer Prize. (In response, reviewers formed the New York Drama Critics Circle to bestow future awards, unhindered.)

A Broadway hit, the play was banned in Chicago for 20 years, and in Boston for nearly 30. The first movie version, the 1936 release “These Three,” was reworked into a heterosexual love triangle to comply with Hollywood’s prudish Motion Picture Production Code.

The 1961 film “The Children’s Hour” was more faithful to the play, but doubled down on Martha’s suicidal lesbian guilt.

Though an ardent civil-rights supporter, Hellman maintained deceit was the play’s fulcrum, not prejudice. And elaborate lies also fuel tragedies in “The Little Foxes” and some of her other plays.

Given the dark manipulations of her own Southern Jewish clan, Hellman knew well the power of untruth. She acknowledged “reach[ing] back into my childhood,” to model Mary on her own petulant youth.

Framing her plots as battles between noble truth-tellers and venal dissemblers, was Hellman trying to investigate or absolve her own tendency to fabricate and falsify? In that light, “The Children’s Hour” works up a fascinatingly complex internal dialogue between what lies can do, and undo.

Hellman had a remarkably eventful life. In three best-selling memoirs she described her colorful literary career, leftist political activism, affair with Hammett.

But in later years (she died in 1984, at 79) Hellman was engulfed in scandal herself. She was accused of distorting or inventing incidents in her past, most sensationally in an account in her memoir “Pentimento” of how she bravely smuggled funds to an anti-Nazi resistance fighter in prewar Austria. (This probable falsehood was perpetuated in the film, “Julia.”)

In 1979, author Mary McCarthy told TV interviewer Dick Cavett “every word [Hellman] writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the.’ ” Ironically Hellman, like the Edinburgh teachers, slapped her accuser with a libel suit that dragged on for years.

Politically conservative biographers used Hellman’s fibs and support of Russian Communism to obliterate her genuine achievements. (Some recent biographies, by Deborah Martinson among others, take a more evenhanded view.)

One cannot help make a connection between “The Children’s Hour” and its author’s complex personal history. Fiction and truth collide in and around the play, and may well be its central concern. But “The Children’s Hour” also was one of the first dramas to capture how homophobia, like a lie, works its poison.

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The Screen: New 'Children's Hour':Another Film Version of Play Arrives Shirley MacLaine and Audrey Hepburn Star

By Bosley Crowther

• March 15, 1962

IT is hard to believe that Lillian Hellman's famous stage play, "The Children's Hour," could have aged into such a cultural antique in the course of three decades as it looks in the new film version of it that came to the Astor and the Trans-Lux Fifty-second Street yesterday.But here it is, fidgeting and fuming, like some dotty old doll in bombazine with her mouth sagging open in shocked amazement at the batedly whispered hint that a couple of female schoolteachers could be attached to each other by an "unnatural" love.If you remember the stage play, that was its delicate point, and it was handled even then with a degree of reticence that was a little behind the sophistication of the times. (Of course, the film made from the stage play in 1936 and called "These Three" avoided that dark hint altogether; it went for scandal down a commoner avenue.)But here in this new film version, directed and produced by the same William Wyler who directed the precautionary "These Three," the hint is intruded with such astonishment and it is made to seem such a shattering thing (even without evidence to support it) that it becomes socially absurd. It is incredable that educated people living in an urban American community today would react as violently and cruelly to a questionable innuendo as they are made to do in this film.And that is not the only incredible thing in it. More incredible is its assumption of human credulity. It asks us to believe that the parents of all twenty pupils in a private school for girls would yank them out in a matter of hours on the slanderously spread advice of the grandmother of one of the pupils that two young teachers in the school were "unnatural."It asks us to believe the grandmother would have been convinced of this by what she hears from her 12-year-old granddaughter, who is a dubious little darling at best. And, most provokingly, it asks us to imagine that an American court of law would not protect the innocent victims of such a slander when all the evidence it had to go upon was the word of two children and the failure of a key witness to appear.In short, there are several glaring holes in the fabric of the plot, and obviously Miss Hellman, who did the adaptation, and John Michael Hayes, who wrote the script, knew they were there, for they have plainly sidestepped the biggest of them. They have not let us know what the youngster whispered to the grandmother that made her hoot with startled indignation and go rushing to the telephone. Was it something that a 12-year-old girl could have conceivably made up out of her imagination (which is what she was doing in this scene)?And they have not let us into the courtroom where the critical suit for slander was tried. They have only reported the trial and the verdict in one quickly tossed off line.So this drama that was supposed to be so novel and daring because of its muted theme is really quite unrealistic and scandalous in a prim and priggish way. What's more, it is not too well acted, except by Audrey Hepburn in the role of the younger of the school teachers. She gives the impression of being sensitive and pure.Shirley MacLaine as the older school teacher, the one who eventually admits in a final scene with her companion that she did have a yen for her, inclines to be too kittenish in some scenes and do too much vocal hand-wringing toward the end.Fay Bainter is fairly grim as the grandmother but little Karen Balkin as the mendacious child is simply not sufficiently tidy as a holy terror to make her seem formidable. James Garner as the fiancé of Miss Hepburn and Miriam Hopkins as the aunt of Miss MacLaine give performances of such artificial laboring that Mr. Wyler should hang his head in shame.Indeed, there is nothing about this picture of which he can be very proud.

The CastTHE CHILDREN'S HOUR, screen play by John Michael Hayes, as adapted by Lillian Hellman from her stage play of the same name; directed and produced by William Wyler; released through United Artists. At the Astor Theatre, Broadway and Forty-fifth Street, and the Trans-Lux Fifty-second Street Theatre, on Lexington Avenue. Running time: 107 minutes.Karen Wright . . . . . Audrey HepburnMartha Dobie . . . . . Shirley MacLaineDr. Joe Cardin . . . . . James GarnerMrs. Lily Mortar . . . . . Miriam HopkinsMrs. Amelia Tilford . . . . . Fay BainterMary Tilford . . . . . Karen BalkinRosalie . . . . . Veronica Cartwright

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The Children’s Hour

For fuck’s sake, The Children’s Hour. You couldn’t have made this easy by being a shitty quality movie to match your shitty moral opinions. No. Instead, this vintage piece of homophobia had to go and display actual talent and artistic merit. Fuck.

The Children’s Hour follows Karen and Martha, two school teachers and best friends/roommates. A trouble-causing little brat whom they teach accuses Karen and Martha of having an “unnatural” relationship. This leads to a witch hunt and legal action against the teachers. In the third act, it is revealed that though there was no truth to the little hellspawn’s accusations, Martha has indeed been harboring lesbian feelings for Karen. This doesn’t end well, obviously. It’s the 1960’s and gay people aren’t allowed to be happy.

The Children’s Hour is just chock-full of overt old-timey values and moral judgements. Gender roles in The Children’s Hour are clearly defined. Marriage and children are the ideal, women belong on the kitchen, men must be the breadwinners. All the women portrayed are also rather overemotional and soft whereas the man displays the consummate strength and leadership qualities that apparently come package deal with having a penis.

And then of course, there’s the homophobia. The way the injustice of this witch hunt against Martha and Karen is portrayed is really upsetting. Not once does the movie suggest that these accusations are unfair because gay people have the right to exist. No. The only reason the audience is supposed to disagree with Karen and Martha’s treatment by society is that the accusations are false.

When it turns out there is a grain of truth to the accusations on Martha’s end, The Children’s Hour did exactly what you’d expect from a movie in the 1960’s. Almost immediately after admitting her homosexuality, Martha kills herself. It had to happen. The Hays code wouldn’t allow homosexuals to live to see the end credits of films back then. That doesn’t make it any less upsetting.

The problem is, in so many ways, The Children’s Hour is an objectively good movie. There’s a reason it’s been so successful as a stage play; the script is strong and engaging. The directing is good too. Even with something like Martha killing herself, the character is well enough written that it seemed plausible. There’s enough depth to the character that it doesn’t come across as she commits suicide because she’s gay but because she’s gay and also deeply troubled and unhappy. There is depth to the characters here, they’re not just stereotypes vehicles for moral opinion.

The performances from Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine are downright exceptional. MacLaine in particular shows astonishing talent. She does her absolute best to depict this character who’s so tied in moral judgements with depth and sympathy. The scene where she tearfully comes out to Karen is exceptionally powerful.

The fact that this movie is so good makes it hurt more. It’s much easier to write off old-timey homophobia when it’s in movies that don’t show any intelligence or talent from the filmmakers. I honestly prefer it when gays in old movies are two-dimensional villains because I find it ridiculous and too hard to take seriously. That there is a subtlety in The Children’s Hour that comes from cloaking its opinions in good character work and an engaging story makes it more insidious. This film probably makes it a more effective cautionary tale against being gay at the time and that upsets me.

I’m really struggling to determine whether or not I like this film or would recommend it. Because again, it is objectively good but also deeply homophobic, sexist and made me sad. However, it does also have merit not just artistically but as a great example of portrayals of homosexuality onscreen within that time period. It would’ve been so much easier on me if this film had been crap. The fact that it’s good in many ways makes it a more upsetting experience.

Overall rating: 6.2/10

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1960s 1961 Audrey Hepburn country: usa genre: drama language: english mixed review Shirley MacLaine spoilers the children's hour william wyler

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