The big screen finally got to see The Children's Hour as Lillian Hellman meant for it to be seen, a searing drama on the power of self hate of one's sexuality.
This Pre-Stonewall gay drama is about two teachers who run a select school for wealthy young adolescent girls. One of them, Audrey Hepburn, has been engaged for a couple of years to Doctor James Garner, but she never quite gets around to getting married. The business of running the school with her friend and business partner Shirley MacLaine consumes all the time for both of them.
A really bad seed of a kid, Karen Balkin, gets disciplined once to often as she sees it by Hepburn. The young girl concocts a story about seeing the two of them in a sex act and tells her guardian and grandmother Fay Bainter. Bainter does her own 'investigation' and confirms it in her eyes. The word spreads and the kids are withdrawn from the school rather than be tainted by being around those horrific lesbians.
The Code was coming down. Though the word lesbian is never used in the film, that's what it's all about. Back in the day, Samuel Goldwyn took this story and made it a straight triangle story with Merle Oberon, Miriam Hopkins, and Joel McCrea. Back in the day the Code said that homosexuality could not even be discussed let alone dramatized. Now we're seeing what was a landmark drama about gay people, Lillian Hellman's vision as it really was.
Just denying it isn't enough because there's a grain of truth to it. Repressed sexuality is a terrible thing and it's taking a strain on both of them. Shirley MacLaine finally cracks under it and admits that she's been crushing out on Hepburn ever since they first met in college. Remember that she lived in a society in the Thirties when The Children's Hour was first written where being gay was in some eyes worse than being an ax murderer. Finally coming out with it in the end was too much for her and it brings on terrible consequences for MacLaine.
Back in the day when I was a working investigator for New York State Crime Victims Board, I recall a case where a man killed someone and wounded two other people. The Assistant District Attorney told me after the case was over that it was because the perpetrator was involved sexually with the deceased and the deceased was not in the closet whereas our perpetrator was. The victim wanted to tell the world about what he thought was the new love of his life. The perpetrator flipped out at the mention of it and killed him and wounded two friends. Self hate, internalized homophobia can be an awfully evil thing. Hellman could easily have written her play that way as well.
Audrey Hepburn also, though she doesn't articulate it, wonders why is it she's stayed shut away in that school and doesn't commit to finally take the plunge and marry Garner. The Children's Hour is more than a play about the love that dare not speak its name, you can't even think it in the world of that time.
MacLaine and Hepburn give two of their best performances of their respective careers. Miriam Hopkins who was in These Three, plays MacLaine's aunt who's a silly creature and who betrays the two women rather than be thought she condones the alleged lesbianism. Fay Bainter gave her final big screen performance here and was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.
William Wyler who directed These Three back in the day finally got to do the version as Hellman wrote it. He does as well for Hellman here as he did in The Little Foxes. He gets some of the best work out of all the players involved, even James Garner who's playing a distinct third fiddle here in a woman's picture in every sense of the word.
The Children's Hour came to the screen in 1961. Brokeback Mountain which in many ways has the same themes as The Children's Hour for gay men was set originally in 1963. Both are great examples of the strides gay people have made in their quest for a place in the sunlight.
Yet that case I described from my working years took place in the early Nineties. The closet might be thought of as a refuge, but it's a terrible prison for too many.
This Pre-Stonewall gay drama is about two teachers who run a select school for wealthy young adolescent girls. One of them, Audrey Hepburn, has been engaged for a couple of years to Doctor James Garner, but she never quite gets around to getting married. The business of running the school with her friend and business partner Shirley MacLaine consumes all the time for both of them.
A really bad seed of a kid, Karen Balkin, gets disciplined once to often as she sees it by Hepburn. The young girl concocts a story about seeing the two of them in a sex act and tells her guardian and grandmother Fay Bainter. Bainter does her own 'investigation' and confirms it in her eyes. The word spreads and the kids are withdrawn from the school rather than be tainted by being around those horrific lesbians.
The Code was coming down. Though the word lesbian is never used in the film, that's what it's all about. Back in the day, Samuel Goldwyn took this story and made it a straight triangle story with Merle Oberon, Miriam Hopkins, and Joel McCrea. Back in the day the Code said that homosexuality could not even be discussed let alone dramatized. Now we're seeing what was a landmark drama about gay people, Lillian Hellman's vision as it really was.
Just denying it isn't enough because there's a grain of truth to it. Repressed sexuality is a terrible thing and it's taking a strain on both of them. Shirley MacLaine finally cracks under it and admits that she's been crushing out on Hepburn ever since they first met in college. Remember that she lived in a society in the Thirties when The Children's Hour was first written where being gay was in some eyes worse than being an ax murderer. Finally coming out with it in the end was too much for her and it brings on terrible consequences for MacLaine.
Back in the day when I was a working investigator for New York State Crime Victims Board, I recall a case where a man killed someone and wounded two other people. The Assistant District Attorney told me after the case was over that it was because the perpetrator was involved sexually with the deceased and the deceased was not in the closet whereas our perpetrator was. The victim wanted to tell the world about what he thought was the new love of his life. The perpetrator flipped out at the mention of it and killed him and wounded two friends. Self hate, internalized homophobia can be an awfully evil thing. Hellman could easily have written her play that way as well.
Audrey Hepburn also, though she doesn't articulate it, wonders why is it she's stayed shut away in that school and doesn't commit to finally take the plunge and marry Garner. The Children's Hour is more than a play about the love that dare not speak its name, you can't even think it in the world of that time.
MacLaine and Hepburn give two of their best performances of their respective careers. Miriam Hopkins who was in These Three, plays MacLaine's aunt who's a silly creature and who betrays the two women rather than be thought she condones the alleged lesbianism. Fay Bainter gave her final big screen performance here and was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.
William Wyler who directed These Three back in the day finally got to do the version as Hellman wrote it. He does as well for Hellman here as he did in The Little Foxes. He gets some of the best work out of all the players involved, even James Garner who's playing a distinct third fiddle here in a woman's picture in every sense of the word.
The Children's Hour came to the screen in 1961. Brokeback Mountain which in many ways has the same themes as The Children's Hour for gay men was set originally in 1963. Both are great examples of the strides gay people have made in their quest for a place in the sunlight.
Yet that case I described from my working years took place in the early Nineties. The closet might be thought of as a refuge, but it's a terrible prison for too many.