The Children's Hour (1961)
The Children's Hour, directed by William Wyler, is about how two friends, Karen Wright (Audrey Hepburn)
and Martha Dobie (Shirley MacLaine), who run a boarding school for girls, get accused of
being lovers by Mary Tilford (Karen Balkin)- an unruly troublemaker student.
and Martha Dobie (Shirley MacLaine), who run a boarding school for girls, get accused of
being lovers by Mary Tilford (Karen Balkin)- an unruly troublemaker student.
Before The Children's Hour came to be, the first adaptation of this play called These Three which was also directed by Wyler. The first adaptation was made in 1936, when the Motion Picture Production Code (of 1930) was at it's prime and created the Production Code Association led by Joseph Breen. For William Glass, he saw these codes as a way of preserving and promoting heterosexuality, all while giving homosexuality a misrepresentation of the queer community. Due to these codes, Wyler, producer Samuel Goldwyn, and Lillian Hellman (the creator of the play) were bind to making sure the film avoided homosexuality because "Sexual Perversion of any inference to it is forbidden." Thus, the lie Mary told changed being that Martha and Karen's fiancé, Joe Cardin (James Garner), were having an affair. Back then an affair between a male and female was more acceptable in a film and came off as "bad" or "funny" , but not the scandal of two women being in love with each other as it was "dirty". By the time that The Children's Hour came out, the PCA was at last relaxing its ban and facing more criticism, giving Wyler and Hellman another chance of creating an adaption true to the play's contents 25 years later.
In this trailer for These Three, viewers are aware of the lie Mary told her grandmother from Martha admitting her feeling for Karen's fiancé, but never acting upon it.
|
Now in this trailer for The Children's Hour, if one pays attention, the audience never gets open clarification that the lie being told from Mary was Martha and Karen being lovers. The only clue that is given is when Martha says "Ask her again how she can see us" referring to herself and Karen.
|
One of the most important scenes that comes out of this film is no doubt when Martha does confess to loving Karen past a friendship. As the community and the world learns and believes Mary's lie/accusation, Karen and Martha are isolated, and despite Joe's efforts to stick by the both of them, especially Karen, she tells him to go, as she is filled with guilt that Joe would have to uproot his life and questions if Joe believes her when stating that she did nothing with Martha. As Martha learns this, she is visibly shocked, distraught, and uneasy as she starts to blame herself for Karen breaking up with Joe. Within the rumor lie's, Martha realizes just how much of it is true. While nothing ever happened between the two, the truth in the lie that Martha is horrified by is that she does love Karen romantically. Les Fabian Brathwaite claims this scene as being great as this film shows "someone actually coming out on screen; admitting that she (Martha) is a lesbian, that she deeply feel the love that dare not speak its name." In the film, nor play, Martha does not say the word lesbian, but the audience is aware of what she is. In a society and timeline where people oppose and become disgusted by homosexuality, Martha believes that she is guilty of loving Karen, that she is to blame for what has become of their bad reputation, that she is dirty and sick for having such thoughts. She hates herself for it, and unfortunate Karen is at a loss to console her friend, as Martha can't stand it anymore, as it'll fuel her forbidden feelings for her.
Overall, I found this movie very intriguing and saddening. I thought it was interesting
to see how much society who shares a strong opinion could affect the way a film can be made.
This movie also shows how even back then how damaging a lie can destroy not one's
life, but others as well.
to see how much society who shares a strong opinion could affect the way a film can be made.
This movie also shows how even back then how damaging a lie can destroy not one's
life, but others as well.