Review of The Children's Hour (1961) by Uditha D — 06 Oct 2012

'The Children's Hour' has been criticized for many things: artificial acting, too much expressionism, and the thin plot-line. But I find all of them needlessly put there, because I personally did not experience the excesses of lyricism that I saw, for instance, in Women in Love or Mildred Pierce. 'Gritty' is a word used almost a cliche in describing films such as this, so I will settle comfortably for 'grainy'. And it was - the atmospheric close-ups to characters, the intimacies between its two main cast members (Audrey Hepburn especially commendable), and yes, the plot. Overall this may not be my favorite of William Wyler's film pantheon, but it cannot be unsaid that this was definitely his least sentimental. And having watched Ben-Hur, Roman Holiday and The Best Years of Our Lives, that is saying something.

The story is about lesbianism, but the fact that it does not deal with it straight away is perplexing: one can never even dream of lesbianism as a theme in a film that has its primary setting in a school! Sadly, though this may well be the case in today's culture, what with child molestation cases from the Church, with child abuses in Convents and orphanages, it has become all too common for directors to exploit it, sometimes shamelessly so, in their depictions. The Children's Hour is enigmatic in that it deals with the topic subtly: the word 'lesbian' is never used, not once, and the way the accusation against the two main characters is put out is discreet too. And in the end, thus, we can only gasp in surprise when Shirley MacLaine's character just pipes out that there was an essential oil of truth in those charges. Between them the other acts are just instruments, machinations, intended very much to bring out the tension in the story-line (Audrey Hepburn's fiancee in the film being one of them).

It is true that there was some unrealistic acting from these machinations. But in the end, we can all dispense with that. Because, to put it plainly, Hepburn and MacLaine stole the show, and it need not be said that they gave top-notch performances both rather out-of-cast, MacLaine having only just starred in The Apartment the previous year, and Hepburn coming off from successes as Sabrina, Roman Holiday, and the mildly dramatic The Nun's Story. The film itself came at a time when these topics were being discussed, albeit in a less showy, more subtle sort of manner, similar to that other great film dealing in a similar vein, that would be released only the following year - Lolita.