Review of The Children's Hour (1961) by Sergel C — 17 Aug 2011

"The Children's Hour" is in my opinion, the best of the "Hays Code" daring movies. Karen (Hepburn) and Martha (MacLaine) are lifelong friends who have been running a school for girls for a few years.

Things are going great-- business is taking a considerable climb up, and Karen is ready to marry her long-time fiancee Joe (Garner). But there's this bratty little girl, Mary (Balkin), who is really the only thing causing trouble in Karen and Martha's live.

When they punish Mary multiple times in a row, Mary tells her Grandma Amelia (Bainter) that Karen and Martha have been having a lesbian relationship, and uses evidence by twisting things she eavesdropped on.

Immediately, the two's careers are over, and the only one that will even support them is Joe. But even he and Karen's relationship is screwed up by the malicious lie. I can't decide if "The Children's Hour" is just a daring and tense drama, or if it's just a melodrama.

I think I'll call it both. Obviously, this is a very soapy movie, and usually I don't think that highly of them, but when a director (Wyler) actually is brave enough to give out the topic of homosexuality when the topic wasn't even discussed, you have to praise it.

But what's even better, is every single performance is top-notch. Fay Bainter (the old lady) was the only one nominated, and though she obviously deserved it, I still am puzzled why Hepburn, MacLaine, Garner, and even Balkin weren't nominated.

They all give excellent performances (especially MacLaine who deserved to WIN), and deliver the lines that were then very gross to people at the time with such charisma that it proves how wonderful these actors were.

"The Children's Hour" is a very very tense drama that is interesting the entire time. Recommended.