Rating: 
Summary: amazing and powerful
Review: The Children's Hour is, to wuote many other reviewers here, ahead of its time. Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine play two teachers at an all-girls school who get accused of lesbianism by a spoiled student who terrorizes the other girls and doesn't care who she hurts. The rumors cause Hepburn to lose her fiancee of two years (a young James Garner), MacLaine to lose everything she has, and the students' parents to start pulling their daughters out of that school immediately. The two women can't go anywhere without being talked about, and are pretty much under house arrest. This movie is amazing in its progressive nature, and makes you relieved that, while there is still social stigma, it is not of the aching loneliness and bereftness left the two women at the end of this film. That is the part that echoed with me long after I watched the film.
Rating:
Summary: OVERACTING, BUT GREAT FLICK!
Review: The mean little girl steals the movie with her BAD SEED role. This is one of my favorite films. I wish they could have added special features. It would be interesting to know how they made it. The actress, who played the grandmother(?) of the bad girl, did the best acting; but, they don't sell movie tickets by giving an Oscar to her: the big stars got all the credit. BUY IT!
Rating: 
Summary: Controversial theme
Review: The plot of this film goes like this: Two woman run an all-girl school whose students are pre-teenagers. When One of the teachers punishes a troublemaking girl, she runs to her grandmother and tells her that her two female teachers are lovers. The grandmother spreds the gossip around town and the two women involved are devistated. They have to fight a battle in court in order to show the town's citizens who is telling the truth. This is a very good film about a theme that was repressed bach in the early 60's. The leads are good but this film suffers from bad editing.
Rating:
Summary: More here than you know...
Review: This film relies largely on the believability of the kid-actors, and it works quite well. Veronica Cartwright has successfully gone from kid to adult roles. But whatever happened to Karen Balkin, the center of this film. She's magnificent as the spoiled rotten little brat...and Ive never heard of her since. I saw this film in its initial release when I was 14. I had read the play and thought it'd be interesting to see how the Lesbianism issue was dealt with. Well, I learned a lot from this film, which is most definitely NOT about Lesbians, but is about intolerance, unconscionable spite and its consequences. This play was first filmed in 1936 as "These Three", also directed by William Wyler. The plot was entirely turned around with no suggestion of Lesbians. If you saw the film "Julia" (with Jane Fonda as Lillian Hellmann) it is regarded as Hellmann's most difficult as to resolution. Miriam Hopkins played Martha in the '36 film and returns here to play the goofy Aunt Lilly. Fay Bainter was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, coming out of retirement to (brilliantly) play the old matriarch grandmother of rotten little Karen Balkin. (Note: in the '36 version little Bonita Granville played the role and was nominated). Again, this film is not about any particular kind of sexuality, rather the devastation of spiteful lies. Hepburn & Maclaine are excellent and I disagree that Maclaine overdid the ending. Wyler was never known as an "intuitive" director; rather, relying on the intelligence of good actors & writers. The slow strides of gay-themed films is an interesting subject, the taboo first tackled by Vincente Minnelli in "Tea & Sympathy" in 1956 (and severely white-washed); "The Children's Hour" attempted the same and, though Production codes were more relaxed in '61, Hellmann's profound ending was also somewhat subdued. Ugliness of character has always been a favorite subject of playwrights and filmmakers; the rotten little kid routine has been overused by Hollywood. If so many films are being remade these days, mostly crappy films to begin with, and with the new regime of interesting directors out there looking for material, why not re-do this as Hellmann intended? Evil children are a staple of Hollywood. Bonita Granville was, indeed, excellent in the first film version. But Karen Balkin's interpretation reminds me a lot of Patty McCormack in "The Bad Seed" (not a bad model). If there's a lesson to be learned, it's that once the damage is done, it's hard to recover. I also understand that there was a courtroom scene which was cut from the film. If this footage exists, I would love to see it in a DVD version. I'd like to know what happened to Karen Balkin. She was in the 60's what Jodie Foster was in the 70's (Taxi Driver), daring, intuitive and centered. I HATE bad kid-actors; good ones are priceless.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Sunday Evening Film
Review: This is a great movie about relationships and the problems that can occur when people are not completely honest with each other out of fear and humiliation. The two leading ladies do a spectacular job and the setting of the school gives the story a very intresting feel to it. The ending is a bit diiapionting because it provokes sadness, but fails to completely resolve the story.
Rating:
Summary: Understated and Unrelenting
Review: This is how European Film and (sometimes) Hollywood could rise to the occaision. Where "To Kill A Mockingbird" uses a sledgehammer to convery its message, this film uses a razor's edge.
This must be Audry Hepburn's finest dramatic role. No princess here. Same for Shirly McClain. No "hooker with a golden heart" here. James Gardner's character is secondary, but he plays it as unobtrusively as the role requires.
The child actresses are excellent. No McCauly Caulkin excesses here -- the evil child is truly evil, right down to the abject horror on her face when her deeds are exposed!
But what is truly remarkable about this film is the way it flirts with moments where you think, ah here comes the tension-relieving redemption of the town characters. But no! There are at least 3 twists in the final third of the drama that just bring home the message like an unexpected shiv between the ribs, and almost leave you with a broken heart -- except for Hepburn's amazing exit with no dialog, as if to say, the rest of you townies can just go to hell for what you did to us (very un-Hepburn!). It's not negative though. Her character, through her own strength, does self-fashion a form of redemption.
Simply oustanding cinema!
Rating:
Summary: VERY POWERFUL WORK
Review: This is one of the most powerful films I ever saw. Acting of everyone was great but the leading actors should have gotten the Oscars, all of them. This film has a perfect combination of everything: the screenplay, the filming, the casting, the performance. I rented this movie two days ago and I watched for three times already. That should tell you something. This is a very good film and I recommend it very much.
Rating:
Summary: VERY POWERFUL WORK
Review: This is one of the most powerful films I ever saw. Acting of everyone was great but the leading actors should have gotten the Oscars, all of them. This film has a perfect combination of everything: the screenplay, the filming, the casting, the performance. I rented this movie two days ago and I watched for three times already. That should tell you something. This is a very good film and I recommend it very much.
Rating:
Summary: Audrey gives a remarkable perfomance
Review: This movie is true to the play which is delightful as well as rare. Both leading ladies give great performances. By today's standards, this movie is considered tame. This is a great movie for Audrey Hepburn fans to add to their collection.
Rating:
Summary: 100 stars
Review: This movie isnt about homosexuality, its about lies. This kind of play turned movie is rare know a days. I love the acting, not only to Ms.Hepburn and Ms. McClain, but to all the casts. The kids were really great actors and i especially love the part of the grand mother. Ahead of its time, yet id like to see a remake made, it would never top this one, but thier would be no censorship.Possible actors: Calista Flockhart as karen, Rene Zellweger as Martha Unforgettable!On the same level as "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof"
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