The Children's Hour (1961)

Martha: But why this lie? She found the lie with the ounce of truth. Don't you see? "What Made These Women Different?"The Children's Hour was a risky film to make when it was released. The subject matter was extremely controversial for that time period. Today, the only people who care about a person's sexual orientation is ironically the same people that meet every week to preach how God loves everyone. So watching this movie 50 years later, it is hard to see how this could ever be seen as controversial. It does, however, hold up as a well made film on intolerance and a pretty powerful one at that.William Wyler made a risky choice to direct this movie and he did a really good job with making a movie with a theme of lesbianism under the strict guidelines of the time. The movie is about two teachers running an all girl school. There is a girl named Mary who is constantly in trouble and decides to tell he grandma a lie about the two teachers, in an attempt to not have to go back. When her grandma believes her, the rumor flies and soon all the girls are taken out of the school and the two women lives are totally destroyed. Never have I watched a movie and have hated and been more annoyed by a character as I was with this little Mary bitch. The child actress was perfect who played her too. She had an annoying little voice and was ugly as all he'll and when you add those things to an obnoxious and downright despicable little girl, you get a character that is really easy to hate. There's many wise casting decisions in this one though. The three leads are amazing. Audrey Hepburn and Shirley McClain as the two teachers and James Garner as one of the teachers fiancé. All three excel with the subject matter and are really good at getting the emotions of the characters across. The movie overall was really powerful, but the ending just cemented how powerful it was. For the time period, with how subtle they had to be with this subject; the movie was astonishingly well made.