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The Children's Hour (1961)
Rate:
5
Viewed:
11/16
11/16:
I've never thought it would be possible, but two actresses whom I hate the most appear in the same film: Shirley MacLaine
and Audrey Hepburn.
As the story overshadows the cast, three quarters of The Children's Hour, which is a remake of These Three,
seem to go well, keeping up my interest. Then, it starts to fall apart at the seams when Shirley MacLaine and Audrey Hepburn
have a scene together which feels more fitting for daytime soap opera.
At the end, Audrey Hepburn goes for a walk which lasts for approximately four minutes before turning around to walk back
to the house for a full minute. Man, talk about a drag. I was thinking of either '7' or '8' up to that point
before settling for '5'. If the whole sequence of events was replaced with courtroom scenes, I would've kept the original
rating. Ironically, the American Film Institute nominated The Children's Hour for Top 10 Courtroom Drama Films. My
goodness, they must be idiots.
My argument is the same every time I see Audrey Hepburn in a film: she has always been a model or rather an ornamental
decoration but never an actress. William Wyler lets me down big time when he decided to focus on her looks toward the end. If
he replaced Audrey Hepburn with more competent actress, the film would've worked out based on the strength of the story.
Shirley MacLaine is okay; she doesn't try to get out of the way to steal any of the scenes. It's her co-star who
constantly does it, even putting her face out just to remind everybody how "cute" she looks. Having little to work
with, James Garner looks suited for TV work. Actually, he sued Warner Brothers to be released from his contract for
Maverick, and The Children's Hour was the first film he worked on afterwards.
Fay Bainter is the winner who got rewarded with an Oscar nomination for playing the grandmother. She does a good job,
but I hate her character, regardless. In fact, she's typical of many parents today because they won't believe their
kid is a bad seed. Unfortunately, the child actors are annoying to put up with, but there's one who gets a special "fuck you"
from me: Karen Balkin as Mary Tilford. Thanks to her father who was a television executive, this was the only
film of Karen Balkin's career as a child star, and she would do another thirteen years later before flaming out for good.
Now, I want to talk more about Mary's behavior. What she has is oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). The
symptoms include being defiant, arguing with adults, displaying vindictiveness toward people in authority, and refusing
to obey. They have angry outbursts and have a hard time controlling their temper. Moreover, they tend to be pathological liars and
would say anything, even if it's totally irrational, just to get out of the situation.
To be diagnosed with ODD, it has to last longer than six months and be excessive as compared to what's usual for a child at her age,
and there's no cure for it. The next level of ODD is conduct disorder (CD). But Mary doesn't have it because, in order to
qualify, she has to show aggression toward people or animals, destroy property, and display a pattern of theft or deceit. If
her ODD is left unchecked by not receiving treatment, it's probable she'll advance to the next stage.
Based on my experience, Mary is more of '5' on a scale from 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest. I've known a few, both girls
and boys, who were truly '9' or '10'. So, The Children's Hour is actually a good film to learn some about the behavior
disorder which is often occurs among low-income kids.
There's one part that bothers me the most, and it's when the two girls were confronted about what happened. The correct way of
handling the situation is to put them in separate rooms for interrogation and then compare their stories to see if
they match up. Apparently, the first mistake is letting Mary have full control of the situation so she can intimidate the
other girl. The second mistake is putting words in her mouth such as explaining the situation and then asking her, "Is that
what happened or not?" That's how it happened with the McMartin Preschool Abuse case, resulting in zero convictions.
On the other hand, the way lesbianism, an idea that's conceived by Mary from reading the forbidden book, was handled leaves me
feeling peeved. The tragic ending is a huge insult to gays and lesbians. Basically, the film says homosexuality is
a sin, and to escape it, suicide is the only answer. If Katharine Hepburn was originally cast, she would've seen to it
the topic be handled with justice. I think either the higher powers forced her to drop out or she was simply too old to be cast.
All in all, The Children's Hour could've succeeded, but the filmmakers made a lot of mistakes.