An English film report on 'The Children's Hour' (1961)
the report touches on the following:
- director
- play
- characters
- theme
- setting
- mood
- genre
- opinion
total words: 2215
, The children’s hour is an American drama film directed by William Wyler. It was released in
1961 (titled ‘The loudest whisper’ in the UK). The film is based on the 1934 play with the
same title written by Lillian Hellman. The play had been turned into a movie once before in
1936 under the name ‘These three’, but the plotline was heavily altered, in de original play
and the adaptation I’m writing about two women are accused of being lovers by one of their
students but considering the time this all took place it would never be permitted to make a
film that even hinted at such a thing. So, they changed up the plot so that one of the women is
accused of sleeping with the other woman’s fiancé. The 1961 film stars Audrey Hepburn and
Shirley MacLaine.
Lillian Hellman was a very successful American playwright from the twentieth century. A lot
of the plays she wrote focused on groups of people that weren’t typically represented in plays
or films at the time, such as racial minorities, women, poor people, and homosexuals. Her
firm political ideas often overshadowed the genuine talent she had for playwriting. The
children’s hour was Lillian’s first big success, another big play of hers called ‘The little foxes’
also got turned into a movie starring Bette Davis and received an Academy Award
nomination in 1942.
William Wyler who directed the film was a Swiss-German director, screenwriter, and
producer. He is the only director ever to direct three movies that won Best Picture at the
Academy Awards. He is responsible for the stardom of a lot of famous “old-Hollywood”
actors and actresses. He found and directed Audrey Hepburn in her first-ever Hollywood film
‘Roman Holiday’, he also directed Barbara Streisand in her debut film ‘Funny Girl’, both
these films won Academy Awards. Bette Davis was nominated for three Oscars under his
direction and won one of them for her performance in ‘Jezebel’.
The two main characters of the film are Karen Wright (portrayed by Audrey Hepburn) and
Martha Dobie (portrayed by Shirley MacLaine). Karen and Martha are two college friends
who run an all-girls boarding school.
Karen Wright is 28 years old and very close to Martha, but she notices that Martha becomes
more distant towards her whenever Karen’s fiancé Joe Cardin is around. The Wright-Dobie
Boarding School is going through some serious financial issues, and while Martha is quite
stressed about this and loses her temper every once in a while, Karen is able to remain fairly
positive about the whole thing.
Martha Dobie is the same age as Karen and is very devoted to their friendship, she is clearly
jealous of Joe, and the reasoning that she has for this at the beginning of the film is that she
fears that once Karen marries him she won’t have any time for the school. When a false
rumour is spread about her and Karen being lesbians, she starts to realize that she has
romantic feelings for Karen. She feels disgusted with herself and tragically commits suicide at
the end of the film.
Mary Tilford is one of the pupils attending the Wright-Dobie Boarding school and is the one
who spreads the rumour. She bullies her classmates and doesn’t obey her teachers. She was
raised and spoiled by her rich grandmother, she cries and whines every time she doesn’t get
her way and is an overall annoying child. And it’s not as if she goes through any character
development either, the only time she ever appears to be sorry for any of the harm she has
caused is when her grandma threatens to punish her.
Mary’s grandmother, Amelia Tilford, is a very wealthy woman. While she knows about
Mary’s manipulative tendencies, she is still very fond of her granddaughter. Whenever Mary
comes and tells her about the terrible way she’s being treated, she always takes it with a grain
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