The Children's Hour by William Wyler must have been what I can only assume as extremely controversial of its time. Even in today's time this is a very touchy subject and people have very hard feelings for the topic. But nonetheless, the film starts out with two women by the name of Martha and Karen. The two were college classmates and now they both run a all girls school. Towards the beginning of the film they both seem to be doing well with their school and all is well. But one courageous child is about to have a monstrous impact on their lives. Mary is a young girl who has proven to be very problematic and cannot seem to stay out of trouble. Mary loves to bully her classmates, one in specific. But that is not the extent of her shenanigans, she loves to eavesdrop and that was one of her biggest problems during this film. One night while Mary was supposed to be asleep she heard and saw Martha and Karen in Martha's room discussing Karens new planned wedding date, which was fast approaching. But Mary witnessed something completely different, she thought nothing of it at the time. The next day when she was punished for lying, she took a taxi to her grandmother's house and told them that she was essentially being singled out. Mary's grandmother did not approve of her choices and took her back to the school. But Mary did not want to go back so she told her grandmother what she had witnessed the night prior to this ordeal. She told her grandmother that she essentially witnessed Martha and Karen doing things to each other that women should not be doing. This sparked an outrage with Mary's grandmother and she immediately disapproved of her granddaughter going back to this school ran by two very inappropriate women, or so she thought. Over the following days the school in which Martha and Karen had high hopes for emptied itself out completely. All the children had left because of what little Mary had told her grandmother. Mary's grandmother called the parents of each child that went to the school and told them what was going on. This sparked an outrage with all the other parents as well and they all sent for their kids to be picked up. Martha, Karen and Joe (Karens soon to be husband) all tried to tell Mary's grandmother that this was all a misunderstanding and that Mary had not understood what they were talking about. But she was not buying any of it, she even had Mary come and confirm what she had heard but Mary was cornered into the lie. Mary mentioned that one of the girls at the school had told her what she saw and that she herself had never actually seen or heard anything. And that girl was Rosalie Wells, who happened to be staying with Mary and her grandmother until her mother was able to pick her up. She they questioned Rosalie and she told the truth at first but Mary blackmailed Rosalie into lying and the truth was never revealed. Much time went on and Karen and Martha took Mary's grandmother to court and tried to sue her for ruining their lives, but the one person they needed to win the case never showed up. That person was Martha's aunt, and she was one of the reasons Mary heard what she thought was inappropriate behavior for women. Nearly a full summer went by and Karen and Martha couldn't even leave their house because everyone knew what they had did or thought they did. Even Karens fiance questioned if this whole situation was real and that's when Karen said they needed time apart. But the truth was revealed when Rosalie told her mother what really happened and Mary's grandmother confronted Mary about everything. The grandmother went to Karen and Martha's house to apologize and make everything right again but the two ladies turned everything down. Nothing would ever be the same for them again and both of them knew it especially Martha. We find out that she really did have inappropriate feelings for Karen and she did not know what to do about it. But that was one of the last things we hear from Martha because she decides to end her own life. Back when this movie was released it was still very controversial but things were starting to become a little more acceptable and this was the first time as far as I know that someone had came out on the big screen. "First, you have someone actually coming out in the screen; admitting that she is a lesbian, that she deeply feels the love that dare not speak its name" (Bratchwaite). This actually surprised me during the film because even though I know nothing about films I knew this whole movie must have caused quite the stir because of its topic. Then add in a scene where someone is literally coming out on the big screen, this must have been a big moment in Hollywood. This film seems to have broken many rules of its time because more than one outstanding thing happened during the course of this film. On one had a women admitted her love for her female best friend and on the other she then decided to kill herself because that was not an accepted norm of their time. "In The Children's Hour, the realization of lesbian desire leads one character to suicide this appearing to equate homosexuality with pathology" (Glass). Comparing the desire of the same sex to a mental problem was and still is a big ordeal because this movie tries to show that it is a mental problem while at the same time bringing this topic to the big screen. We never see anything happen but from the beginning of the film you can tell this is an issue that cannot be fixed and somehow this is going to end badly for one of the two or both. I think that this movie was a movie that needed to be made because it brought to attention many things. Firstly, it brought to attention the issue of homosexuality during that time. Secondly, it brought to attention that homosexuality may be a mental problem. This was big because a topic like this was a very large problem during that time and this film handled the topic very well. I really think that if a film comparable to this one was produced today that it would be a huge hit because this a topic that still is in the works today.
1 Comment
It wasn't interesting to read your take on the controversy surrounding this film and the importance that held specifically to the year it was released in. Although tragic, the film like you said needed to be made. It sheds a light on a taboo topic and did it much justice, even with the restrictions of censorship. A real gem.
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AuthorI normally only watch comedies and action movies so this should be an interesting change. Archives
May 2017
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