These Three (1936) DVD

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These Three (1936) DVD

These Three (1936) DVD

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$9.99

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S10192021930

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( 1 product review )

Product Description

These Three (1936)

Director
- William Wyler
Writer
- Lillian Hellman(original story and screen play)
Stars
- Miriam Hopkins
- Merle Oberon
- Joel McCrea
Lillian Hellman's 1934 Broadway play The Children's Hour was such a hot potato that film producer Samuel Goldwyn was denied Production Code permission to use the play's original title. The reason was the story's lesbian theme, a factor that also blocked The Children's Hour from winning a Pulitzer Prize. In the original story, lifelong friends Martha Dobie and Karen Wright manage an exclusive girl's boarding school. Spoiled rotten student Mary Tilford, angered at being disciplined, fabricates a story that casts a questionable light on the women's friendship. In attempting to defend themselves against the accusations of the little girl's wealthy and powerful aunt, Martha and Karen lose everything in court. By the time the girl has admitted her lie and the aunt has come to apologize, it is too late. After confessing that she has harbored "unnatural" feelings towards Martha, Karen commits suicide. In adapting her play to the screen, Lillian Hellman expertly weeded out all hints of lesbianism, and also eliminated Karen's self-inflicted death ("suicide as a plot solution" was another Production Code no-no). In the revised version, Mary Tilford (played with unbridled venom by Bonita Granville) spreads a rumor that Martha (Miriam Hopkins) has been carrying on an illicit affair with doctor Joseph Cardin (Joel McCrea), the boyfriend of Karen (Merle Oberon). The end result is essentially the same -- the school is destroyed, along with Martha and Karen's reputation -- but Karen manages to survive to fade-out time. In defending the evisceration of her play, Hellman defended herself by noting that her original point was not to force a lesbian subtext down the throats of the audience, but to show how a vicious lie -- any vicious lie -- can have disastrous consequences. While it makes a good story, it is probably not true that, when informed that the leading characters in The Children's Hour were lesbians, producer Goldwyn replied, "Who cares? We'll make them Americans." These Three was refilmed in 1961 by its director William Wyler, under its original title The Children's Hour, with Hellman's original text -- lesbianism and all -- intact; ironically, the censor-ridden earlier film is the far superior version.

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"THE POWER OF A LIE"

Posted by DEWEY MEE on Apr 20th 2024

The plot of Lillian Hellman's 1934 play "The Children's Hour" was so "shocking", producer Samuel Goldwyn was forbidden to even use the title when it was adapted for the screen in 1936. The new title was "These Three". Plot alterations were also quickly ordered. Hellman skillfully adapted her play, not seeming to be bothered by censorship demands of the era. She felt the dramatic force came from "the power of a lie", and what happens when people are quick to believe in gossip and scandal. The destructive power of a lie is still felt, although the exact nature of a lie has been altered.
College friends Karen and Martha (Merle Oberon and Miriam Hopkins) renovate an old farmhouse into a private school for girls. They are befriended by Dr. Joe Cardin (Joel McCrea), who quickly falls in love with Karen. Shy Martha feels lonely, being overshadowed by the more outgoing Karen and dominated by her overbearing Aunt Lily (Catherine Duchet).
Their hard work and private lives are destroyed when vicious pupil Mary (Bonita Granville) tells her rich and influential grandmother (Alma Kruger) that Martha and Joe are having an affair. The accusation comes from something Mary heard, and seeing Joe innocently leave a bedroom late at night.
Director William Wyler gets sensitive and absorbing performances from Hopkins, Oberon, and McCrea, but the film belongs to Bonita Granville, who deservedly received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her role as malicious Mary.
And Mary's vendetta against her teachers is not even the worst of her nasty behaviors. She bullies and blackmails her schoolmate Rosalie (the sweet-faced Marcia Mae Jones) into backing up her increasingly convoluted web of lies. Mary almost breaks Rosalie's arm and slaps her across the face.
Mary gets a slap across the face herself-- and that slap comes from none other than wonderful character actress Margaret Hamilton, soon to portray The Wicked Witch Of The West in "The Wizard Of Oz" (1939).
Hamilton is seen here as housekeeper Agatha, who knows Mary is a manipulative, vindictive Brat From Hell. I love it when Agatha tells Mary she "looks like a pig." After all the damage she does, Mary deserves that slap across the face.
Wyler returned to this material again in 1961, under the original title "The Children's Hour". In this version (also available at Zeus), Karen and Martha (Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine) are rumored to be-- gasp!-- having a lesbian affair! In this instance, the "censored" 1936 "These Three" is far superior and more compelling than the more "daring and provocative" 1961 remake, which is merely shrill, overwrought, misguided-- and badly misdirected by Wyler.