The Children’s Hour

For fuck’s sake, The Children’s Hour. You couldn’t have made this easy by being a shitty quality movie to match your shitty moral opinions. No. Instead, this vintage piece of homophobia had to go and display actual talent and artistic merit. Fuck.

The Children’s Hour follows Karen and Martha, two school teachers and best friends/roommates. A trouble-causing little brat whom they teach accuses Karen and Martha of having an “unnatural” relationship. This leads to a witch hunt and legal action against the teachers. In the third act, it is revealed that though there was no truth to the little hellspawn’s accusations, Martha has indeed been harboring lesbian feelings for Karen. This doesn’t end well, obviously. It’s the 1960’s and gay people aren’t allowed to be happy.

The Children’s Hour is just chock-full of overt old-timey values and moral judgements. Gender roles in The Children’s Hour are clearly defined. Marriage and children are the ideal, women belong on the kitchen, men must be the breadwinners. All the women portrayed are also rather overemotional and soft whereas the man displays the consummate strength and leadership qualities that apparently come package deal with having a penis.

And then of course, there’s the homophobia. The way the injustice of this witch hunt against Martha and Karen is portrayed is really upsetting. Not once does the movie suggest that these accusations are unfair because gay people have the right to exist. No. The only reason the audience is supposed to disagree with Karen and Martha’s treatment by society is that the accusations are false.

When it turns out there is a grain of truth to the accusations on Martha’s end, The Children’s Hour did exactly what you’d expect from a movie in the 1960’s. Almost immediately after admitting her homosexuality, Martha kills herself. It had to happen. The Hays code wouldn’t allow homosexuals to live to see the end credits of films back then. That doesn’t make it any less upsetting.

The problem is, in so many ways, The Children’s Hour is an objectively good movie. There’s a reason it’s been so successful as a stage play; the script is strong and engaging. The directing is good too. Even with something like Martha killing herself, the character is well enough written that it seemed plausible. There’s enough depth to the character that it doesn’t come across as she commits suicide because she’s gay but because she’s gay and also deeply troubled and unhappy. There is depth to the characters here, they’re not just stereotypes vehicles for moral opinion.

The performances from Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine are downright exceptional. MacLaine in particular shows astonishing talent. She does her absolute best to depict this character who’s so tied in moral judgements with depth and sympathy. The scene where she tearfully comes out to Karen is exceptionally powerful.

The fact that this movie is so good makes it hurt more. It’s much easier to write off old-timey homophobia when it’s in movies that don’t show any intelligence or talent from the filmmakers. I honestly prefer it when gays in old movies are two-dimensional villains because I find it ridiculous and too hard to take seriously. That there is a subtlety in The Children’s Hour that comes from cloaking its opinions in good character work and an engaging story makes it more insidious. This film probably makes it a more effective cautionary tale against being gay at the time and that upsets me.

I’m really struggling to determine whether or not I like this film or would recommend it. Because again, it is objectively good but also deeply homophobic, sexist and made me sad. However, it does also have merit not just artistically but as a great example of portrayals of homosexuality onscreen within that time period. It would’ve been so much easier on me if this film had been crap. The fact that it’s good in many ways makes it a more upsetting experience.

Overall rating: 6.2/10

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