Directed by William Wyler, this classic of lesbian cinema, sometimes little known or harshly judged, is one of the first Hollywood films to tell a sapphic love story. Watch or rewatch on Amazon Prime.
We are in 1961. With Breakfast at Tiffany’s, by Blake Edwards, Audrey Hepburn seals her status as a glamour icon. But this film eclipsed another released the same year, in which the British actress also stars: The Children’s Hour. Inspired by real events that occurred in Scotland in 1809, the story, transposed to the contemporary era, follows two friends at the head of a girls’ boarding school. Their daily life is shattered when a pupil who overheard a gesture of affection between the two headmistresses spreads the rumor of a lesbian liaison… Without explicitly naming it (the accuser whispers her accusation into an ear, without it being heard), the film thus addresses female homosexuality, sidestepping the moral censorship that still prevails in Hollywood.
Originally from a play, published in 1934 by Lillian Hellman. Performed on Broadway, the play achieves considerable success despite its subject. In cinema, it is a different story. William Wyler, director of, among other works, Wuthering Heights, takes a first adaptation in 1936, They Were Three, where he is forced to erase the homosexuality. It is only after the triumph of his cryptogay Ben‑Hur, in 1959, that the filmmaker returns to the charge. Twenty-five years have passed, and the “Hays Code,” which since the 1930s governs what is acceptable to show in American cinema, loosens its grip little by little, making possible the reinsertion of the lesbian plot, without shouting it from the rooftops either. “The subject wasn’t even mentioned during our rehearsals. Isn’t that incredible?” will reveal Shirley MacLaine, chosen to co-star with Audrey Hepburn, in The Celluloid Closet (1995), a documentary on homosexuality in Hollywood.
During production, many child actors left the shoot when their parents learned the script of the film. Under pressure, William Wyler cut several scenes involving physical contact between the two heroines. The lesbian nature of the story, however, is beyond doubt, as evidenced by the coming-out scene in which Martha finally declares her love to Karen: “I loved you the way they say.”
Upon its release, The Children’s Hour did not spark a scandal. But over the years, its dolorous portrayal of homosexuality (Martha hangs herself) made it a textbook example of the trope “bury your gays” (“bury your gays”), meaning to systematically reserve, in screenplays, a tragic fate for LGBTQI+ characters. In fact, the film, like the play, dramatized the original real story, which did not end in suicide.
“We may have been ahead of our time, but we did not do justice to this story,” will analyze Shirley MacLaine, arguing that in the 1990s the heroine “would fight to assert herself!” Sixty-five years after its release, The Children’s Hour shows the extent of the road traveled.
