Bygone no more: This ’60s film about teachers accused of lesbianism could easily take place today

One of the most poisonous and nonsensical right-wing ideas is that homosexuality is somehow teachable; an infection that can be spread amongst people. This is, of course, absolutely absurd, but what’s especially striking about a movie like The Children’s Hour today is that this idea hasn’t gone away over 60 years later.

The Children’s Hour (1961) follows the lives of Karen Wright (Audrey Hepburn) and Martha Dobie (Shirley MacLaine), teachers who have worked together since graduation on their joint dream of running an all-girls school. The Wright-Dobie School For Girls has been open for a number of years and for the first time has finally turned a profit. Everything is going the way they want, but a troublemaking child spreads a vicious rumor about Karen and Martha: that the women are in love with each other, which shatters the very foundation of everything they’ve worked for.

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Director William Wyler was no stranger to tackling social issues in his films. His 1933 film Counsellor at Law, starring John Barrymore, was one of the earliest films to tackle antisemitism. Wyler actually tried to address homosexuality in his films nearly 30 years before The Children’s Hour, but the ultra-restrictive Hollywood Hays Code had other plans. The Children’s Hour is an adaptation of Lillian Hellman’s play of the same name, but it is not Wyler’s first attempt to put Hellman’s play on screen.

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That was These Three, back in 1936. Wyler intended a faithful reworking of Hellman’s story, but the Hays Code strictly forbade any reference to homosexuality, making it an impossibility. The rules were so intense that it couldn’t even be publicized that MGM had acquired the rights to Hellman’s play. Hellman, who also wrote the screenplay for the film, had to change the homosexuality at the core of her play to adultery, making a film about a woman who allegedly slept with another woman’s fiancé instead.

Wyler was clearly struck by the original theme of Hellman’s play, returning to The Children’s Hour in 1961 when the Hays Code, while technically still intact, no longer held the power it once did. Finally, Wyler was able to make the film he wanted, and his sterling reputation in Hollywood helped him attract some of the biggest names to star in the film: Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine, and James Garner.

Karen’s boyfriend Joe (James Garner) wants her to become a mother and his wife, but Martha wants Karen to continue professionally alongside her at the school — despite Joe’s desire for a family, he has no interest in taking Karen away from her work. Karen is hesitant to marry Joe, which has become a point of interest for the girls at the school — why won’t Karen marry Joe? It’s a contentious point for Martha in particular, who is concerned the school will crumble if Karen gets married.

Their argument is seen and heard at a distance by Mary (Karen Balkin), a troublemaking child at the school. The other girls don’t care for her much — it’s an open secret that she bullies the other kids at school and is a compulsive liar. She’s one of cinema’s most spectacularly evil children, and Balkin delivers a performance for the ages. 

There is, of course, no legitimate foundation to Mary’s accusations. They are nothing more than utter fabrication, woven together with things she thinks she’s seen and vague comments she’s heard.

The big lie happens in the car between Mary and her grandmother Amelia (Fay Bainter in her final role). Mary has run away from school, and the trip back to the school with her grandmother is her last chance to get out. Her grandmother barely looks at Mary throughout the entire conversation, and Mary’s eyes dart wildly around the vehicle as she desperately concocts a story to exact revenge upon the teachers who dared to discipline her. When Amelia says she’s had enough of Mary’s nonsense, instead she doubles down, diving deeper into her web of deceit. Mary then uses the word “unnatural” to describe Miss Dodie’s feelings towards Miss Wright, which has clearly unsettled Amelia, who faces Mary head-on for the first time.

Still, Mary hasn’t quite convinced her grandmother that she shouldn’t go back to school. Mary’s eyes widen in horror as she sees the “School Zone” sign, knowing she doesn’t have much time left. She begins to panic and tells Amelia what she knows is so shocking she can only whisper it. Wyler’s camera cuts to the perspective of the car’s driver, as we see Mary whispering into Amelia’s ear in the backseat. We never find out what Mary says to her grandmother, but judging by the complete shock on her face, the damage has clearly been done.

Though we never hear the words, it’s perfectly clear that Mary’s allegations are about Karen and Martha having a lesbian romance. Amelia spreads the gossip like wildfire, telling the other parents of the schoolchildren to inform them of a relationship between the two teachers — one that doesn’t exist. Mary is thrilled that she never has to go back, hugging and kissing her grandmother with delight. She waves goodbye maliciously in the car’s back mirror, completely unaware of the damage she has caused.

What was a desire to be free for one child has staggering consequences on the entire school, and especially the lives of Martha and Karen. Suddenly, children are leaving the school in droves, with everything the pair has built at risk. Nobody will tell them what’s going on; all Karen and Martha know is that their dreams are falling apart in front of them.

When Karen and Martha come demanding answers from Amelia, she explains to them that she simply had no choice but to intervene since the children were involved. How, after all, could Amelia simply stand by while lesbians were near children, teaching them?

There are still overwhelmingly stupid ideologies that claim homosexuality is not only evil, but that there’s an ongoing mission to recruit, or “groom” children into becoming homosexual. All the science and evidence in the world cannot seem to change the minds of people who have been completely and utterly convinced of this through manipulation and lies.

But when The Children’s Hour came out in the early sixties, there was no science or evidence about homosexuality. There was merely rumor and conjecture that it was inherently evil and wrong. A mere rumor today is still enough to derail a career, but back then there was none of the support that people receive now; no swathes of support on social media in defense of Martha and Karen that would surely exist today.

 The Children’s Hour is a gorgeously shot and beautifully performed melodrama. It speaks to the overwhelming power of our words, and how words, above all things, travel faster and more furiously than anything else, spreading like wildfire and infecting everything they touch. The film is very clear that the rumors are nothing more than that, and that the school Miss Wright and Miss Dodie built together was a place where minds could flourish. One child’s words undid everything these two women built together.

But The Children’s Hour is about more than the power of words. It’s also about the terror of being queer, even if the film never actually uses words like “gay” or “lesbian.” A film like this shouldn’t feel relevant today — it should feel like an upsetting bygone from an entirely different world. However, the film has a depressing prescience in a world where teachers are still persecuted for being queer. These cycles of ignorance and hatred continue towards any sort of existence that deviates from the perceived normal, and perfectly innocent people, queer or not, continue to suffer the consequences.

It would be funny if it wasn’t so heartbreaking.