The Children's Hour

1961 Directed by William Wyler

One simple lie destroyed everything they had.

A private school for young girls is scandalized when one spiteful student, Mary Tilford, accuses the two young women who run the school of having a lesbian relationship.

Audrey Hepburn Shirley MacLaine James Garner Miriam Hopkins Fay Bainter Veronica Cartwright Karen Balkin Sally Brophy Mimi Gibson William Mims Hope Summers Jered Barclay William H. O'Brien Leoda Richards Harold Miller

Alternative Titles

The Childrens Hour, 噂の二人, 아이들의 시간, Infamous!, The Infamous, La Rumeur

romance drama

108 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by clara ★★★★ 4

can children get the death penalty
Review by Sally Jane Black 10

Imagine what they must have thought fifty years ago, or more, seventy years ago when the play came out. Imagine the tut tutting heterosexuals identifying with Mrs. Tillford, or feeling bad not because someone is violently outed but because someone is slandered with being a lesbian. Imagine the vicious, homophobic response to this that thought this film was about gossip. (Imagine the vicious, homophobic intention to make this film about gossip.) Imagine what they must have told themselves as they made it, what those involved with this must have been saying to themselves as they made it. In Celluloid Closet, MacLaine tells us she and Hepburn didn't even discuss the queerness of their characters.
Certainly, the message about the destructive…
Review by vincent price was 6′4″ ★★★★ 1

1) anyone wanna help me dropkick that little bitch mary through the nine circles of hell
2) I am absolutely amazed by the sheer explicitness of this film. I really thought it was gonna be all innuendo and that the story would just center around the theme of the "falsely accused". But no, to my surprise, the story goes much, much further and explores sexuality (as much as a film from 1961 can, I suppose). The final scenes are so impactful because of the magnitude of emotion exhibited by Shirley and Audrey, especially Shirley. I'm a mess.
Review by Two Cineasts ★★★★½ 12

A PLOT ABOUT HOMOSEXUALITY FROM 1961 (!!!) BY WILLIAM WYLER, WITH AUDREY HEPBURN AND SHIRLEY MACLAINE

"What are we going to do? It's all so cold and unreal and awful. It's like that dark hour of the night, when half awake, you struggle through the black mess you've been dream.... But it's all a nightmare; there is no solid world."
(Audrey Hepburn as Karen)
Review by phoebe 💫 ★★★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

the line "I have loved you the way they've said!" contained so much power it catapulted through time 58 years into the future and slapped me through my screen
Review by stephanie ✨ ★★★★½

mary briony
🤝
ruining peoples lives
Review by a ★★★★

i too, know that all my teachers are lesbians.
Review by Jacob ★★★★ 3

"I feel so damn sick and dirty."
Internalized homophobia is a concept I've been familiar with for years, but only at a distance. I understood it on a cerebral level -- we live in a heteronormative society where gay love is constantly misunderstood and disrespected, so its understandable why many gay people would feel ashamed. Though I've questioned my identity over the years, I never felt bad about what I was. Getting called slurs and having my voice made fun of certainly didn't make me proud, but those moments were fleeting. For years, I was comfortable in my sexuality, but only because I kept it private. It hasn't been until these last several months that I've seriously considered the prospect…
Review by willa ★★★★

VERUCA SALT ASS BITCH
Review by skype jonze ★★★★★ 1

mary is such a lil c*nt
Review by Cassandra ★★★★★ 4

I give William Wyler's The Children's Hour my highest recommendation. Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine gave such beautiful and sincerely moving performances. This felt so ahead of its time, I'm honestly shocked it was even made especially with such big names attached to it. I'm glad it was though.
Review by marcricov ★★★★½

Crazy how a film made in 1961 confirmed two of life’s most important facts: Homosexuality is not unnatural and kids are indeed the worst.

Recent reviews

Review by katykatz ★★★★½

Enraptured from start to fin!! Would be a five if not for the random plot holes?
Review by bell ★★★★

oh my GOD the last five minutes
Review by Doudi ★★★½

⭐8/10⭐
Siento mucho amor por las pelis viejas, más si son en blanco y negro, como que me conquistan al instante.
Esta historia nos miestra a una de mis reynas 👑 Audrey Hepburn 👑 junto a Sheley McCleyn haciendo de dos mejores amigas, profesonas en un internado y que son acusadas de lesbianismo por una alumna. Aunque esto fue mentira, nos enteramos que una de ellas si tenía esos sentimientos hacia la otra.
Tenía miedo de que, como me pasa con pelis de esa época, sintiera todo muy superficial, con personajes planos, cosa que no pasó. Tampoco es nada de otro mundo, pero al menos se desarrollaron muy bien todos los personajes femeninos (que son muchos) y no quedaron todas…
Review by julia 🌈 ★★★★ 1

“God will punish you.”
“He’s doing all right.”

Crushing. Just soul-crushing. I am suffocating in pure despair and heartbreak and pain. Such a painful and hopeless story. Each scene was so difficult to get through without wanting to go through the screen and rip someone’s head off. Jesus. This was so beautiful and so bleak and just really a feat of film/script. I can’t even imagine what it was like when this came out 60 years ago, I imagine audiences were more shocked by the gossip and potential homosexuality than the actually cruel and detrimental homophobia. Times change but still this is immensely powerful and bitterly depressing. The shame Shirley MacLaine exhibits in her performance as well as the anger…
Review by makaylalala ★★★★★

i loved you like they said i loved you!
yeah............gonna be thinkin about that one for a while boys
Review by sparklybunny ★★★★½

Mary is the WORST villain EVER. Shirley & Audrey are so cute ooomg. This is my review. I thought the movie was top notch. Also BROKE my HJERTE!!! 💔
“I can’t stand to have you touch me I can’t stand to have you look at me”
“I swear I didn’t know it. I didn’t mean it oh I feel so damn sick & dirty I can’t stand it anymore” wow I felt THAT you talented woman
Review by Margaret Dax

I’m gonna lock the doors & burn Mary’s house down 😌
Review by greciamagdaleno

fucking fucked me up, but no more so than mary did to them, jesus christ
Review by ana! ★★★★

SÉRIO FAMÍLIA 😭😭
4 ESTRELAS PQ **** *** ***** ****** ** *****
Review by Rat Rantastic ★★★½

think of the child they say! and the children are Mary.
I don't know whether The Children's hour is aganist or with homosexuality, it doesn't feel so, it sides with the main characters, not because they're gay, but because they've been falsely accused. But it is a film from the 60s so I didn't expect much
Review by lily ★★★★

Mary would look me in the eye and call me a dyke.
Review by MrDaz ★★★★

I'm honestly surprised that a movie about homosexuality was greenlit at that time, especially with two big name actresses attached to it. In this way, I find it incredibly ahead of its time, not just for its content, but the way it handled it in such a raw and explicit manner. There was no hinting and subtle references to the issue, it tackled it straight to the point and stripped it bare.
Oh, and children can be real evil too. Like demon spawn evil.
One of Audrey's Hepburn's best roles but it was Shirley MacLaine who was the real highlight of this movie for me with her harrowing performance. She should've at least received an Oscar nom for this.