This original movie is the best. The remake with Shirley McClaine was frustrating at the end. These Three has a happy ending, where the little liar is finally found out. Cast is amazing; story very well told. Kept my attention to the very end! I would watch this again!

The relationship between censorship and creativity can be summed up no better than in "The Producers," when Gene Wilder is going insane and Zero Mostel throws the bucket of water on Wilder to calm him down, only to make Wilder more insane. "These Three," based on a play by Lillian Hellman (who also wrote the screenplay), is the story of two debutantes, Karen Wright and Martha Dobie, (Merle Oberon and Miriam Hopkins) fresh out of school who--almost immediately--inexplicably decide to start their own school (studies do say the public school system is built to churn out teachers). At the building where the two women wish to house their school, they meet Joe Cardin (Joel McCrea) who assists them in their endeavor. He makes three. They all become great friends, open the school to resounding success and everything is just hunky-dory.As usually happens, children ruin everything--in this case, one child: Mary (Bonita Granville). To understand Mary, one must simply imagine Iago as a young girl--afraid? Mary, because she's spiteful, young and doesn't understand consequences, spreads a lie about her teachers in order to take the attention away from her own misbehavior. So what is initially a private, mild, unacted-on love triangle--that probably would never have amounted to anything and fizzled away with time--becomes the business of the entire town.The original play had Mary's lie alluding to a lesbian relationship between the two friends; however, due to that pesky Hays Code, McCrea's character was conceived, and the lie turned into one of heterosexual deviance, though even that is tiptoed around. Despite the changes to the source material, the film never feels watered down, as the contents of the lie really aren't that important, at least not as much as the subsequent reverberations. Plus, by not mentioning specifics, it almost makes the whole thing more potent, as the viewer's imagination is given free rein. The example often referred to in is from "Shane," and the intense sexual tension between the titular character and the boy's mother, despite never showing anything. In this way, censorship becomes creativity's unlikely accomplice. As weighty as the film is, it's surprisingly funny. In particular, Martha's aunt, Lily Mortar, (Catherine Doucet), who is a haughty, loquacious, former actress. She reminded me of one of Dickens' over- the-top aristocratic characters. When a taxi driver (played by Walter Brennan, who, I guess, got tired of driving stagecoaches) requests his pay, Mortar merely chides him on his obsession with money.William Wyler's "These Three" is an excellent adult drama that hasn't aged a bit (well, maybe a little bit). Not a single performance fails to impress--particular Granville's as Mary, a tough part for a child actor--and the comedy--which is a gamble in a dramatic film, for it runs the risk of deflating the whole thing-- feels completely natural. Few films I've seen handle the concept of mob mentality better than this one. My one gripe--and I had this with the recent "The Hunt"--is who are these adults that take everything a child says as indisputable fact? Use your brain.Lastly, how cool is that poster?

I'm sure that Lillian Hellman when she sold the screen rights for The Children's Hour she had to know that her play about lesbianism would be totally changed by Hollywood. The Code was firmly in place now and even a subject that might be just hinted at would be forbidden now. For the three decades homosexuality could at most be discreetly hinted at.Bearing that in mind These Three now changed to be just a heterosexual triangle with Merle Oberon, Joel McCrea, and Miriam Hopkins was a decent drama about the ill effects of gossip. And the gossiper received an Oscar nomination.Oberon and Hopkins are teachers at a girl's school and Oberon is keeping company with Doctor Joel McCrea. But one night quite innocently McCrea is seen with Hopkins where they live by one of the girls. Bonita Granville had been chastised earlier on so now the evil little teen starts some gossip and as a result These Three have to defend themselves against something non-existent. That's usually the worst thing you ever have to defend yourself against, something totally made up.William Wyler directed this one with sensitivity and taste. And he lived long enough to direct the real version of The Children's Hour in the Sixties. Miriam Hopkins appears in both in different roles.Bonita Granville got an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress in the first year Supporting players were categories. But she lost to Gale Sondergaard playing a wicked adult in Anthony Adverse.It's a good film but not as good as The Children's Hour. How could it be?

In Lillian Hellman's original play, THE CHILDREN'S HOUR, the scandal involved lesbianism--certainly NOT a topic they were allowed to address in Hollywood in the strengthened Production Code era. Starting around 1935, Hollywood bowed to pressure to clean up the movies and feature more wholesome images. While today some see this as a totally negative thing, you must understand that nudity, violence, crudeness and very adult topics were frequently used in films and there was no rating system. So, kids might go to the theaters and see rather graphic nude swimming scenes (TARZAN AND HIS MATE and BIRD OF PARADISE are good examples) or Frank McHugh giving someone "the finger" (PARATROOPER). As a result, SOME sort of system needed to be created, though I will admit some of the resulting products from Hollywood were a bit bland. In regard to THE CHILDREN'S HOUR, there was no way the studios would be allowed to discuss homosexuality during this era, so they changed the allegations to promiscuity between a man and a woman. This did NOT appreciably alter the play nor its impact and reportedly Miss Hellman was happy with the film despite this minor change--minor in that it resulted in only minor alterations to the script and kept the overall message intact.The resulting film, THESE THREE, was produced by David O. Selznick, directed by William Wyler and starred Miriam Hopkins, Merle Oberon and Joel McCrea. With this terrific combination of talents and the Hellman script, it certainly isn't much of a surprise that the film was excellent throughout--and one of the better pictures of the 1930s. About the only negative at all about the play was the performance of young Bonita Granville. While generally very good (earning her an Oscar nomination), it was at times also a tad over-the-top--and she acted so histrionic that you wonder what sane person would believe all of her lies!!! If this had been toned down just a bit (making her a little more subtle), the film would have earned a 10. As it is, it's still a terrific film with an original and wonderful script.