These Three Movie Review

If the Independent Spirit Awards had existed in 1936, These Three would definitely have been a contender. The fact that this film was made at all is a tribute to Samuel Goldwyn's free spirit as a producer. Even though The Children's Hour had been a huge hit on Broadway, lesbians were not allowed to appear in ANY American movies due to censorship by the Hays Office. Goldwyn bought the movie rights knowing he couldn't use the title or the story onscreen or in publicity. What he could do was hire Lillian Hellman (who had scripted The Dark Angel for him in 1935) to write the screenplay. Hellman felt that the real point of The Children's Hour was not whether or not its two central characters were lesbians, but that a lie has the power to shatter people's lives and livelihoods. Therefore, instead of showing how two schoolteachers were ruined when one of their students accused them of an “unnatural (lesbian) affair,” These Three showed the teachers being accused of an “unnatural affair” with the same man. The teachers, Martha Dobie and Karen Wright, are played by Miriam Hopkins and Merle Oberon, and the man is Joel McCrea as Dr. Joseph Hardin. Hopkins plays Martha as a cool woman, unable to express her love for Doctor Joe or to attract him. She is exactly the sort of standoffish teacher that schoolgirls do make up stories about all the time. In contrast, Merle Oberon's Karen is sweet, sympathetic, and head over heels in love with Doctor Joe, who is equally head over heels in love with her. Why would Martha, who does not like her nasty, gossipy Aunt Lily Mortar (Catherine Doucet), hire her as a teacher? Maybe it's a family thing, but the aunt turns out to be her downfall, as well as Karen's and Joe's. The centerpiece of These Three is Bonita Granville as Mary Tilford, who won a nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her interpretation. In a year when Shirley Temple was the number one star at the boxoffice with films like Captain January, Poor Little Rich Girl, Dimples, and Stowaway, the undiluted menace of Bonita Granville was electrifying to 1936 audiences. Mary Tilford is a merciless bully, who terrorizes her younger classmate Rosalie Wells (Marcia Mae Jones) into backing up her story about the “unnatural affair” (based solely on Aunt Lily's gossip and Doctor Joe's constant presence). Soon, the students are leaving in droves. Martha and Karen sue for libel, but without the crucial testimony of Aunt Lily who's conveniently left town, they lose. If Doctor Joe marries Karen, his career is over, too. Under the meticulous direction of William Wyler, These Three is a story you can't tear your eyes away from for a single instant. He keeps the focus on the relentless course of the gossip as it spreads from Aunt Lily to Mary to Rosalie, to Mary's snobbish, influential grandmother (Alma Kruger). Martha, Karen, and Joe are paralyzed by the sheer speed of their destruction. These Three wound up packing as much of a wallop onscreen as The Children's Hour had done onstage. Samuel Goldwyn shrewdly sidestepped the Hays Office and, in the process, made one of the best films of the 1930s.

1936 92m/B Miriam Hopkins, Merle Oberon, Joel McCrea, Bonita Granville, Marcia Mae Jones, Walter Brennan, Margaret Hamilton, Catherine Doucet, Alma Kruger, Carmencita Johnson, Mary Ann Durkin, Frank McGlynn; D: William Wyler; W: Lillian Hellman; C: Gregg Toland; M: Alfred Newman. Nominations: Academy Awards ‘36: Best Supporting Actress (Granville). VHS, LV