MovieChat Forums > The Children's Hour (1961) Discussion > Brilliant performances

Brilliant performances

posted 20 years ago by my1999
10 replies | jump to latest

The Children's Hour is a very good film, its drama is very strong. It received 5 Oscar nominations.In film, the performances of all actors were very outstanding,but no role is the absolute centre status.Audrey Hepburn as Karen,Shirley MacLaine as Martha,two different personalities roles. The performances of Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine were all excellent,but I like the performance of Audrey Hepburn even more.Karen faces three kinds of contradictions - pressure of society, suspicion of boyfriend,feeling ashamed and regretful to Martha.Agony inhibitted and torn in performance of Audrey.Martha envies the boyfriend of Karen, the ashamed of love to Karen.The performance mood of Shirley was unstablem.

Critics -

"......The personalities of Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine beautifully complement each other. Miss Hepburn's soft sensitivity, marvelous projection and emotional understatement result in a memorable portrayal. Miss MacLaine's enactment is almost equally reach in depth and substance." - "Tube.", Variety

"Shirley MacLaine and Audrey Hepburn give two of the greatest performances ever seen." - L.A. Times

"Well-acted, albeit dated treatment of a then-taboo topic" - James Sanford,Kalamazoo Gazette

"Audrey Hepburn had matured into a versatile and respected leading lady. This is one of her strongest performances... Alongside Hepburn is Shirley MacLaine, already an established actress, lending her talents to the movie, which was adapted from the stage play by Lillian Hellman..." - Bill King,Movie Gurus

[–] HippieKid31 20 years ago

Something also should be said about James Garner's graceful and beautiful performance, as well as Fay Bainter and Veronica Cartwright. These three performances also help to create a brillinat and breathtaking film. All 5 of these people (those i mentioned as well as Shirley and Audrey) should have been nominated for Academy Awards (i know Bainter was) and Shirley should have WON!!!

--Tim
Pinocchio's now a boy who wants to turn back into a toy!!!

[–] van_ferro 19 years ago

It was the most underrated classic I've ever seen. It is a movie of Best Picture potential, and the acting by Shirley MacLaine and Karen Balkin were superb and well-developed, and were very much disciplined in the actor's style that they should have had at least a nomination for Best Actress and Supporting Actress respectively. In the first dramatic role that I have ever seen with Ms. Hepburn, she showed a lot of potential in hevay drama, and the coolness that she held during the scandal was much like the display of a great lady's calmness during a nerve-wracking scandal, however, she still lacks the facial expressions and the depth of acting to be worht of great praises, but she showed the strat of a promising drama career. Miriam Hopkins was viciously superb as the aunt, for her role was very scene-stealing. Fay Bainter, in a shocking turn, is now an antagonist, and I applaud her for her very terrific performance. Mr. jame sGarner's was also good, however, he still lacks the character development and should have been given more scenes to develop his character. Over-all, the movie was superbly acted on and the emotion of empathy for the characters was felt, not only by the actors but by the viewers.

All right Mr. de Mille, I'm ready for my close-up...
Regards, THE GODFATHER

[–] batgirl731 19 years ago

The original poster on this topic quotes critics who loved the performances. They were actually the only part of the film that was widely praised by critics during its 1962 run. I spent the past month researching the movie for a paper and the overwhelming consensus back then was that it was, of all things, too dated. The New York Times review by Bosley Crowther ends approximately like this:

" . . . Mr. Wyler should hang his head in shame. Indeed, there is nothing in this film of which he should be proud."

Most other reviewers were similarly critical, with Variety giving the only major positive review.

[–] darkthirty 19 years ago

Probably because some of those critics had kept their jobs through the blacklist... heh

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[–] goldenhawk40 18 years ago

> Susan Sarandon was also interesting [in the Celluloid Closet documentary] on how her character had to be drunk in The Hunger in order to accept a pass from Catherine Deneuve, as if like how could she otherwise ....

I may be wrong, but I think Sarandon said that was the original premise (that she be drunk) but she argued and won that no one would have to be drunk to accept a pass from Deneuve, and played it not drunk..

[–] Moonlighting 18 years ago

I don't think it feels very dated- except in that if the movie were made today the language would be more explicit relating to lesbianism. It could be argued that Shirley's character killed herself not because she loved Karen, but because she thought (probably correctly) that Karen wouldn't love her back in the same way- plus, she knew the persecution she'd face. The scene with the delivery boy looking at them and smirking is heartbreaking when she reacts so angrily.

[–] 18 years ago

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