reynoldsjan 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!

Jeffrey Roegner "These Three" is taken from the play "The Children's Hour" and follows two friends, Martha (Miriam Hopkins) and Karen (Merle Oberon), who graduate from college and go to and old farm Karen's family owns and fix it up, with intentions of making it a school for young ladies. They meet, Joe Carden (Joel McCrea), a handsome doctor, and he falls in love with Karen, but Martha also falls for him, but it is unrequited. Joe and Karen eventually get engaged. The women open up their school, and with the help of Martha's gossipy Aunt Lily (Catherine Doucet), it become a success. There is however a ghastly little girl at the school named Mary Tilford, played eerily by Bonita Granville, who proves to be a problem when she formulates a lie about Martha and Joe, and it spirals out of control. The play the film was based on featured a rumor about lesbianism, but in 1936, with the Hays Code in full affect, that could not be done, so the play's author wrote this script instead. The changing of the rumor does not effect the message of the story, but the film would not have been what it was, had it not been for it's stellar cast. Alma Kruger is a strong presence as Mary Tilford's grandmother, and you really feel for her character by the end. Walter Brennan and Margaret Hamilton round out the cast in small roles, Brennan as a comic relief cab driver, and Hamilton as the maid at the Tilford home. Hopkins, Oberon, and McCrea all turn in wonderful performances, but it is Granville and young Marcia Mae Jones as the other main young girl, Rosalie, who truly hold their own with the pros. Granville, who was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, was only 13, and Jones only 12 when production transpired on "These Three" and their performances are very impressive.The film does a fairly good job of not being melodramatic. There are some schmaltzy lines here and there, but for the most part it it a gripping and well acted drama.

dbdumonteil I have a tendency ,unlike the other users,to like the remake best (made by Wyler too) .Probably because Lilian Hellman's play included hints at lesbianism,a subject which could not be treated in the thirties ,when Wyler was one of the specialists of the female melodrama.That's why I think that the 1963 movie was more exciting ,and still is ,still in 2007.I'm not sure that all the parents would accept a gay teacher ,but a ménage à trois has lost its scandalous side.However "these three" is another Wyler's must,well acted by Merle Oberon ,Joel McCrea and Miriam Hopkins ,the latter being my favorite .Wyler is a master when it comes to tell a story.His depiction of the tiny school,of the manor are lovely.Maybe the horrid child overplays a bit -she is more convincing in the remake- but her young pal ,being blackmailed and afraid of being sent to a reform school ,is a good young actress.The scene when the two women meet McCrea for the first time is charming.

bethelagcy Everyone told Sam Goldwyn that he had to be crazy to buy the film rights to this one. At the time (1930s), the lesbian theme of the play would have made a film version impossible to release. But, Goldwyn and Lillian Hellman came up with a version that kept intact the other central theme (the vicious lie told by Mary Tilford, the young girl played by Bonita Granville and the resulting damage to "These Three" lives). Of interest to trivia buffs is the fact that Miriam Hopkins (known by many as a "difficult" actress in her Hollywood years), who played Martha in this version, was brought back to play Martha's aunt (Lily Mortar) in the later (1960s) William Wyler version, which reverted to the original title of THE CHILDREN'S HOUR, and starred Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine. That version also was graced by the brilliant performance of Fay Bainter, who played Mary Tilford's grandmother. Watch her especially closely as she exits, after making her (rejected)apology and offer of restitution. Want a real treat? Read Hellman's script for the Broadway play ... and then watch both film versions, in either order.