Cinema: That Kind of Love

The Children's Hour (Mirisch; United Artists) is Director William Wyler's second try at doing right by Lillian Hellman's 1934 stage melodrama, whose burden was that lesbianism may be regrettable, but a nasty, spying child is simply intolerable. In 1936, when the first screenplay was made, Hollywood shied away from abnormal psychology. Wyler dropped the tainted Hellman title (the picture was renamed These Three) and changed an irregular triangle (young doctor loves girl teacher, and so does another girl teacher) into a right triangle (the two girl teachers love the young doctor).

The triangle is clearly irregular in the remake, and Shirley...

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