The Children's Hour(1961)

About a week ago, I finally got down and corrected one of anomalies on the blog. Despite of all my admiration for Audrey Hepburn, I never wrote anything about her on this blog. I finally did that last week. After watching a documentary The Audrey Hepburn Story(2000) based on her life, I decided this is the opportunity I needed to rectify my mistake and took it with both hands. However, before doing that I went through her filmography once again to check what have I seen and of the remaining movies, what do I need to see? Fortunately, everything I wanted to see was readily available and within a week I ended up watching 4 Audrey Hepburn movies - I decided to let the fifth one go. One of them was The Children's Hour(1961). If you have read my Audrey Hepburn post, I said there as well that in my opinion this is one of the most criminally overlooked movie whenever someone talks about Audrey Hepburn's career. For some reason, I had never heard anywhere of this movie before and if I did not go digging into her filmography, I probably would not have seen this movie for a long time. I can only say that I certainly am happy I did go looking out for this as this is a fine piece of cinema which deserves much more attention that it is usually given.

Based on Lillian Hellman play by the same name, directed by William Wyler and starring Audrey Hepburn along with Shirley MacLaine in the role of two close friends Karen Wright and Martha Dobie, since college who have combined their forces to run a small boarding school for girls. There are only 20 girls in their school and these two are sharing all the responsibilities at school - they are teachers, they are headmistresses, they are wardens as well as cooks too. They both have put a lot of blood and sweat into this place to make it worth any reputation and slowly but surely their hard-work looks like is paying off as they are just about starting to make their school profitable. And as it would require for two people to get this far together, they have great understanding and trust between them. Both the girls have put quite a few years of their lives in this Dream Project however, they both have reached a point where it has become necessary to take certain decisions in their personal life that they can not postpone any further. Karen has been engaged to the local doctor Joe Cardin for couple of years now and they need to get married soon, even Joe is staring to be little restless now whereas Martha really needs to find someone and settle down as soon as possible. After some deliberation, Joe and Karen decide that this indeed is high time and they should get married after the end of current school term. Martha reacts to this news rather unpleasantly as she feels that this will mean Karen ignoring the school a little and further increase in her responsibilities, even though Karen and Joe both assure her that will not be the case. However, being a good friend and inherently good person, she keeps her issues aside and is happy for her friend.

Martha also has an aunt named Lily that lives with them and gives them a helping hand in school as well. Lily actually wants to be an actress on Broadway but can't really get past odd role here and there. Now this aunt Lily is a character and is meddling and rather cunning. While arguing with Martha once, she accuses her of being jealous of Karen and having an unnatural kind of relationship with her, she even goes ahead and ascertains that it has always been the case. Unfortunately, two of the schoolgirls overhear this conversation in the other room and off course go on to tell their other room-mate at night. Now, this other girl is Mary - a natural troublemaker who both Karen and Dobie believe is bad influence on other girls and because of her attitude gets punished quite often. However, more importantly, she is granddaughter of Amelia Tilford, one of the most influential and respected families in town. She is also an aunt to Joe. Mary being punished for anything and everything she does has a kind of spite of both her teachers and wants to get rid of them or from them as soon as possible. After hearing about the conversation between Lily and Martha from her friends, she decided to use it against them to get her out of there. So one day, she quietly sneaks out of her school and goes to her grandmother. At first Amelia disregards this as ridiculous but Mary seems to be persistent and also Lily, who is been asked to leave this place as Martha has had enough of her, unknowingly acknowledges of making any such remark. This puts Amelia in very uncomfortable position and she not only decides to take Mary back home for good, she also passes on a word to the parents of other girls in school that Karen and Martha might be lovers. One by one, all the girls start leaving the school leaving Karen and Martha to wonder what exactly happened ? and what follows turns their lives upside down completely.

I am not gonna lie and say that there was any other reason I saw The Children's Hour or even went looking out for it than Audrey Hepburn. Off course, having one more recognizable name, Shirley MacLaine that is, in the mix made it even more desirable but still I probably would not have watched it had it nor been for Audrey Hepburn. So, let me start with her. It is one of those movies where her acting is of much more relevance than her looks and charms and yet again she proves that she does not need them to please the audience, she is quite capable of doing it through her acting. Working yet again with William Wyler who apparently saw an actress behind that pretty face and gave her roles like The Nun's Story(1959) and off course her breakthrough role in Roman Holiday(1953), she does a great job indeed as usually calm and pleasant but determined and straight-thinking in face of an adversity Karen. Shirley MacLaine as Dobie has more dramatic and little troubled role and I am sure that none of us has ever had any doubts of her acting prowess. It's just good to see 60's Shirley MacLaine that I was stunned by in The Apartment(1960). I should also mention James Garner as Joe and Miriam Hopkins as Lily as well. But if someone really deserves to be mentioned here, it is Karen Balkin as malicious and rather bossy among her friends Mary. Mary is just a kid and all she wants is to escape from school where she thinks her teachers are being unnecessarily hard on her. She doesn't really fathom the implications of her actions and keeps on playing the same card to keep her from being punished yet again, this time possibly by her grandmother and this storm blows completely over her head.

Now, I am not going to lie and pretend to say that The Children's Hour is a masterpiece. I wouldn't even say that it is a movie that everyone has to watch. It is a decent enough film with little different story than we usually see with two strong and commendable center performances. But, my only problem is this movie deserves a lot more recognition from everyone than it seems to get. And that is the only reason that I have spent all this time on writing this post - to do my part in helping it get that recognition. Hopefully, this will make you want to watch it and it will soon be there.

Rating(out of 5):

All things Audrey !!

I feel like being repetitive, maybe I have said this before but I will tell you this again anyways. When I was in College, somewhere around my junior year, one of my very good friends used to talk very fondly about a movie called Roman Holiday(1953). Back then, I didn't even know there was a film by that name. She used to say that it is one of the loveliest movies she has ever seen and she is been trying to get hold of that movie but can't seem to find it anywhere. I was in the infancy of my film obsession or shall I say Hollywood obsession since most of my effort then was concentrated towards Indian Film Industry then. Even though I didn't know first thing about it then, that name left a mark on me. Few years later when I come to US, one of the first things I did was to try and find it. Out here, it was easy enough, I found it in the first library I looked - in my own university. I even went home and eagerly saw it. Now, to put the things in perspective, I am not the kind of person who goes head over heels for an actor or an actress. If you ask me, who is my favorite, I can give you a list but for life of me, I will not be able to order them. However, after watching Roman Holiday(1953) one thing changed, probably for the first and only time in my life, I had an absolute favorite Actress - Audrey Hepburn. This was almost 3 years ago. Since then, I have seen about a dozen movies she did and by now with every passing movie, my fondness of her has almost turned into a devotion.

Why do I bring all this up now, you ask ? because, the other day I stumbled upon something called The Audrey Hepburn Story(2000) on YouTube. To tell you the truth, I was looking for How to Break an egg scene in Sabrina(1954) - ohh, absolute bliss that scene is. I didn't find that but did see this. It's a made for TV movie with sort of biographical story of Audrey Hepburn, played by Jennifer Love Hewitt, since early in her childhood till she goes to the top of Hollywood. I probably won't go too much into the details about the movie as I find it hard to fathom that every single person she met was as enamored, as devoted to her charm as I am - someone rightly used the term Lady Jesus on one of the IMDb forum discussions - even though that is exactly what I expected. But this is a first time I have seen something about Audrey Hepburn besides her movies and this gives me a chance to do something I have been meaning to do for long time - write about Her. Audrey Hepburn wasn't just beautiful, there was something soothing, something beatific in her beauty that would touch your soul. It might just be me but every time I see her on screen I take a deep breath, close my eyes for a second and it feels like all my worries just evaporate into thin air. As shown in the documentary, she always thought of herself as non-attractive person, she rather used to think of herself as scrawny, tall with long neck and big feet. But even then when it all came together, it made extraordinary impact on screen. Since this documentary, I have been watching a lot of interviews of and about her and almost unanimous opinion seems to be she wasn't conventionally attractive but the way she carried herself made a lot of difference. Well, that and how soft spoken and modest she was.

Off course, one of the major reasons behind this Audrey Hepburn fever is her films. What started, more appropriately floored me, with Roman Holiday has become a full fledged obsession after close to dozen films by now. Roman Holiday isn't a revolutionary movie in any sense but her enthusiasm, her innocence in it is extremely infectious. Will you believe me if I tell you that since then I have always tried to say 'Thank You' the way she says in this movie. Would you also believe that I saw Sabrina(1954) because of her and not because of either Billy Wilder or Humphrey Bogart. It was actually my first Wilder or Bogart movie. There are a lot of movies that become instantly better just because she is in it - Charade(1963), Love in the Afternoon(1957), How to Steal a Million(1967). There really isn't anything wrong with them at all but at the same time there also isn't much in them either; except Ms. Hepburn off course. It's almost as if she carries these movies with her charm and I am sure there might me few more that I haven't seen yet. I have even set through never-ending atrocity that was War and Peace(1956) because of her. And how can I forget My Fair Lady(1964). If I am not wrong, I believe I had seen this even before Roman Holiday because I remember borrowing it from the same friend that told me about Roman Holiday but all I could remember was one song. So, when I saw it again I really had to convince myself that this is the same Audrey Hepburn that I have been seeing all this time. She was almost unrecognizable in her role of that flower girl initially. I am well aware of all the controversy surrounding My Fair Lady and even I think Julie Andrews probably was more suitable for the role, but Audrey Hepburn does a fine job here as well and I will not hesitate a moment to say that she was criminally overlooked for an Oscar nomination for that role.

However, it isn't just her charm, innocence and charisma that has won me over every time. She may not be considered as one of the best actresses ever, but if you ask me she has definitely made enough movies to make a strong case for her. First movie that made me stop my fan-boyish ogling and take her seriously as an actress probably was Breakfast at Tiffany's(1962). Even what they say in The Audrey Hepburn Story above strengthens my belief. After watching Roman Holiday - which mind you is a great piece of acting in itself and she does have an Oscar to prove it - I actually went through her biography on her IMDb profile to look for some of the other essential movies in her career and Breakfast at Tiffany's was one of the most prominent in it. I was already adoring her but since that day, I started respecting her as an actress. If you need any more proof of her acting prowess, try and see The Nun's Story(1959) which is a great example of her restrained acting. Throughout the movie she is in Nun's costume, covered from head to toe with minimal make-up and off course no accessories to accentuate her beauty. By giving one of the finest performances of her career here, she proved to me that even though all these factors added to her screen persona, she was just fine without them. Or even better, go and watch World's Champion Blind Lady in Wait Until Dark(1967). Seriously, watch her pull off that role of a recently blinded lady and tell me that she is not a good actress, just a pretty face. Even The Children's Hour(1961) with her and Shirley MacLaine - This film is so criminally overlooked every time anyone talks about Audrey Hepburn's career that I think I will go ahead and right full review of it soon, just to do my part for it. Only thing that is left for me to watch now is Two For the Road(1967), Paris when it Sizzles(1964) and just because it was her last film Always(1989) maybe.

My adoration for her goes beyond her beauty, it also goes beyond her acting talent. What makes me admire her even more is she seems to be a genuinely nice and polite person. Only reason I say seems to be is I have extremely limited resources - this documentary, few videos here and there and IMDb Trivia section. But there isn't a single person who has one complaint about her. Well, according to the documentary, Truman Capote had something to something to say about her but by the end, she even won him over too. Now, as I have been saying, this documentary may not be the most reliable of the sources - after all, they released Sabrina before she won her Oscar. But even then the gist remains that she was a universally loved character. After being in the industry for almost 40 years, I do not know of any controversy she was involved in, neither do I see any blemish on her character. For someone who is considered to be one of the most famous actresses of all time with such a beautiful face and lot of fame very early in her career, she had every reason and a long history of colleagues to misbehave but this blue-blooded actress never did. In another scene in that documentary, very early in her movie career, she says that "Ohh, I would love to misbehave. But I wouldn't know how" and I can't help but think Isn't that the story of her life ?

These are a Few of my Favorite Things…

Rowan Atkinson forgetting names while attending his first wedding as Minister in Four Weddings and Funeral(1994). 

Dialogue delivery in Juno(2007) especially scenes with her best friend and very first scene in movie

Audrey Hepburn learning to break an egg in Sabrina(1954).

 Baby Voice in Monsters Inc.(2001).

Joe Pesci trying to understand his own sense of humor in Goodfellas(1990).

Henry Fonda producing the same knife in 12 Angry Men(1957).

Audrey Hepburn saying ‘Thank You’ after returning home in Roman Holiday(1953).

Cate Blanchett's Introduction of The Lord of The Rings: Fellowship of the Ring(2003). 

Glee and Grey’s Anatomy.

Whole Chase sequence in My Best Friend’s Wedding(1997) till Julia Roberts and Camerom Diaz’s fight in Ladies Room

Marisa Tomei as an expert witness in My Cousin Vinny(1992).

Julia Roberts, pretty much anywhere

“What’s the most you have lost in a Coin Toss?” Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men(2007)

Testimony of Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men(1992).

Frank Langella and Michael Sheen in their last interview in Frost/Nixon(2008).

Dan Brown and J.K. Rowling

Ingrid Bergmnn and Humphrey Bogart as a pair in Casablanca(1942).

Same Changes by The Weepies and Strip Me by Natasha Bedingfield from Morning Glory(2010).

Olympia Dukakis pushing Shirley MacClaine to be hit by Sally Field in Steel Magnolias(1989).

Jack Nicholson complementing Helen Hunt in As Good As It Gets(1997).

Samuel Jackson delievering Ezekiel 25:17. Pulp Fiction(1994).

Musicals from Singin' in the Rain(1952) to Mamma Mia!(2008).


And Yes, Christopher Nolan !!


 

Movies I watch again and Again

Somewhere in my 3^rd Year of Engineering, I borrowed an extended version of the whole “Lord of the Rings” Series – almost 11 hours Run Time; one of my friends and I still remember running home to watch it immediately. I think I started watching it around 6-6.30 in the evening and I was watching it the whole night till I finally finished it sometime in the morning. That was first of many more LOTR nights me and few of my friends had since then. I have seen those movies so many times that I know most of the dialogues by heart. Watching so much fighting, orcs and Gollum and other creatures my parents initially were little worried. They even tried talking me out of it. But now they walk out of the house whenever I put these movies on. Maybe they have given up on me now.

“Lord of the Rings” Trilogy is just one of the movies I watch time and again. Many times because I don’t remember certain dialogue in one of the scenes. That much trivial reason is enough for me to go back and watch those movies one more time. Sweet Home Alabama(2002), not a very well known film, but I have watched it at least dozen times. Reese Witherspoon and great dialogues of this movie make up for otherwise very predictable movie. Juno(2007) is about teen pregnancy- subject which tells me only one thing: ‘Stay Away!’ but believe me I can watch this movie any time any day. Jason Bateman and Ellen Page deserve a lot of credit to make such a movie and moreover make it thoroughly entertaining. Ellen Page even received her very first Oscar Nomination for this role.

Let us talk about some classics. 12 Angry Men(1957) took me by surprise the first time I saw it. I sure was expecting a good movie - courtroom drama with racial elements. It will take a special effort to fail such a movie. But 12 Angry Men takes it to another level. Movie does not go out of the jury room and does not let you out of your seat. During my second and third viewings of the film, I did a small exercise. Every time they used to take a vote in movie, I will stop and think How will I vote? and it was hell of a job.

And then there is Roman Holiday(1953). One of my very good friends in college used to talk very fondly of this movie. She still does. But back then I didn’t even know that there is a movie by this name. So, one fine day I saw Roman Holiday just because she insisted and I have seen it 7 times in last 2 years. Believe me; I would have enjoyed it as much even if it was a silent movie. No disrespect to Gregory Peck but Audrey Hepburn on the screen that’s all I need. Her pristine, divine beauty had me tongue tied. And yes, I still try and say ‘Thank You’ the way she does in this movie.                                                          

And there are many more. So many that I can go on for at least 2-3 more posts like this. However, I will limit myself to just list them here. Morning Glory(2010): Rachel McAdams all the way. She has put a display of emotions in this. Inglourious Bastards(2009): Show me a longer and better scene than the one in Bar with Diane Kruger and I will stop watching movies forever though Col. Hans Landa is a reason enough to watch is again and again, My Best Friend’s Wedding(1998): 'Julianne: I'm pond scum. Well, lower actually. I'm like the fungus that feeds on pond scum. Michael: Lower. The pus that infects the mucus that cruds up the fungus that feeds on the pond scum'. I am all over the floor and I am watching it for umpteenth time. Sound of Music(1965): Songs, Songs and Songs. Priceless(2006),Sarfarosh(1999), Satya(1998), Walk the Line(2005), Casablanca(1942).