A riveting remake of the 1930's movie, both of which are derived from Lillian Helman's play. The Hays code in the 30's forced the movie to dance around the lesbian subtext of the play. In this 1960's remake, the issue was more directly addressed.
Two women (Hepburn and Maclaine) run a boarding school for girls. Hepburn is engaged to a character played by James Garner. A sociopathic girl accuses the women of having a lesbian relationship, and their lives are ruined. Eventually the lie is found out, but everyone involved, including the accusers, is irrevocably harmed. In thinking about this type of situation today it is clear that the accusers would never have a sense of shame about ruining other people's lives. That sense of honor is the one big underlying motivation of this drama (really a very good melodrama) that is not contemporary.
The despair and horror about the lesbian accusation is spot-on for 1960 (and before); the country having just gone through the McCarthy/Reagan/Cohn witch-hunts, which focused on both ruining and in many cases imprisoning gay men and women and alleged Communists. Lillian Helman was blacklisted for being a communist. So I can see how this story must have still resonated for her, years after writing the original play. She is credited for the screen adaptation. The story is surprisingly still contemporary.
Today the religious right is actively pursuing these kinds of witch-hunts against gay men and women; and if you are raised in a family with these kinds of beliefs, the despair felt by such self realization can still literally be deadly.
A few years back children in the McMartin preschool in Los Angles were coaxed into making outrageous claims that a respected older woman and her entire family actively molested children, and ran a preschool for the purpose of supplying her allegedly pedophile son. The government spent fifteen million dollars "investigating" and a six year criminal trial of this family and its school; with each week for two years bringing forth increasingly bizarre and horrible charges about sexual satanism, etc. etc. The school was closed, the family was ruined and some members died, temporarily went to jail, etc. All accusations later turned out to be fabrications of the children which were planted by supposed experts, and prosecuted by district attorneys thrilled to get the chance to further their careers with press exposure at the expense of the innocent. The press smeared the McMartin family. Although any sane person could tell the stories were literally impossible to be true (for several reasons), the so-called experts said "Children this age don't lie," which is exactly the premise of the movie for destroying the lives of the characters played by Hepburn, Macclain, and Garner. Like this movie, in the McMartin case, the children as adults almost all recounted their accusations. The original accusation was made by a paranoid schizophrenic, who also alleged that the abuse included having an elephant injure her son and having a pair of scissors stuck in his eye (of which there was no physical proof). Her psychotic delusions were withheld from the defense. As in the movie, all of the individuals involved were financially ruined, became pariahs, were the subject of press libel (Oprah, Giraldo, etc. etc.), and the schools were closed (and literally leveled).
Although the times have changed a bit, this underlying premise of the movie is still spot-on. I was prepared to find the way the lesbianism was dealt with to be dated. It really was not, our president is behind efforts to rewrite the constitution to strip gay men and women of civil rights; and several states have recently passed laws to make it impossible for gay men and women to adopt children.
As the movie came to its conclusion, the various story lines and the impact on the characters had to come to a dramatic conclusion. Mostly this was done with catastrophic consequences which were still dramatically successful, although a bit melodramatic on first glance by today's attitudes towards being gay or lesbian. There is also an extremely strong messages of hope and empowerment in Hepburns character, which balances the negative somewhat.
However, thinking about some of the contemporary hysteria and prejudice (the MacMartin example and the writing new laws to prevent gay men and women from being around children); it is clear for a sizable part of our country, little has changed.
This movie was both dramatically outstanding, beautifully filmed, and ultimately surprisingly thought provoking and contemporary.
A winner.
Two women (Hepburn and Maclaine) run a boarding school for girls. Hepburn is engaged to a character played by James Garner. A sociopathic girl accuses the women of having a lesbian relationship, and their lives are ruined. Eventually the lie is found out, but everyone involved, including the accusers, is irrevocably harmed. In thinking about this type of situation today it is clear that the accusers would never have a sense of shame about ruining other people's lives. That sense of honor is the one big underlying motivation of this drama (really a very good melodrama) that is not contemporary.
The despair and horror about the lesbian accusation is spot-on for 1960 (and before); the country having just gone through the McCarthy/Reagan/Cohn witch-hunts, which focused on both ruining and in many cases imprisoning gay men and women and alleged Communists. Lillian Helman was blacklisted for being a communist. So I can see how this story must have still resonated for her, years after writing the original play. She is credited for the screen adaptation. The story is surprisingly still contemporary.
Today the religious right is actively pursuing these kinds of witch-hunts against gay men and women; and if you are raised in a family with these kinds of beliefs, the despair felt by such self realization can still literally be deadly.
A few years back children in the McMartin preschool in Los Angles were coaxed into making outrageous claims that a respected older woman and her entire family actively molested children, and ran a preschool for the purpose of supplying her allegedly pedophile son. The government spent fifteen million dollars "investigating" and a six year criminal trial of this family and its school; with each week for two years bringing forth increasingly bizarre and horrible charges about sexual satanism, etc. etc. The school was closed, the family was ruined and some members died, temporarily went to jail, etc. All accusations later turned out to be fabrications of the children which were planted by supposed experts, and prosecuted by district attorneys thrilled to get the chance to further their careers with press exposure at the expense of the innocent. The press smeared the McMartin family. Although any sane person could tell the stories were literally impossible to be true (for several reasons), the so-called experts said "Children this age don't lie," which is exactly the premise of the movie for destroying the lives of the characters played by Hepburn, Macclain, and Garner. Like this movie, in the McMartin case, the children as adults almost all recounted their accusations. The original accusation was made by a paranoid schizophrenic, who also alleged that the abuse included having an elephant injure her son and having a pair of scissors stuck in his eye (of which there was no physical proof). Her psychotic delusions were withheld from the defense. As in the movie, all of the individuals involved were financially ruined, became pariahs, were the subject of press libel (Oprah, Giraldo, etc. etc.), and the schools were closed (and literally leveled).
Although the times have changed a bit, this underlying premise of the movie is still spot-on. I was prepared to find the way the lesbianism was dealt with to be dated. It really was not, our president is behind efforts to rewrite the constitution to strip gay men and women of civil rights; and several states have recently passed laws to make it impossible for gay men and women to adopt children.
As the movie came to its conclusion, the various story lines and the impact on the characters had to come to a dramatic conclusion. Mostly this was done with catastrophic consequences which were still dramatically successful, although a bit melodramatic on first glance by today's attitudes towards being gay or lesbian. There is also an extremely strong messages of hope and empowerment in Hepburns character, which balances the negative somewhat.
However, thinking about some of the contemporary hysteria and prejudice (the MacMartin example and the writing new laws to prevent gay men and women from being around children); it is clear for a sizable part of our country, little has changed.
This movie was both dramatically outstanding, beautifully filmed, and ultimately surprisingly thought provoking and contemporary.
A winner.