"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.
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.