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Summary: Child actress Bonita Granville
Comment: Bonita Granville did an absolutely excellent job playing the role of a 12 to 13 year old spoiled school girl who ruins the lives of three young adults by making up malicious lies about them.
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Summary: Amazing film for 1936
Comment: I just saw this movie for the first time and I was greatly impressed. I guess what impressed me the most was how the writer and director could cover such a topic so well back in 1936. I was informed that the play, by Lillian Hellman, had an even more notorious subject matter but this movie got the point across. The story, in brief, is that of two college graduate women who decide to open a girl's school in a small New England community. Early on in the movie we meet a doctor (Joel McCrea) who falls in love with one of the women. The other woman secretly loves him too but reveals this to no one. There comes a point when a set of circumstances and gossip enable one of the students to make false accusations about the three adults. A scandal breaks out and I'll leave it at that. The point of the movie, at least for me, was how lies, gossip and inuendos can destroy perfectly (or almost perfectly) innocent people. The point is well made in "These Three".
The acting is good and we can appreciate many subtleties in how the actors look and interact with one another. However, the best performances come from the devilish kids who create the scandal. I noticed two familiar actors whose names were not on the opening credits; Walter Brennan and Margaret Hamilton, both of who became far more famous that the stars.
The Hellman play, as I understand it, dealt with a lesbian relationship between the two women which was obviously too much for Hollywood in 1936. I understand it was this relationship that WAS used in the later movie "The Children's Hour" which was also based on the Hellman play. I haven't seen that movie but it certainly explains why I never saw it when I was growing up. (I heard of it and wondered, from the title, why I hadn't had the opportunity to see what I thought was a children's movie). Still, the suggestion of an immoral relationship involving one man and two women was risque enough. Having juvenile girls discussing these things was even more so. I noticed when "THE END" came on the screen there was a notation below that said "Approved by the National Film Board" or words to that effect. Maybe I never noticed that phrase in older movies before. I certainly noticed it on this one, though.
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Summary: Brilliant adaptation of Lillian Hellman's play
Comment: Although because of censorship problems, the screen adaptation of Hellman's play, couldn't be as faithful to the source, as the 1961 movie version, also directed by Wyler, anyhow this is an oustanding picture.This because all it's about is the effect of a malicious lie in a group of people's lives, and I must say that watching both versions the other day on TCM, this is superior to the 1961 remake.
The children's performances are outstanding, especially brattish and malevollous Bonita Granville...the three leads (Hopkins, Oberon and McCrea) are excellent too....and so are Catherine Doucet, as the unbearable aunt Lily and Alma Kruger as Granville's grandmother.
Once more we must thank producer Sam Goldwyn, for trying to raise the american cinema's level by producing such great and high quality pictures, like this one, "Dodsworth", "Wuthering Heights", et al.
A truly powerful movie.
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Summary: When Children are Liars
Comment: That's the crux of the matter in "These Three", a story of three innocent adults whose reputations are ruined by a vindictive girl. Merle Oberon and Miriam Hopkins open a girls' school on Merle's grandma's old farm, which they handily renovate with the help of nearby neighbor, doctor Joel McCrea. Though they at first start out three comrades, it doesn't take long before Joel and Merle pair off, leaving Miriam to carry a torch--silently--for the handsome doctor. Everything remains aboveboard, though, as Miriam is a true friend to Merle.A wealthy society matron decides to patronize the new school by sending her wayward granddaughter to be a pupil there; around the same time, Miriam's selfish old aunt swoops down to be an elocution teacher. Another little girl is at the school, too; a nicer girl, but one who has the misfortune to be caught by the bad girl stealing a bracelet. This is the bad chemistry set. When Miriam tries to give the useless aunt the brush off and send her to Europe, the angered older woman makes loud nasty insinuations that are overheard by the malcontent child, who then invents a wild story suggesting impropriety, and blackmails the thieving nice girl into corroborating the story, which is totally believed by the grandmother, who broadcasts it far and wide, causing the school to fold. The three innocents are forced to fight to clear their names against the word of a respected grand dame and two supposedly "innocent" children. Plenty of drama unfolds.
I was unimpressed when I first saw this years ago, but now having seen it again playing double feature at a revival hourse with another favorite movie of mine, I must alter my opinion. "These Three" is really quite a GOOD movie, with solid performances by all concerned. Merle and Miriam have each their strong points and Joel McCrea is a handsome hunk that anyone's best friend would pine for, too. The old grandmother brings an interesting dimension to the role, as she projects a woman truly believing herself to act for the good of children under the care of immoral persons. She's very effective. The real standouts, though, are the two little girls. Marcia Mae Jones is the little thief. This is the same girl who later appeared in the Shirley Temple movies, "Heidi" and "The Little Princess". The only other time I've seen her was in "Night Nurse", a pre-Code flick about Clark Gable's intention to murder the children of a hophead to gain control of her fortune (yeah, that's really the trashy plot of THAT one). She is the perfect foil to the evil girl, Bonita Granville. What an actress that kid is! I don't recall ever having seen her before or since, but that's everyone's loss. She brings more to her role than any of the adult stars--the venom she can display is truly frightening.
After you take in "These Three", I bet you'll wonder yourself about some of the little girls you know, as to whether they could ever be capable of the malicious lies spread in this movie--and who knows? Maybe they could!
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Summary: Telling Lies
Comment: Lilian Hellman's original story is watered down and made palatable to 1930's audiences in this tale of a mean little girl who ruins the lives of her teachers at the private school she attends. Merle Oberon and Miriam Hopkins are best friends and teachers at a school, and young Bonita Granville concludes that Hopkins has become involved with Oberon's boyfriend Joel McCrea. Granville has gotten herself into trouble, so she spreads the rumour to deflect her concerned grandmother's attention. Hopkins, Oberon, and McCrea are all fine, but it is Granville who takes the acting honours. She is vicious, mean, and completely believable and dislikeable as the young girl who needs a firm hand. Marcia Mae Jones as her weak accomplice, easily manipulated, is also convincing. The movie illustrates well how a lie can grow and damage the lives of those involved. The dialogue is terrific, and under director William Wyler's steady, dramatic hand, it moves along well.
