In 1931 the noted Scots Criminologist, William Roughead, published a volume of his great essays on famous crimes entitled BAD COMPANIONS. One of the essays was called "The Great Drumshleugh Case". Set in Edinburgh in 1811 it told the story of two women running a school for society girls in the Scots capital, and how a malicious little girl spread a rumor that ruined them and the school. The little brat told everyone that the two women were secret lovers. The book was read by Lillian Hellman, who took the story and fashioned the story of her play, THE CHILDREN'S HOUR from it, only changing it to America and putting a man (a doctor) into the picture as the third part of the "triangle" in the child's lie.
There have been two film versions of the story: this 1936 version (with Merle Oberon, Miriam Hopkins, and Joel McCrae) where the two women are made into heterosexuals, and a 1962 version (with Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine, and James Garner) where MacLaine admits that she did love Hepburn but commits suicide. The later version is closer to the Hellman play. In the play there is no "comeuppence scene", where the little brat gets hers. However, the scene where Margaret Hamilton slaps Bonita Granville is justifiably among the most satisfying "comeuppence scenes" in Hollywood film (ranking up there with George Sanders tearing into the lies of Anne Baxter in ALL ABOUT EVE). Indeed, the slap Ms Hamilton administers to Ms Granville makes up for anything the wicked Witch of the West tried to do to Dorothy Gail in THE WIZARD OF OZ.
Although Mr. Roughead's essay is a good place to start one's study into the background of the incident (which, in 1811 was a possibly deadly one to be involved in - that same year, in England, two male homosexuals were executed for sodomy), a full length study was published in 1983 - SCOTCH VERDICT by Lillian Faderman. Ms Faderman does not excuse the young girl from her malicious attack, but she does produce some evidence that the two ladies may have been having an affair, and she shows that the young girl herself would end up being victimized by the publicity. The girl, Jane Cumming, was an illegitimate granddaughter to Lady Cumming Gordon, and her birth did not endear her to the grandmother or her family. Despised for that reason her attitude of defiance and dislike (leading to lashing out against her teachers) is partly understandable. But Jane Pirrie, one of the two teachers, brought a series of expensive legal actions against the grandmother, which ended in displaying ALL the dirty linen (including Jane Cumming's birth). As a result, when Lady Cumming Gordon finished paying the expenses (she lost the final case) Jane was even more disliked than before, and banished from contact with the family. Not a happy result at all.
There have been two film versions of the story: this 1936 version (with Merle Oberon, Miriam Hopkins, and Joel McCrae) where the two women are made into heterosexuals, and a 1962 version (with Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine, and James Garner) where MacLaine admits that she did love Hepburn but commits suicide. The later version is closer to the Hellman play. In the play there is no "comeuppence scene", where the little brat gets hers. However, the scene where Margaret Hamilton slaps Bonita Granville is justifiably among the most satisfying "comeuppence scenes" in Hollywood film (ranking up there with George Sanders tearing into the lies of Anne Baxter in ALL ABOUT EVE). Indeed, the slap Ms Hamilton administers to Ms Granville makes up for anything the wicked Witch of the West tried to do to Dorothy Gail in THE WIZARD OF OZ.
Although Mr. Roughead's essay is a good place to start one's study into the background of the incident (which, in 1811 was a possibly deadly one to be involved in - that same year, in England, two male homosexuals were executed for sodomy), a full length study was published in 1983 - SCOTCH VERDICT by Lillian Faderman. Ms Faderman does not excuse the young girl from her malicious attack, but she does produce some evidence that the two ladies may have been having an affair, and she shows that the young girl herself would end up being victimized by the publicity. The girl, Jane Cumming, was an illegitimate granddaughter to Lady Cumming Gordon, and her birth did not endear her to the grandmother or her family. Despised for that reason her attitude of defiance and dislike (leading to lashing out against her teachers) is partly understandable. But Jane Pirrie, one of the two teachers, brought a series of expensive legal actions against the grandmother, which ended in displaying ALL the dirty linen (including Jane Cumming's birth). As a result, when Lady Cumming Gordon finished paying the expenses (she lost the final case) Jane was even more disliked than before, and banished from contact with the family. Not a happy result at all.