glmoritz Review of These Three

These Three (1936)

So Much Better Than "The Children's Hour"

[8/10 · 4 August 2005]

I have seen "The Children's Hour" with Shirley MacLaine, Audrey Hepburn and James Garner a couple of times, and I realize that it is truer to the original play and had a definite shock value in 1961. But "These Three" is far more engaging. Miriam Hopkins (generally not one of my favorites), Merle Oberon and McCrae are far more appealing and the performances of Bonita Granville and Marcia Mae Jones are among the best child performances I've ever seen. Granville, who was also good as Bette Davis' thoughtless niece in "Now, Voyager" a few years later, makes a better young villainess than Patricia McCormack in "The Bad Seed."