Audrey Hepburn in a threesome

The movie that gives us the interesting idea of Audrey Hepburn as part of a threesome is The Children's Hour, airing at 2:00 PM ET on February 19.

Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine star as a pair of long-term friends from college who are now running a tony school for young girls. The school is struggling financially, so Hepburn's doctor friend, James Garner, has put off getting engaged with her. Also due to the financial problems, MacLaine's aunt (played by Miriam Hopkins) is living with them and helping out at the school. This arrangement isn't comfortable for any of them, but it seems as though everybody is getting along, with the school finally about to turn a profit, allowing for Garner to propose to Hepburn.

Unfortunately, that's all about to change thanks to the young girls. The students here are just as catty, gossipy, and back-stabbing as grown-up women are, and when one of them can't get her way for some reason, she tells her grandmother (Fay Bainter) a shocking secret. At first, we're not told what this secret is, but it results in Bainter removing her granddaughter from the school, followed by the parents of the other students removing their kids from the school in dribs and drabs, until there are no students left.

As for that secret? Apparently, Hepburn and MacLaine were involved in some sort of lesbian relationship, although for a long time we're not told what that allegedly entailed. The girl, of course, saw nothing incriminating; she's just making crap up. But she's still able to blackmail everybody around her into corroborating her story, leading Hepburn and MacLaine to lose a slander suit against Bainter. (Garner is also blackballed for standing by the side of his fiancée and her colleague; it's at this point we get the interesting threesome as Garner suggests the three of them go away somewhere.)

I won't give away the rest of the plot, except to say that it's an interesting movie with a disappointing ending. Hepburn is an actress who couldn't look like somebody would stereotype her as a lesbian, but she tries her best. It's easy to see from this performance that she was a fine actress, but that this part wasn't well-suited for her. James Garner was better suited to lighter stuff, but he too tries his hardest. The two older women are quite good. Bainter received an Oscar nomination, while Miriam Hopkins seems to be reprising the role of the domineering older relative that she had played in The Mating Season a decade earlier. It also provides for some comic relief.

The best performance is given by MacLaine. She's helped by the fact that she's given a haircut and make-up job that makes her look like the butch lesbian stereotype, minus the Birkenstocks. Hers is the tougher role since she's got the overbearing aunt and is about to lose a friend without gaining anything in return, and she pulls it off as well as one can. Here, that means good but not great.

All in all, The Children's Hour is an interesting movie that tries hard, but can't quite overcome being a product of its time. If you're a fan especially of Audrey Hepburn, but also of any of the other cast members, it's well worth watching. It is also available on DVD.