The Children's Hour (1961)

What is so impressive on page or stage can come across very different in movie form. Here, Shirley MacLaine and Audrey Hepburn turn in performances that would be much more impressive in a theater than they are on screen. With the cameras inches away from their faces, it's hard to take their contorted facial expressions quite as seriously, and every aspect of the films walks a very, very thin line between serious storytelling and campy melodrama. The script remains impressive, and Hepburn and MacLaine are talented actresses... This was just too awkward a medium in which to tell this story. Disappointing. 2.5 stars.