Changed for the times


In the original play, the "unspoken secret" was that Brick and Skipper had been lovers, or had they? In the late 50's when it came to the screen, it had to be changed to if Maggie and Skipper had slept together or it wouldn't get past the censors. Same thing with The Children's Hour made into These Three in 1933. They had to change Lillian Hellman's love of one woman for another woman to one woman's love of the other's boyfriend, in other words, both women straight. When it came to screen in 1960, name changed back to "The Children's Hour" and restored the homosexual angle, one woman secretly in love with another woman. Pretty daring for the time. COAHTR had just come out the previous year with the gay angle changed and completely eliminated.

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I don't think that really hurt the movie though. It worked just as well for me with Maggie possibly having slept with Skipper as it would have had it been Brick, maybe even better because it brought doubt in his wife into question, which adds another dramatic dynamic to the story.

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