In 1935, William Wyler made a film called The Gay Deception, a light comedy romance. These Three, made a year later, is another sort of “gay deception,” an adaptation by Lillian Hellman of her play, “The Children's Hour,” with the play's lesbian theme removed, courtesy the Hays Office. Miriam Hopkins and Merle Oberon nevertheless give extraordinary performances in the roles of two teachers whose lives are ruined by the malicious gossip of an upper-class brat, taken as truth by those eager to believe it. In this version, they are rumored to be in love with a male doctor (Joel McCrea). Wyler felt the script was hopelessly compromised (he remade the film with its original theme and title in 1962), but “approached the project keeping in mind what Miss Hellman tried to explain to Goldwyn - that the story is the struggle of three adults to sift out the single piece of truth from a fabric of lies, and did not matter whether its focus was on an ‘unnatural relationship'...or simply a romantic triangle” (A.H. Marill, “Samuel Goldwyn Presents”). Wyler's direction and Gregg Toland's photography emphasize the stability of the women, the viciousness of their assailants. “Despite the compromises forced on him, this is one of Wyler's most integrated and formally perfect films”--John Baxter, AFI (JB)