Fantasy Film: Végzetes rágalom (The Children's Hour) DVD

Brand new! Factory packaged! As pictured! Buy with confidence!

Product Details:

• Product Type: DVD Video
• UPC: 5999546333381 
• Brand / Label: Fantasy Film / Hollywood Classics
• Director: William Wyler
• Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine, James Garner
• Release Year: 2009 (This DVD edition) / 1961 (Original film release)
• Genre: Drama
• Style: Classic Hollywood drama, psychological drama

Product Features

• Format: DVD-9, PAL, Region 2
• Discs: 1
• Total runtime: approx. 118 minutes
• Language / Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0, Hungarian Dolby Digital 2.0
• Subtitles: Hungarian
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen
• Condition: Factory Sealed / Gyári fóliázott

Overview

A single malicious rumor can burn down an entire life faster than fire. In William Wyler’s intense 1961 psychological drama The Children's Hour—released in Hungary under the striking title Végzetes rágalom—two dedicated headmistresses find their lives, reputations, and careers utterly dismantled overnight by the calculated lies of a vengeful student.

This film isn't a simple melodrama about small-town gossip; it is a heavy, clear-eyed examination of societal hypocrisy and the destructive weight of public judgment. Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine deliver career-defining, deeply interior performances as women trapped by an accusation they can neither fight nor escape. Wyler handles Lillian Hellman’s complex theatrical piece with unblinking precision, turning a quiet New England schoolhouse into a claustrophobic pressure cooker.

This single-disc release from Fantasy Film presents the black-and-white cinematic classic with its original English track alongside a vintage Hungarian dub. It remains a stark reminder of how easily a community can turn its back on its own when the truth is replaced by fear.

Interesting Facts

• The film is the second time director William Wyler adapted Lillian Hellman's controversial 1934 stage play The Children's Hour; his 1936 adaptation, These Three, was forced by Hays Code censorship to alter the central rumor into a standard heterosexual affair.
• Production marked the final collaboration between Audrey Hepburn and her favorite cinematographer, Franz Planer, who tragically passed away a few years later in 1963.
• Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine formed a deep, lifelong friendship during the shoot, famously making a running pact to teach Hepburn how to curse and MacLaine how to dress elegantly.
• Fay Bainter received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her poignant role as Mrs. Amelia Tilford, the grandmother who blindly believes the child's lie.
• Despite receiving five Academy Award nominations in total—including cinematography, costume design, and art direction—the film faced intense pushback from conservative contemporary critics due to its groundbreaking handling of underlying themes surrounding same-sex relationships.

Publishers

Released by Fantasy Film Kft. under license from Hollywood Classics / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Subtitles and audio localization managed by Fantasy Film.

Picked this classic up? Leave a short review—other film collectors will thank you.