How did The Children's Hour differ from William Wyler's earlier film These Three?

William Wyler’s 1961 film The Children's Hour differed from his 1936 adaptation, These Three, primarily in its fidelity to the original plot of Lillian Hellman’s play.12

When Wyler directed These Three, the strictures of the Production Code—which enforced moral standards in the film industry—forced him to alter the central conflict. Consequently, the accusations of lesbianism present in the source material were replaced with allegations of an immoral heterosexual relationship.2

By the time Wyler remade the film in 1961 as The Children's Hour, he was in a position to restore the original elements of Hellman’s plot that had previously been censored. This version explicitly centered on the teachers being accused by a student of having a lesbian affair.1