The Little Foxes (1941)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

William Wyler

Writers:

Lillian Hellman (play)
Lillian Hellman (screenplay)

Release Date:

21 August 1941 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

...the film version of the stage hit, as the ruthless beauty whose ambition spelt the doom of three men

Plot:

The ruthless, moneyed Hubbard clan lives in, and poisons, their part of the deep South at the turn of the 20th century.

Plot Keywords:

Death Of Husband | Matriarch | Servant | Bond | Alcoholic Mother

Awards:

Nominated for 9 Oscars.

Cast

Bette Davis	...	Regina Giddens
Herbert Marshall	...	Horace Giddens
Teresa Wright	...	Alexandra Giddens
Richard Carlson	...	David Hewitt
Dan Duryea	...	Leo Hubbard
Patricia Collinge	...	Birdie Hubbard
Charles Dingle	...	Ben Hubbard
Carl Benton Reid	...	Oscar Hubbard
Jessica Grayson	...	Addie (as Jessie Grayson)
John Marriott	...	Cal
Russell Hicks	...	William Marshall
Lucien Littlefield	...	Sam Manders
Virginia Brissac	...	Mrs. Lucy Hewitt
Terry Nibert	...	Julia Jordan
Henry 'Hot Shot' Thomas	...	Harold

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

Southern California, California, USA

Company:

Samuel Goldwyn Company, The

Trivia:

According to Samuel Goldwyn Jr., the reason Jack L. Warner loaned Bette Davis to RKO for this movie was to settle a $300,000 gambling debt Warner had with Samuel Goldwyn. It has been said that all of the studio moguls (Jack L. Warner, Samuel Goldwyn, Harry Cohn, Louis B. Mayer, Darryl F. Zanuck and Carl Laemmle) would gather and play cards after work, after having "stabbed each other in the back" during the day.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the final scene, just before Alexandra leaves Regina, in the shot when Regina climbs the stairs, and asks Zan if she would "like to sleep in her room tonight", we see a chair in the background (which earlier in the scene, Regina had sat in). The chair seat is empty. Two shots later, when Alexandra collects her hat and coat to leave, they have suddenly appeared on the chair.

Quotes:

Regina Giddens: How much more time can you give me?
Ben Hubbard: Horace has refused.
Regina Giddens: He'll change his mind. I'll find a way to make him. How much longer can you wait?
Ben Hubbard: Well, I could wait a few days, but I can't wait a few days. I could, but I can't. Could and can't.
[laughs]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in A Decade Under the Influence (2003)

1941 Bette Davis is Lillian Hellman's Shrewd Protagonist (2001 DVD)

Superb playwright, Lillian Hellman (1905-84) wrote this screenplay for "The Little Foxes," saying that she "wrote her 'angry comedy' based on her own family's biannual dinner at which people drew lots for a diamond that had been left in her great-grandmother's estate." Hellman's first play for Samuel Goldwyn was "The Children's Hour." She was in lover with & influenced by author & screenplay writer, Dashiel Hammett. This later became a hit book, script & film based upon a 19th century case of two girls' school mistresses whose reputations were ruined when one of their pupils accused them of lesbianism. Hellman was not afraid to be controversial or write about the unspeakable truths of the day.

After a poor showing of Hellman's "Days to Come" in 1936, about labor struggles in an Ohio town, Hellman said she "was so scared {that she} wrote "Little Foxes, 1939, nine times." This is the script that made her reputation as a playwright famous. (Jane Fonda plays Lillian Hellman in the movie "Julia" a true story about her best friend, played by Vanessa Redgrave; Jason Robards plays Dashiel).

"The Little Foxes" is a vivid portrayal of sibling rivalry, Southern plantation slavery & most of all, greed in the Hubbard family of Alabama. The story takes place at the turn of the 19th-20th century, in the deep South of Alabama where the Hubbard siblings are involved in their own brand of a power-hungry uncivil war. Who better to play the reigning schemer Regina than Bette Davis, the Hubbard sibling who commands ownership of a cotton mill that exploits slaves while yielding millions of dollars on their bent backs? Davis gives another Oscar worthy performance, leading a near perfect cast through a major screen achievement that is a page in US history.

The DVD is almost 2 hours long & in black and white, with English, French & Spanish subtitles. The story is a bone chilling indictment of Alabaman slave plantation white corruption & greed.

No one should ever say that Lillian Hellman wasn't a controversial & highly political playwright! The film is not rated probably because anyone could watch it. Though I imagine it would bore little children since the play's basic themes are quite complex for adults.