The Little Foxes (1941)

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:

David Hewitt: [Listening to African-Americans singing] Well, white people may have the pianos, but the colored folks got the voices.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Gossip Girl: The Age of Dissonance (#2.18)" (2009)

Want to know what "greed" means?

One of the several masterpieces made by master William Wyler, and definetely one of the best movies of all times. As he did in The Letter, Mr. Wyler counted on Bette Davis and Herbert Marshall to play the leading roles in Little Foxes; and the choice worked out perfectly again.

I'm sure that some of the others reviewers will have written about the story of Little Foxes (greed, betrayal, hate... against honesty and loyalty), so I won't. I'll talk about some other things:

-Bette Davis: for me there're no more than 5 actresses which would deserve the title of "best actress ever": Katharine Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, Audrey Hepburn, Barbra Stanwyck, and of course Bette. She was the best playing evil women, heartless, unmerciful ones. And there's no doubt that the character of Reggina Gibbens gathers all those characteristics together. The performing of Bette Davis is memorable (as expected), and the way she says things such as "I don't hate you, I just feel contempt for you"... that are just like a punch in your face. There should be a picture of Mrs. Davis in the dictionaries next to that sentence that says "look that kills". Bette Davis was the look that killed.

-The Film: "Millimetric" it would be a nice word to define the script. Some of the dialogues of Little Foxes are part of the history of cinema, especially the ones between Reggina and her husband. The scene in which she watches him have a heartattack is simply devastating. There are lots of long shot-sequences that intensify the tension, and Wyler's sense of rhythm is something to be shown in Cinema School even nowadays (especially nowadays).

We got the Gioconda, the Basílica of San Pedro in Vatican, the Guernica... and we got movies such as The Little Foxes.

My rate: 10/10