The Little Foxes

Plot synopsis:
The play's focus is Southerner Regina Hubbard Giddens, who struggles for wealth and freedom within the confines of an early 20th-century society where fathers considered only sons as their legal heirs. As a result of this practice, while her two avaricious brothers Benjamin and Oscar have wielded the family inheritance into two independently substantial fortunes, she's had to rely upon her manipulation of her cautious, timid, browbeaten husband, Horace. He's no businessman, just her financial support; although he's pliable enough for her ambition, that ambition has driven him into becoming merely the sickly, wheelchair-bound tool of her insatiable greed.
Her brother Oscar married Birdie, his much-maligned alcoholic wife, solely to acquire her family's plantation and cotton fields. Oscar now wants to join forces with his brother, Benjamin, to construct a cotton mill. They need an additional $75,000 and approach Regina, asking her to invest in the project. Oscar initially proposes marriage between his son Leo and Regina's daughter Alexandra—first cousins—as a means of getting Horace's money, but Horace and Alexandra are repulsed by the suggestion. Horace refuses when Regina asks him outright for the money, so Leo, a bank teller, is pressured into stealing Horace's railroad bonds from the bank's safe deposit box.
Horace, after discovering this, tells Regina he is going to change his will in favor of their daughter, and also will claim he gave Leo the bonds as a loan, thereby cutting Regina out of the deal completely. When he suffers a heart attack during this chat, she makes no effort to help him. He dies within hours, without anyone knowing his plan and before changing his will. This leaves Regina free to blackmail her brothers by threatening to report Leo's theft unless they give her 75% ownership in the cotton mill (it is, in Regina's mind, a fair exchange for the stolen bonds). The price Regina ultimately pays for her evil deeds is the loss of her daughter Alexandra's love and respect. Regina's actions cause Alexandra to finally understand the importance of not idly watching people do evil. She tells Regina she will not watch her be "one who eats the earth," and abandons her. Having let her husband die, alienated her brothers, and driven away her only child, Regina is left wealthy but completely alone.

Tags: murder, melodrama

Review:
Bette Davis stars as Regina Giddens in this film version of Lillian Hellman's smash hit play (which starred Tallulah Bankhead).
Great performances here from Davis, Herbert Marshall, Teresa Wright, Richard Carlson, Charles Dingle, Patricia Collinge, Dan Duryea, Jessie Grayson, and Carl Benton Reid.
Wyler wanted Davis to portray Regina with a more sympathetic "hot house" flavour, but Bette was adamant that the character was a witch in spades: the resulting performance is striking.
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.
Regina Giddens (Bette Davis), née Hubbard, is married with Horace Giddens (Herbert Marshall), who is a good man that is interned in a hospital in Baltimore due to a heart condition.
Regina's brothers are the exploitative Ben Hubbard (Charles Dingle), who is single, and Oscar Hubbard (Carl Benton Reid), who is married with the wounded Birdie (Patricia Collinge), and they have a son, the scum Leo (Dan Duryea) that works in a bank.
What will Horace and Alexandra do?"The Little Foxes" is a movie directed by William Wyler and based on a play that shows a Southern family of snakes in the turn of the Twentieth Century.
Regina (Bette) and her covetous brothers made the biblical passage "the love of money is the root of all evil" come to life.The Little Foxes is an apt name.
As animals Regina, Horace and Oscar not only would tear others to pieces to get what they want; they would eventually turn on each other to gain satisfaction.The performance of Herbert Marshall made me immediately search for his other movies to view; I've not been disappointed.
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.
(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.
Carl Benton Reid played the other greedy Hubbard brother, "Oscar" and Dan Duryea was interesting as Oscar's dumb son, 'Leo."Herbert Marshall was good, too, as Regina's husband "Horace." He was an honest, principled man and thus, the black sheep in that household.
Each building upon the next, gaining speed until it culminates in a cinematic masterpiece, and the expression "Betty Davis Eyes" is born!Not having seen the entire movie until recently, I knew about the "staircase" scene, and everyone knows which one I'm referring to, my heart raced as I kept waiting for it to happen.
Bette Davis sinks her teeth into the role of icy bitch Regina Giddens with such relish that you can practically hear her sighing with satisfaction at getting away from the noble sufferer roles that had so recently made her famous in films like "Jezebel" and "Dark Victory." She's monstrous here as the frigid wife of Herbert Marshall, waiting impatiently for him to die so that she can get her talons on his inheritance.
The cast could hardly be improved upon, with the great Bette Davis taking center stage with a role that has her in her element, Herbert Marshall in a role ideal for him, and the supporting roles filled by talented performers who are themselves, in most cases, very well-cast.The script, likewise, is a well-conceived and well-paced adaptation of the Lillian Hellman play.
Superb, brooding Southern family melodrama about tension between greed and integrity, revolving around coming-of-age Alexandra Giddens (Teresa Wright), torn between corrupt, cruel and manipulative mother (Davis) and honest, loving, but infirm father (Marshall).
As you might expect, everyone herein is marvelous, dominated by the best of Bette Davis (as Regina Hubbard Giddens), whose backstage war with director William Wyler and the suits resulted in a great characterization that lifted all.********** The Little Foxes (8/20/41) William Wyler ~ Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, Teresa Wright, Patricia Collinge.
Wyler extracts excellent performances from the entire cast, including Marshall, Dingle, Carlson, Grayson, and three making their film debuts: Wright, Duryea, and Collinge.
Another deep-cutting performance emanates from another wonderful actress from the era, Teresa Wright, playing Bette's daughter, whirring with inner emotion and love and equally capable of an inimitable quiet disavowed resistance due to her character's obligation to marry her first cousin, the ever-sniveling Dan Duryea, as a means of Dingle getting her father's money!This is an early effort by the great director William Wyler, who adapts the righteous and noteworthy Lillian Hellmann's somber play into a film in and of itself, employing fascinating visual descriptions and subterranean language without ever intruding.
The Little Foxes is near perfection from the the casting of Bette Davis and especially Patricia Collinge to the sets,cinematography and direction.
In this film, good direction and a tight script contribute to one of Ms. Davis' best performances with superb acting from the rest of the cast as well..
That's for the supporting goodies and the baddies?Since the wretched characters of Regina's brothers are not worth analyzing, the performances by Charles Dingle and Carl Benton Reid need a special attention, particularly in the scenes dominated yet generously led by Bette Davis.
It's an A team effort throughout, what with William Wyler's direction, Gregg Toland's deep-focus yet subtle photography, music by Meredith Willson, of all people, and much of the original Broadway cast, most notably an unforgettable Patricia Collinge (watch her big scene and marvel at the craftsmanship, both in front of and behind the camera).
They are a family of trades people, poor white trash in those halcyon years in the South before the Civil War. When the war laid the genteel planter class low, these are the people who prospered and became what was euphemistically entitled 'the new South.' They're a tough and ruthless family, but they are survivors though the next generation shows little promise because Dan Duryea who is the son of Reid and Patricia Collinge is an idiot and Teresa Wright, the daughter of Davis and Herbert Marshall will be rejecting the values of the previous Hubbard generation.I don't think Lillian Hellman's Marxist leanings were ever more prominently on display in her writing as in The Little Foxes.
Like most Marxists of the day, especially American Marxists, they sat and waited for the great come and get it revolution like fervent Pentacostals waiting for the Judgement Day. Wright in fact wishes for a society where people like her mother and uncles don't run things.Sadly and this is the weakness of The Little Foxes is that Hellman drew her characters too well.
I don't want to say more, as it could ruin the film.The bottom line is that this movie taken from the Lillian Hellman play is exquisitely written with marvelous characters, great plot twists and savagery within a family that make them seem more like a family of badgers than human beings!
Working basically on a one set, the movie doesn't feel claustrophobic."The Little Foxes" was based on a Lillian Hellman's play that was popular on the Broadway stage.
The film version was cleverly adapted to the screen where the magnificent production is seen in glorious detail thanks to the director and the cast that was assembled.Bette Davis was born to play Regina Giddens.
Bette Davis is Regina Giddens, one of "The Little Foxes" in this adaptation of Lillian Hellman's play directed by William Wyler.
The beautifully directed, acted, and photographed film is a magnificent adaptation and a great example of Bette Davis in her prime, working with her best director.
In William Wyler's adaptation of Lillian Hellman's great American drama, Davis plays Regina Giddens, a shrewd, manipulative woman who is willing to go to any lengths whatsoever to achieve her goal.
In this case, it's outwitting her brothers in order to be able to control the family's cotton mill (the story takes place in the south at the turn of the century mind you)--- even if it means sacrificing the health of her already ailing husband, Horace or the love of her young daughter Alexandra.
The coldness that Davis gives her character is admirable, but since she does not show any warmth or human side it becomes a bit of a two dimensional performance, not nearly as impressive as the acting by Wright or Herbert Marshall as her estranged husband.The lack of humanity in the greedy siblings is a bit problematic (they seem almost unrealistic) as is the fact that Wright's passage through life is more fascinating than the siblings' business deals since she is playing a more likable character than any of them - but overall, it is quite compelling stuff.
"Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes." That prayer was the basis of Lillian Hellman's critically-acclaimed 1939 play "The Little Foxes"; adapted two years later by Samuel Goldwyn.Tallulah Bankhead didn't reprise her role as Regina Giddens as she was replaced by MGM figurehead: Bette Davis.
Birdie is the broken soul of the film and a sad collateral damage of the Hubbards' ambitious.Of course, we're left with some hope for the mankind through Regina's husband Horace (Herbert Marshall) and the most tender of all the grapes: Teresa Wright as Alexandra, the soulful arc of the film.
By the end, when she grasps the extent of her family's vileness and realizes she was the white sheep all along, a choice is given to her: either following the path of Birdie or to stop idly watching foxes taking the grapes.Patricia Collinge was nominated for an Oscar and so was Teresa Wright whose naturalness was so impressive for a film debut.
This script has too much opining and whining, not enough really tough observation.The best saved for last: Bette Davis cuts through all of Lillian Hellman's sentimental hokum with a beautifully vicious performance as Regina, with a great supporting turn from Charles Dingle as Ben, the one man who enjoys finagling others out of their money..
Wyler shows a very deep understanding of the script, human emotions, and the power of greed as opposed to love.The script, by Lilian Hellman, has some of the best, most concise dialogue of any movie ever made.Davis puts in an immaculate performance, sounding threatening without shrieking, a rare event in a career often punctuated by near-hysterical displays.Marshall, a superb actor, is unforgettable, each facial movement conveying myriad significance.I rate THE LITTLE FOXES a masterpiece, among the best 50 films ever made..
And any production involving Donald Trump will teach you more about greed.If you are going to make a film in which virtually every character is unlikeable and evil (except Teresa Wright, whom I normally adore, but who is sachharine here and all too obvious as a plot foil and decency relief), then at least make them interestingly evil.Yeah, I know -- there is the famous scene where Bette Davis as Regina does something naughty regarding her husband, Horace, played by the long-suffering Herbert Marshall (who was also her husband in the much more interesting "The Letter.") But, you know, that famous scene has been replayed in so many retrospectives, documentaries, and Davis salutes -- I think I've seen it a few times without ever seeing this whole movie -- that it has lost its punch.And Bette Davis had been to the "I'm an evil woman" well too many times at this point, and Herbert Marshall had played long-suffering husband to so many divas he could have phoned in his long suffering-ness.So, even in that Mount-Rushmore-famous scene, there is nothing that surprises or piques one's interest.
These little foxes, who spoil the grape vines, are an amusingly contemptible lot, though Bette Davis' Oscar-nominated lead performance was said not to be a shadow of Tallulah Bankhead's work on Broadway (in which Bankhead portrayed Regina as a victim of circumstance rather than as a ruthless matriarch).
Bette Davis as still another southern belle in the memorable "The Little Foxes."Bette was at her brutal best as scheming, vicious Regina Gittens who wants status and wealth at any cost.Herbert Marshall portrays her banker husband.
Unforgettable and unforgivable that she sat there with her lip drooping and a mean expression depicted like Madame De Farge at an execution, as Marshall's life slipped away.Bette was nominated for an Academy award along with Patricia Collinge, memorable as the unhappy alcoholic Aunt Birdie as well as Teresa Wright, who as Alexandra Gittens, was the antithesis of Regina in every respect.With her husband dead and the ability to checkmate her brothers, Regina seems to have it all only to lose it when Alexandra, suspicious of her father's death, tells her off and runs away with her beau portrayed by a young Richard Carlson.Note how Bette's beauty fades as the picture ends.
The Little Foxes is superlatively directed by Wyler, his use of the camera is relentless, he keeps the drama taut and does such a great job engrossing the audience into the story and its atmosphere to the extent it's like being there.Incredibly powerful writing, with razor sharp and chillingly vicious dialogue, and a story that's paced smoothly, darkly cruel, acutely dramatic without being melodramatic or ham-fisted but still entertaining and very compelling in its realism are also great assets, and there are scenes that stay with you for a long time like Regina and Alexandra's climactic scene on the staircase, the interaction between the characters and especially Horace's death scene (and that was mostly because of some chilling acting from Davis).
The characters are interesting and well-written if mostly unsympathetic apart from Alexandra, David and Horace, and like the story compellingly realistic.Herbert Marshall is on excellent form, bringing poignant tragedy to the role, while Patricia Collinge is heart-breaking, Teresa Wright is radiant and touching with a touch of feisty spirit in her later scenes and Richard Carlson makes for a sympathetic boyfriend.
Best of all is the towering portrayal by Bette Davis, playing one of the most monstrous characters of her career along with Whatever Happened to Baby Jane and The Anniversary, even her appearance is enough to give you the creeps.Only the somewhat abrupt and not quite resolved enough ending isn't so good, other than that The Little Foxes is an excellent film, that while not among Wyler's best it does deserve to be seen more.
I remembered this as an excellent movie with a brilliant performance by Bette Davis.To my surprise, on watching it a second time, ten years after the first, it seemed turgid, stagy, and even more predictable than the play.
Film-making at its best is what describes THE LITTLE FOXES, directed by William Wyler, shot by Gregg Toland -- he of deep focus fame -- adapted from a Lillian Hellman play and with Bette Davis playing a ruthless matriarch with a velvet glove.How far can greed take a person?
His and Wyler's direction allow for every minute detail in Davis' top-notch performance to come through: the chilling scene with her sitting in the sofa, looking dead ahead, as her husband crawls to his death up the stairs, is one of remarkable power -- more so due to its restraint of emotion, as is the final scene when she watches Alexandra leave and retreats from the windows into shadows.There's an interesting similarity in this film and Ingmar Bergman's CRIES AND WHISPERS.
It diminishes Alexandra's character somewhat, makes her weak, but I think also it's the choice Teresa Wright took when applying herself to this role; plus, it was her first film appearance against none other than Bette Davis in full command of Who she was.
And, later on, in the movie, big brother Ben (Charles Dingle) reminds Regina (Bette Davis) to smile as "mama always said a good looking woman should never frown".
His performance here is reminiscent of the work he did as Bette's weak husband in THE LETTER--but the scene where she denies him his medicine is as brilliantly played and filmed as any scene in the entire film.TERESA WRIGHT is a bit sugary as the sweet daughter but rises to the final moments--although I thought her last confrontation with her mother could have been even more harsh than Wyler permitted it to be.
Dan Duryea is convincing as the dumb Leo and Richard Carlson does nicely as Wright's boyfriend who realizes that she has a lot of learning to do about the household before she grows up.Most chilling aspect of the whole film is Bette Davis' towering performance as Regina--perhaps the most realistic of all of her "bad" roles.But for an even more powerful study of greed, I suggest you watch TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE..
Synopsis: In the South, circa 1900, Regina Giddens, (Bette Davis), and her two scheming brothers, Ben, (Charles Dingle), and Oscar, (Carl Benton Reid), are working on a "get-rich-quick" scheme and all they need is about $75,000 from Regina's ailing husband, Horace Giddens, (Herbert Marshall), to make it happen.
All that said, it is the performances of Bette Davis, Teresa Wright and Patricia Collinge, as the heartbreaking Aunt Birdie, that make this film soar.
Let me introduce you to Regina, played by Bette Davis, scheming and badgering her sick and invalid husband, Horace (Herbert Marshall) to get her hands on $75,000.
It's a wonderful, if sickening, scene with inspired direction by William Wyler.Teresa Wright plays Regina and Horace's innocent daughter, Alexandra, a work in progress.
Bette Davis gives an incredible performance as Regina Giddons in William Wyler's "The Little Foxes.
Herbert Marshall's character Horace, was the one who stands out the most in terms of performance, and feels like he made the most lasting impression, even though he doesn't come in for quite some time in the film.
William Wyler's excellent film version of Lillian Hellman's play stars Bette Davis as Regina, a southern belle way past her prime who'll do pretty much anything to stay wealthy.