THE LITTLE FOXES d: William Wyler
by Andre Soares
The Little Foxes (1941) 
Direction: William Wyler. Screenplay: Lillian Hellman, from her play. Cast: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, Teresa Wright, Richard Carlson, Dan Duryea, Patricia Collinge, Charles Dingle, Carl Benton Reid
THE HANDS THAT BILKED AMERICA
To not choose the revolutionary Citizen Kane as the best motion picture of 1941 is to commit a major cinematic sacrilege, punishable by myriad fates worse than death. Bravely — or perhaps madly — this reviewer dares to pick another film: William Wyler’s retelling of Lillian Hellman’s merciless take on American Family Values and Valuables, The Little Foxes.
The plot is deceptively simple: In a post-Civil War Southern town, Regina Giddens joins her two brothers, Ben and Oscar Hubbard in a scheme that should make them rich and powerful.
Within that framework, Hellman depicted not only a wide array of the most despicable elements of human nature, but also all the putrefying corpses that lie hidden in the closets and cellars of clean, respectable families, and in the sewers underneath the streets of prosperous, civilized nations.
Admittedly, the film version, which was produced by Samuel Goldwyn, had some sugar added to the plot in the form of a silly juvenile romance involving Teresa Wright (in her film debut) and Richard Carlson. Even so, The Little Foxes remains as potent an indictment against greed and powerlust as the original play, partly because Hellman herself penned the screenplay and partly because Goldwyn gathered a superb cast that, under Wyler’s unflinching hand, delivers an onslaught of mesmerizing performances.
Bette Davis, for instance, an actress hardly known for her underplaying, is a model of self-control as The Little Foxes‘ greedy Southern matriarch Regina Giddens.
Just like her unrepentant murderess Leslie Crosbie in the 1940 version of W. Somerset Maugham’s The Letter (also directed by Wyler), Davis’ Regina is a woman who knows what she wants and is out to get it — no matter the costs. In order to succeed, she must keep her emotions in check. In the process, her ruthless villainesses in both films won my respect and, gasp, even my admiration.
(Initially, it was suggested that Davis play both Regina Giddens and her daughter Alexandra, eventually played by Teresa Wright.)
Equally fascinating are fellow businesscrooks Charles Dingle and Carl Benton Reid, both perfect in their roles as Regina’s rapacious brothers, while Teresa Wright; Herbert Marshall, as Regina’s upright — but ailing — husband; and Patricia Collinge, as the long-suffering sister-in-law, miraculously hold their own against the film’s heavies.
But in all fairness, the villains are the true (anti-)heroes in The Little Foxes. They are the ones who propel the plot forward, and whose goal-oriented characters display steely strength and determination.
When Regina proudly asserts that it’s people like her and her kin that have made America (and that could easily be extended to cover every other country throughout history, for that matter), all one can do is resignedly nod in agreement.
DVD:
Region 1 DVD (U.S. / Canada / U.S. territories) release date: September 18, 2001
- Picture: Full screen
- Audio: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
- Language: English
- Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
- Black and White
- Closed captioned
List price: US$14.95.
An MGM release.
Notes:
Tallulah Bankhead played Regina Giddens on Broadway.
…
Academy Awards: 9 nominations (best film; best director, William Wyler; best actress, Bette Davis; best supporting actress, Teresa Wright and Patricia Collinge; best screenplay, Lillian Hellman; best editing, Daniel Mandell; best music - dramatic film, Meredith Willson; best black-and-white art direction, Stephen Goosson and Howard Bristol)
…
Lillian Hellman created for the stage an equally powerful prequel, Another Part of the Forest, which was filmed in 1948 at Universal. The film version, however, was considerably less well-regarded than The Little Foxes. Perhaps the problem lies in the fact that Hellman didn’t adapt her own work the second time around. Vladimir Pozner undertook that task.
The film version of Another Part of the Forest was directed by Michael Gordon, and starred Fredric March as the patriarch Marcus Hubbard, Ann Blyth as the young Regina, Dan Duryea as Oscar Hubbard (his father in The Little Foxes), Edmond O’Brien as Ben Hubbard, and Florence Eldridge (Fredric March’s wife and frequent stage partner) as the long-suffering matriarch Lavinia Hubbard. Betsy Blair played the young Birdie (Patricia Collinge in The Little Foxes).
Greer Garson starred in a 1956 made-for-TV version.
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This film proves that Bette Davis was the greatest actress of them all. THE GREATEST!!