The Little Foxes

In this magnificent adaptation of the Lillian Hellman Broadway hit, an Oscar-nominated Bette Davis – who is so good when she’s being bad – is gloriously in her element as the scheming, ruthless Regina Giddens.  A powerful Southern matriarch, Regina will stop at nothing to get what she wants, and what she wants is to get rich from a cotton mill.  But first, she and her scheming brothers, Oscar and Ben, must tap into the wealth of Regina’s sickly husband, Horace (Herbert Marshall), by attempting to marry Regina’s daughter Alexandra (Teresa Wright) to Oscar’s son Leon (Dan Duryea).   When that plan fails, their schemes devolve into theft and blackmail, driving an irreparable wedge between family members.  But Regina still has a few tricks up her sleeve, and if anyone tries to stand in her way, they must be prepared to suffer the consequences.  The final collaboration between Davis and her director/lover William Wyler (following their hits Jezebel and The Letter) garnered 9 Oscar nominations and remains an electrifying screen version of an American classic.   (Dir. by William Wyler, 1941, USA, 115 mins., Not Rated)