The Little Foxes (1941)

Overrated and overhyped

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

If ever a more insidious, arrogant, pathetic set of siblings came into the world of fiction it would be hard to beat the Hubbard family in William Wyler's "The Little Foxes." Their greed knows no bounds. Their hearts know no love. In reality they have nothing but each other and it's a sad end to it all.It is also a movie of reactions. I found myself watching the rest of the cast when someone was speaking. How did they react? Herbert Marshall (Horace) as Regina's (Davis) husband has plenty to react to. Whether it is coming to a home where there is no love or listening to the plans of his family's greed he is wonderful in showing his annoyance and disgust. His only light is his daughter Alexandra (Teresa Wright.) Everyone on the fringe of this triad from hell is poisoned by their greed. Whether it is brother Oscar's wife Birdy, a sweet and lonely soul who softens her life with a drink or their own son Leo (Dan Duryea) who is so the product of the family that his mother can't stand him. Nobody wins. Until the last. The one who does win is, oddly enough, Alexandra. When all the back stabbing and wheeling and dealing is over she is the only one who can stand up to Regina. That is only because she wants nothing that her mother can give her. On the night her father dies she leaves her mother and is free of it all. She is the only one free of it all.Very good performances all around. The only drawback for me is Teresa Wright. She is playing a part that seems to be quite a bit younger then she is. She parades around the whole movie with a big bow in her hair and a pair of Buster Brown shoes. Duryea is good as the young not very bright son. Near the end when he gets slapped by Alexandra's young man it is given more like a man to an insolent child. It is not one good one but a quick series of slaps that ring more of disgust than anger.They all had it coming.

Lillian Hellman may or may not have been an actual member of the Communist Party, but she was definitely a sympathizer, and did not criticize Stalinism when other leftists did. However, the events in the play were reportedly based on events in Hellman's own family.The title comes from a Bible verse mentioned in the movie about "little foxes" (probably a mistranslation) threatening tender grapevines, and the story itself is about three siblings of a wealthy Southern family who contrive to become even richer by building a cotton mill in the town, paying their workers poorly while reaping all the profits. One brother owns the local bank, which he runs with his dense son, another brother has married a woman solely to gain ownership of her cotton fields, and Regina, the sister, has married a sickly man who is away being treated for heart troubles. Trouble is, time is running short and everyone's funds are required to ensure that the deal goes through- and besides that, Regina's husband must be home before his money can be accessed, so Regina details her daughter to bring her father home on the train.But further troubles develop when Regina decides she wants a bigger share than the third originally offered to her, and furthermore, when the husband makes it home, he refuses to go along with the plan. Can the brothers find another way to get the money-illegally- and get away with it? The story grows in unpleasantness as the ill intentions of all the siblings are brought out, and the daughter comes to learn just how terrible things in her family have been.Good performances by all involved carry the initially-confusing story through, though the end is too ambiguous. What is Regina thinking when we she her face in the final frame? It can only be guessed.

In 1900, in the Southern town of Linnet, the notorious Hubbard family is hated by the residents since they explore the poor and the black people in their business. 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. They are estranged and they have a daughter, the naive Alexandra Giddens (Teresa Wright) that has a crush on the local David Hewitt (Richard Carlson) but she is controlled by her merciless mother. 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. Oscar and Regina have made arrangements to marry Leo with Alexandra. When Ben and Oscar invite the wealthy businessman William Marshall (Russell Hicks) to come to Linnet to build a mill to improve their business and pay low wages to the locals, they need US$ 75,000.00 from Regina. She manipulates Alexandra to bring Horace back home to convince him to lend the money. However, Horace does not accept the business and Leo steals his railroad bonds from the safe in the bank to invest in the business with Marshall, expecting to return the money without Horace noticing. Bur Horace goes to the bank and finds the embezzlement. 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. The unpleasant story is supported by magnificent performances and had nine nominations to the Oscar. Bette Davis and William Wyler had relationship problems along the production and they never worked together again. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Pérfida" ("Perfidy")

The only thing that I really liked about this film was Bette Davis. Her acting was amazing which is not really surprising. She was very good at playing an evil woman. Other than that though I just did not like this movie. The majority of the time I was very bored. In part I think the bored came from the confusion because I had absolutely no idea what was going on. The entire plot of the film was just overly complicated. There was way too much going on between all the characters, and none of them were even likable. I felt no connection to any of the characters. I didn't want to root for any of them and I did not feel bad for any of them. I'm not sure if the acting was to blame or if the writing was to blame but either way I still didn't like it.