The Little Foxes (DVD, 2001)

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." This hit script and film was based upon a 19th century case of two girls' school mistresses whose reputations were ruined when their pupils accused them of lesbianism.

After a poor showing of Hellman's "Days to Come" in 1936, about labor struggles in an Ohio town, Hellman said she "was so scared [that she] wrote "Little Foxes, 1939, nine times." This is one script that made her famous. (The other is "The Children's Hour).

"The Little Foxes" is a vivid portrayal of sibling rivalry, Southern plantation slavery, and greed in the Hubbard family of Alabama. The story takes place at the turn of the 19th-20th century, in the deep South of Alabama where the Hubbard siblings are involved in their own brand of a power-hungry civil war. Who better to play the reigning schemer Regina than Bette Davis, the Hubbard sibling who commands ownership of a cotton mill that exploits slaves while yielding millions of dollars on their bent backs? Davis is the Oscar winner alright, leading a near perfect cast through a major screen achievement.

The DVD is almost 2 hours long and in black and white, with English, French, and Spanish subtitles. It is a bone chilling indictment of Alabaman slave plantation white corruption and greed.

No one should ever say that Lillian Hellman wasn't a controversial and political playwright! The film is not rated probably because anyone could watch it. Though I imagine it would bore little children since the play's basic themes are quite complexly adult (but not in a R Rated sense at all).

Bette Davis plays Southern matriarch Regina Hubbard Giddens at the turn of the 19th Century, whose two brothers Oscar and Benjamin try to swindle her sickly husband Horace played by Herbert Marshall out of some bonds to make an investment in a Chicago cotton mill. But guess what? Regina finds out and turns the tables on them. However, Regina is not a heroine in this movie because she as well as her two brothers are all about money. She is as vicious as they are.

In a subplot, Regina and Horace have a wonderful daughter Alexandra played by Teresa Wright, who becomes a major player in the movie. Alexandra adores her father and is heartbroken when he dies. She does not hate her mother, but they do not have a good relationship.

Other relatives are also supporting actors in the movie. Dan Duryea plays Teresa's cousin, Leo, whom some of the relatives want them to marry. There are black servants and neighbor-relatives, who also contribute to the dialogue.

So why is this movie called The Little Foxes? It is a quotation from the Bible, where all the little foxes snarl at each other as they try to eat up all the grapes. How appropriate!

This movie is a good movie, but not Bette's best. However, it IS Lillian Helman's most famous play. She based it on her own family.