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. This later became a hit book, script & film based upon a 19th century case of two girls' school mistresses whose reputations were ruined when one of their pupils accused them of lesbianism. Hellman was not afraid to be controversial or write about the unspeakable truths of the day.
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 the script that made her reputation as a playwright famous. (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. 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 uncivil 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 gives another Oscar worthy performance, leading a near perfect cast through a major screen achievement that is a page in US history.
The DVD is almost 2 hours long & in black and white, with English, French & Spanish subtitles. The story is a bone chilling indictment of Alabaman slave plantation white corruption & greed.
No one should ever say that Lillian Hellman wasn't a controversial & highly 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 complex for adults.
