The Little Foxes

A great film about greed, power and loneliness. Davis is astonishingly superb and one of the greatest villians of all time in this surprising subtle performance.

Starts off rather dull but as it continues it starts to show its rather pointed critique of the old south in particular and greed in general, turning into a pretty gripping study of personalities. It's not perfect but there are a lot of great performances which make the flaws easy to overlook.

Bette Davis is magnificent, but the film needs something more to elevate it to the filthy greed infested masterpiece it tries to be. The other characters doesn't come out in full blossom, which creates a weird mix subtleness and exaggeration. Several scenes are amazing, other times the story is simply bland. But one thing is sure. Bette Davis is not bland. She deserves her status as one of the greats, even if this is a poor showcase for everybody else.

A movie that has a lot to say but takes far too long to say it

I'm not sure why this was nominated for nine Academy Awards, but it makes sense to me that it didn't win any of them.

Goodness, Wyler's way of situating his actors is so good, I almost feel like you could cut all the dialogue and we would still know exactly what was going on in these relationships. But, of course, without the dialogue, we'd miss half the fun, Davis' icy Regina Giddens the standout here.

At around the halfway mark, it’s become pretty enjoyable. But even though it purports a sort of “underdog championing” sort of pro-black activism at the time as a core message, the black characters are still played up in what seems like a pretty racist caricature. Other than that, Davis & Horus are fairly interesting, sympathetic characters & the film has some cute moments. It does that classic 1940s trick of making you watch the whole bland movie then summarizing didactically with a pithy line.

Could imagine this being even better on stage. As a film, the stationary nature of how the plot unravels feels tedious at times despite great acting and a strong script.

Bette Davis as a money-grubbing curmudgeon. Most of the drama involves money. Has its issues, but generally a pretty good movie.

It is a bit too long to hold my interest 100% of the time, but overall it was a very nice bit of good ol' family scheming. It's also very nice to look at, with the mansion coming alive with the shadows and secrets it holds. If it hadn't taken so long to say what it needed to say, it would have had more impact, but I'm ready to watch Bette Davis being a cold-hearted ice queen some more, any time.

It's a beautiful looking film. Wyler, as always, constructs magnificent images and Gregg Toland is on hand to shoot them in rich, deep focus black and white.

The opening paints a picture of the genteel south, and then the story unfolds into a tale of greed and exploitation. "The Little Foxes" is well-made, with great acting, and enjoyable to watch.

91.00

Wyler, Davis et al. make the most the most of an excellent script by Lillian Hellman that explores the intersections of class and gender in early 20th century USA.. How does capitalism reinforce gender and racial hierarchy? Is it possible to fight the patriarchy while still reinforcing capitalist structures of oppression? Find out this week on the Bette Davis hour! Seriously, though, it's a really all-around well-made and thoughtful film that deserves a place among the classic Hollywood canon.

Although it feels a bit confusing and meandering in the first act, eventually it coalesces into a web of tense conflicts. Perhaps there isn't much grey area between the good and the evil, but the strong performances make the characters feel genuine enough. Bette Davis is a force of nature, of course, but I also really liked Marshall, Dingle, Reid, Carlson, and especially Collinge. If you can slog through the beginning, it's a worthwhile study of greed with some noir-ish tones.

Icy Bette Davis performance. Although it is very theatrical, it still moves like a movie should.

The best direction William Wyler has ever done, and what a career to be on the top of. So much talent put into this movie on all fronts.

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# 887