The Little Foxes

Black and white, 35 mm
USA, 1941, 114 min
Section: Tribute to William Wyler

Synopsis

“He hated the way I looked, spoke, moved, delivered my lines, my false eyelashes – everything else about my performance. Nothing escaped his scathing tongue. I was a nervous wreck. My favourite and most admired director was fighting me every inch of the way. I just didn’t want to continue,” recalled Bette Davis of the shooting of The Little Foxes, her last collaboration with William Wyler, in which obstinacy had come to prevail over what was once a natural meeting of minds. The cause of their wrangling was the interpretation of the main character, Regina, the portrayal of whom Davis conscientiously analogized with the expressive performance of theatre performer Tallulah Bankhead. Wyler however did not envisage Regina as a greedy woman feeling wronged by a life of unfulfilment, but as a glamorous and cynically conniving character. Though the film might not have come about in an atmosphere of harmonious consensus, in the end The Little Foxes turned into a work of art that makes a striking example of an aesthetic tendency towards depth of field and long shots. The theme was a play by Lillian Hellman set in a provincial town at the turn of the 20th century. For the enterprising Hubbard family, financial gain takes precedence over everything, even if attained through deceit, which also makes their relationships with one another heartlessly callous. Regina even assists in the death of her own husband to attain her goals. Sergei Eisenstein called the scene where two men communicate through their images in mirrors to be “a work of genius”.