The Little Foxes (Wyler, 1941)

The Little Foxes (Wyler, 1941) - TSPDT #921

A ruthless wife tries to get her withering husband to participate in a business venture.

The film was quite amazing as the characters were chiseled out quite strongly. Especially Bette Davis performance stands out and was a feast to watch. At the very end it is quite remarkable how she underplays the way she is washed away by her insight that she has lost something quite else. There is talk that there was a lot of tension between Wyler and Davis on how she took the character into an outright evil direction, but I'm glad that she did.
It is interesting to observe how the brothers, although in some ways clichéd pushed the story along very strongly. Worth for studying the structure and character development.

The direction seems to owe a lot to the stage, maybe they didn't have enough time to set up more elaborate sets. But the camera did work with a lot of depth, interesting close-ups with far back action.

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