The Little Foxes (1941) (3rd time?)

It shows a post-Civil War southern community where nothing is more important than money and power to Regina Giddens. [imdb]

Nominated for 9 Oscars:

Best Picture
Best Director: William Wyler
Best Actress: Bette Davis
Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Collinge
Best Supporting Actress: Teresa Wright
Best Writing, Screenplay
Best Music, Scoring
Best Editing
Best Art Direction

I was so desperate to see this film for the first time years ago, that I actually saw it dubbed in Spanish :)) How lame was that. Of course, I understood 75% of it, but even so. I love Bette Davis in this, it's a character truly worth her persona - maybe the best character she's ever played, next to Margo Channing of course. Bette plays Regina Giddens (in Romanian, and it other languages as well I'm sure, regina means Queen; so what could be more adequate than this) and despite limited screentime (it's an ensemble film), she delivers one of her best performances.

The movie itself is quite good, stagy due to the theatre background, but effective in many ways. It's not much of a complicated story, it just allows the actors to shine. They're all GREAT, wonderful performances all around. Patricia Collinge is good as a victim of the family, Herbert Marshall is great as Regina's weak husband, but next to Bette (LOVE LOVE LOVE) I was quite impressed with Teresa Wright's performance. She plays the innocent daughter and what a wonderful fresh full of energy performance does she deliver is her debut role. This Oscar loss definitely forced voters to reward her the following year for Mrs. Miniver (where she wasn't half as good as here).

My rating for the film: 8.5/10. It's a film that every Oscar fan should see and a must for a Bette Davis admirer.


***EDITED March 30, 2014***: Just wanted to add I've seen it again for the other blog and LOVED IT. I am updating  the rating to 8.5/10. Great film.