Davis is very good but Herbert Marshall is magnificent in this scene. He was one of the very few actors who could portray goodness, not an easy thing to specialise in, and his performance here is beautifully naturalistic.
@@piperita7557 Yes, so charming and so intense in "Murder". And so funny: When the landlady goes on and on about the Aspisdastra, while Marshall's trying to find facts to save the girl from the gallows, he says impatiently but ever so politely, "Yes, it's a fine plant. ..."
The always indomitable Bette Davis! My favorite scene...the hatred, the malice, the cruelty..all in her immobile face and eyes. No actress today can or would dare to do such a scene..
Bette and Herbert. Both absolutely superb. Neither need say a word to communicate but when they do they both have immaculate diction and phenomenal multi layered emotional expression. And all superbly handled by William Wyler.
For all the 'in your face' violence of modern films, hard to top this for 'spiritual horror'. Gene Tierney in Leave Her to Heaven as she lets her husbands young brother drown would be a close second .
This scene alone verifies the fact the Bette Davis was the best actress Hollywood has ever seen, and she has a few scenes better than this in that film.
Has there ever been such a malicious scene? Davis did her absolutely best acting under the direction of William Wyler (Jezebel, The Letter, The Little Foxes). With other directors, she sometimes went over the top, but with Wyler she got to the core essence of her characters.
Wyler also got her to stop relying on physical and vocal mannerisms and to go inward, letting the intensity come from stillness and concentration. He taught her the value of strength-through-silence. The rice flour makeup, which she designed herself, helped immensely in this regard, resembling an impassive mask. It gives a touch of Eugene O' Neill to the proceedings.
@@jasonhurd4379 The irony is Wyler is almost opposed to her changes of the character and the set. Too bad this is the last film they did together due to their fights.
@@genebijou3772 Indeed. Apparently Wyler fought with just about everyone. Olivier's account of the battles between Wyler on the one hand and himself and Merle Oberon on the other, on the set of Wuthering Heights, is appalling.
@@jasonhurd4379 Thanks for recommending me another film to watch. I was just working my way into old films after watching the infamous feud of Davis and Crawford.
@@genebijou3772 You've never seen Wuthering Heights? You are in for a real treat! The only other film I know of that mingles heartbreaking romance with dark, louring Romanticism so seductively is Portrait of Jennie. Olivier is absolutely magnificent, and Oberon is incandescent. Actually, for my money Wyler was the finest Hollywood director of all time. My favorite of his films is The Heiress, with Olivia de Havilland and Ralph Richardson. It is a powerful yet ambiguous story, with no clear-cut villains or good guys, just flawed human beings.
William Wyler is the best director ever. The Best Years of Our Lives and Ben-Hur. Enough said. Not to mention the fact that he brought out the best in every single actor he ever worked with. And it's not easy dealing with arrogant, pompous ass, condescending actors who think they are above everybody else. Wyler not only brought them down to earth but extracted their very best essence. He was the best. Period.... End of story.
She conveys perfectly what it must have been like to be a woman and depend utterly on marriage for sheer survival. Those whalebone corsets were painful enough to drive any woman to murder. Betty was first and foremost a feminist. Not a man-hating academic feminist, but a true feminist after true equality.
Bette was always a genius when it came ot being still. Same look on her face when she caught Joan Crawford on the telephone in what ever happened to Baby Jane
Bette wanted Tallulah Bankhead to reprise her role as Regina from the play, but Wyler wanted Bette. In the play, Regina is more of a victim, rather than cold and conniving.
I’ve always found the way that Bette Davis played it that Regina is a sympathetic character - she explained to Horace that there was no way she could get the things that she wanted. The money was left to her brothers. Marriage was the only way. And Horace disappointed her in that - I thought you would get me the moon. Then Horace has the audacity to say to her, “Why didn’t you divorce me?”
@@Jasper7182009Bette's Regina is just as avaricious as her brothers. Horace gave her a comfortable life, but she wanted grandeur. I don't find her sympathetic at all.
Bette was not afraid to tackle unpleasant characters. Like this. Or unpleasant looking. This makes her miles above glamour queens of her era and makes her modern.
from 1:50 onwards Bette Davis completely devastates in this film and immortalises herself as one of the best actors of all time just using her eyes. She doesn't say a word.
It was either George Arliss or Charles Laughton who once told Davis, "Never stop daring to hang yourself." She kept that advice close to heart, all of her professional life, never afraid to dare an audience to hate her, ready to sacrifice whatever degree of vanity to keep a characterization honest. Her best films are impervious to passing time.
@@davedvlaries7764 it was Charles Laughton (who had played Henry VIII) who said it to Davis on visiting the set of The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex where the young Davis was playing Elizabeth in her older years
When he drops and breaks the bottle of medicine, I never noticed it before but I do now. He says to Regina, “The other bottle, upstairs in my room.” He doesn’t ask her - it’s a directive to his wife. He never thought to ask her.
Gregg Toland's camera work in this scene (the entire film) is superb, specifically with near focus on Regina while Horace climbs the stairs in the background. Genius in his field and died way too young.
That was done to hide the fact that Herbert Marshall was an amputee and unable to climb stairs without a lot of difficulty. Notice how he goes out of frame briefly. That's when his double steps into the frame, climbs the stairs and collapses.
bete chose to keep her eyes wide open when she could have added dramatic effect by closing them as to "Pray for his death" and not be a part of it. a witness to a murder. yet her eyes wide open illustrated that she wanted to enjoy his demise to see his actual suffering. she never blinked once !
No one's ever freaked out by the fact that Miss Davis almost never blink in every movie she's ever made?! I'm such an absolute fan but it's starting to hurt me ^^
Isn’t hate and the contempt the same thing? Even thur this given to be Bettie Davis crowning performance I still wish we had some footage of Tallua Bankheads legendary turn from the stage play.
The cinematographer Gregg Toland was a master at deep focus photography. The foreground and background are in focus. James Wong Howe was another great cinematographer.
Society in general too. Marriage has lost its sacredness with people playing house, divorcing left, right and center. People are all turning gay, transgender or whatever it is. Nothing against them but why does it have to be so open? Same with sex and PDA. We are literally bombarded with sex, symbols, sexual identity. What happened to having moral ethics and believing that thinking too much about it is sinful? Movies are all CGI driven. I enjoy some of them but I literally haven't gone to a movie theatre, saw a trailer and thought, "Why this is extraordinary!"
@@acdragonrider You're a minority dear. The true 1-percenter. No will understand, let alone empathize, with what you've said. Depravity is the new culture. Quality isn't remotely as lucrative as cheap rubbish. Fast-food VS home cooked so to speak.
@acdragonrider Why did you have to turn it into that? People have always been gay they just had to hide it. Why shouldn't it be out in the open? Why should they have to live in shame just for love? The ironic part is many of these actors you love in old movies were gay and forced into fake "lavender" marriages to keep their careers. I agree with you about most of the movies of today though.
@@acdragonrider as much as I wish to live in that time period where I’d fit in mostly and die happy. All I can do is be better than this that the common man would lament over wishing for what I’d hope to become. That’s better because you can do something for yourself and that the deceased would applaud you for.
Miss Davis could perform any role...as seen in this scene she could make us genuinely despise her while at the same time admiring her for her stabbing honesty.
@@kboyer1 not considered box office. Davis at this point was the number one female at the box office. Wyler apparently wouldn't do the film without Davis
@@malmck1758 there's a reason why bankhead was hardly doing movies. not all actors can do well both in theathers and in films. she couldn't translate well in films as she would in theaters, so davis was the ultimate choice.
Ah, but at the end her own daughter tells HER the truth, right to her face, and she gets a taste of her own medicine. Regina Giddens is one of the vilest female characters in dramatic history, surpassed in cruelty and sadism only by Goneril and Regan in King Lear.
@@jasonhurd4379 I agree. Alexandra is the last person in her life who viewed Regina with even the least idealism, and that's gone by the final scene. ("Would you like to talk with me, Alexandra? Would you like to stay in my room tonight?" " _Why Mama, are you afraid_ ?"). Additionally, and for the rest of her life, Regina will have to keep her back to a wall when in the same room with her revenge-thirsty brothers, surely about to waste no time in undermining her, no matter where she moves to.
The Little Foxes was the best film of 1941. Yes, I'm aware Citizen Kane and HGWMV were out that year. Bette Davis and Herbert Marshall are giving an acting masterclass here. Combine that with William Wyler's impeccable direction, Hellmann's devastating script, and Gregg Toland's remarkable cinematography -- and you have a masterpiece. The entire cast of Foxes gave absolutely outstanding performances. The Little Foxes should've swept Best Picture, Director (Wyler), Actress (Davis), Actor (Marshall), Supporting Actress (Patricia Collinge), Supporting Actor (Dan Duryea), Adapted Screenplay (Hellman). I would give Cinematography, Editing, and Original Script to Kane.
When Horace says “You’ll wreck the country and your kind..” Mr. Trump’s ears must have been burning…. For a play written in the 1930’s, still VERY topical….
I’m on Regina’s side. She said she wanted Chicago. Her husband was a typical, controlling male. Listen to the pervasive voice of control throughout this scenario. It scrambles for domination. Nobody puts baby in a corner.
@Roger Rather you two hate reality. If a person let's their values be known and your ego doesn't allow you to accept that you can't FXCK away their interests you will end up detested that's your god damned problem. I have no pity for entitled men nor delusional women. You see it all the time, so-called "good" people playing victim to the wickedness they are attracted to. Simply because they can't accept rejection for what it is. They can't accept their loss and just go. They try to force it because they are control obsessed psychos.
There was no reason for them to question her. All they knew is that she found him on the stairs. She was a conniving, greedy, selfish bitch who was not going to stop at anything to get what she wanted---even if it meant killing Horace in the process. I was so proud of Alexandra in the final scenes when she basically told her Mother to go to hell and left home to be with David.
Bette's eyes Deserve an Oscar!I never get tired of this greatperformance
Davis is very good but Herbert Marshall is magnificent in this scene. He was one of the very few actors who could portray goodness, not an easy thing to specialise in, and his performance here is beautifully naturalistic.
Totally agreed
This was the first time I'd seen him--I was so impressed I went searching for his other roles.
I thought that it was Claude Rains was in this one!
I saw him the first time watching "Murder!" (Alfred Hitchcock, 1930). Very good actor... and handsome, too :)
@@piperita7557 Yes, so charming and so intense in "Murder". And so funny: When the landlady goes on and on about the Aspisdastra, while Marshall's trying to find facts to save the girl from the gallows, he says impatiently but ever so politely, "Yes, it's a fine plant. ..."
I also love the scene where she tells her brothers she knows Leo stole the bonds! It is delicious!!
The always indomitable Bette Davis! My favorite scene...the hatred, the malice, the cruelty..all in her immobile face and eyes. No actress today can or would dare to do such a scene..
They don't say "Bette Davis Eyes" for nothing! All we have today is mediocrity!
@@scorpioninblue Charlize Theron in Monster movie
I’m sure they’re are actresses who would dare I mean it has been on broadway 4 times since 1941
@@courtneywilliams5565 yeah, among them she had the best impression
She played the exact same scene in The Nanny where she allows one of her charges to die by not allowing her access to her medicine.
Bette and Herbert. Both absolutely superb. Neither need say a word to communicate but when they do they both have immaculate diction and phenomenal multi layered emotional expression. And all superbly handled by William Wyler.
She should've been a 5-time Oscar winner for this performance, All About Eve and Baby Jane.
This is one of those scenes that you never forget.
Davis looks so sinister when Herbert Marshall shadow crosses her face. Brilliant film making.
Not a blink, not a flinch! Moved at just the right time! The INCOMPARABLE BETTE DAVIS!
For all the 'in your face' violence of modern films, hard to top this for 'spiritual horror'. Gene Tierney in Leave Her to Heaven as she lets her husbands young brother drown would be a close second .
100% agree!!
Such disgusting cruelty from Regina! With a Kabuki face.
Love your remark!!
LMAO, at the Kabuki face remark, lol.
captures it perfectly
This scene alone verifies the fact the Bette Davis was the best actress Hollywood has ever seen, and she has a few scenes better than this in that film.
She played the exact same scene in The Nanny.
The greatest actress ... forever !!!❤
Has there ever been such a malicious scene? Davis did her absolutely best acting under the direction of William Wyler (Jezebel, The Letter, The Little Foxes). With other directors, she sometimes went over the top, but with Wyler she got to the core essence of her characters.
Wyler also got her to stop relying on physical and vocal mannerisms and to go inward, letting the intensity come from stillness and concentration. He taught her the value of strength-through-silence. The rice flour makeup, which she designed herself, helped immensely in this regard, resembling an impassive mask. It gives a touch of Eugene O' Neill to the proceedings.
@@jasonhurd4379 The irony is Wyler is almost opposed to her changes of the character and the set. Too bad this is the last film they did together due to their fights.
@@genebijou3772 Indeed. Apparently Wyler fought with just about everyone. Olivier's account of the battles between Wyler on the one hand and himself and Merle Oberon on the other, on the set of Wuthering Heights, is appalling.
@@jasonhurd4379 Thanks for recommending me another film to watch. I was just working my way into old films after watching the infamous feud of Davis and Crawford.
@@genebijou3772 You've never seen Wuthering Heights? You are in for a real treat! The only other film I know of that mingles heartbreaking romance with dark, louring Romanticism so seductively is Portrait of Jennie. Olivier is absolutely magnificent, and Oberon is incandescent. Actually, for my money Wyler was the finest Hollywood director of all time. My favorite of his films is The Heiress, with Olivia de Havilland and Ralph Richardson. It is a powerful yet ambiguous story, with no clear-cut villains or good guys, just flawed human beings.
Possibly the most chilling scene in any movie, any time.
In my opinion her greatest career performance. I love Ms. Bette Davis.
Bette Davis & Herbert Marshall - 2 of the greatest talents film has ever seen - and being directed by William Wyler doesn't exactly hurt!
Why no mention of Mrs. Teresa Wright?
William Wyler is the best director ever. The Best Years of Our Lives and Ben-Hur. Enough said. Not to mention the fact that he brought out the best in every single actor he ever worked with. And it's not easy dealing with arrogant, pompous ass, condescending actors who think they are above everybody else. Wyler not only brought them down to earth but extracted their very best essence. He was the best. Period.... End of story.
Hard to disagree.
"Why am I so good at playing bitches? I think it's because I'm not a bitch. Maybe that's why Miss Crawford always plays ladies."
She conveys perfectly what it must have been like to be a woman and depend utterly on marriage for sheer survival. Those whalebone corsets were painful enough to drive any woman to murder. Betty was first and foremost a feminist. Not a man-hating academic feminist, but a true feminist after true equality.
Robert Englund (AKA Freddy Krueger) summed this up pretty well as "an Alfred Hitchcock scene in a William Wyler movie" lol
One of Davis's finest performances: she was directed by Wyler and was theatrical in the best sense of the word.
This is what they mean when they sing about Bette Davis Eyes.
Bette was always a genius when it came ot being still. Same look on her face when she caught Joan Crawford on the telephone in what ever happened to Baby Jane
Bette wanted Tallulah Bankhead to reprise her role as Regina from the play, but Wyler wanted Bette. In the play, Regina is more of a victim, rather than cold and conniving.
I’ve always found the way that Bette Davis played it that Regina is a sympathetic character - she explained to Horace that there was no way she could get the things that she wanted. The money was left to her brothers. Marriage was the only way. And Horace disappointed her in that - I thought you would get me the moon.
Then Horace has the audacity to say to her, “Why didn’t you divorce me?”
@@Jasper7182009Bette's Regina is just as avaricious as her brothers. Horace gave her a comfortable life, but she wanted grandeur. I don't find her sympathetic at all.
Bette was not afraid to tackle unpleasant characters. Like this. Or unpleasant looking. This makes her miles above glamour queens of her era and makes her modern.
2:07 This is what Aristotle calls "recognition" in Greek tragedy--those faces!!
from 1:50 onwards Bette Davis completely devastates in this film and immortalises herself as one of the best actors of all time just using her eyes. She doesn't say a word.
It was either George Arliss or Charles Laughton who once told Davis, "Never stop daring to hang yourself." She kept that advice close to heart, all of her professional life, never afraid to dare an audience to hate her, ready to sacrifice whatever degree of vanity to keep a characterization honest. Her best films are impervious to passing time.
@@davedvlaries7764 it was Charles Laughton (who had played Henry VIII) who said it to Davis on visiting the set of The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex where the young Davis was playing Elizabeth in her older years
Do it Bette!!!! A REAL ACTRESS!!!! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏🖒🖒🖒🖒🖒
When he drops and breaks the bottle of medicine, I never noticed it before but I do now. He says to Regina, “The other bottle, upstairs in my room.”
He doesn’t ask her - it’s a directive to his wife. He never thought to ask her.
she's got Bette Davis eyes
Porraaaaa, todo arrepiado com a atuação da deusa Bette Davis
Gregg Toland's camera work in this scene (the entire film) is superb, specifically with near focus on Regina while Horace climbs the stairs in the background. Genius in his field and died way too young.
That was done to hide the fact that Herbert Marshall was an amputee and unable to climb stairs without a lot of difficulty. Notice how he goes out of frame briefly. That's when his double steps into the frame, climbs the stairs and collapses.
Poor Herbert Marshall....first Bette puts him through the wringer in The Letter and then THIS.
@2:54, them eyes!
bete chose to keep her eyes wide open when she could have added dramatic effect by closing them as to "Pray for his death" and not be a part of it. a witness to a murder. yet her eyes wide open illustrated that she wanted to enjoy his demise to see his actual suffering. she never blinked once !
show the whole movie!!
No one's ever freaked out by the fact that Miss Davis almost never blink in every movie she's ever made?! I'm such an absolute fan but it's starting to hurt me ^^
Can't imagine June Allyson in this role.
When you look up Bette Davis Hollywood treated her so bad but in the end she turned out to be a legend
Isn’t hate and the contempt the same thing? Even thur this given to be Bettie Davis crowning performance I still wish we had some footage of Tallua Bankheads legendary turn from the stage play.
Herbert Marshall's half-dead in all his roles, anyway. A heart attack here appears redundant.
Cold ,cold, woman.
How did they got that shot in 1:20
The cinematographer Gregg Toland was a master at deep focus photography. The foreground and background are in focus. James Wong Howe was another great cinematographer.
The American spirit, 2018.
Katharine Hepburn almost played this role I sometimes wonder how she would’ve have played this scene
Katherine Hepburn couldn't really do evil. Just overacted attempts at evil. Bette Davis could do EEEvil.
@@childwaters we don’t know that she didn’t really get that much opportunity to do evil
That was not Marshall going up the stairs cause he had a wooden leg
Yes. There's a moment where the struggling Marshall fell out of camera range, or the camera cut to Davis, and his place was taken by a double.
You can't top these old movies. So much talent and skill these actors had! Today's films are just sex scenes, cursing and blowing something up.
Society in general too.
Marriage has lost its sacredness with people playing house, divorcing left, right and center.
People are all turning gay, transgender or whatever it is. Nothing against them but why does it have to be so open? Same with sex and PDA. We are literally bombarded with sex, symbols, sexual identity. What happened to having moral ethics and believing that thinking too much about it is sinful?
Movies are all CGI driven. I enjoy some of them but I literally haven't gone to a movie theatre, saw a trailer and thought, "Why this is extraordinary!"
@@acdragonrider You're a minority dear. The true 1-percenter. No will understand, let alone empathize, with what you've said. Depravity is the new culture. Quality isn't remotely as lucrative as cheap rubbish. Fast-food VS home cooked so to speak.
@acdragonrider Why did you have to turn it into that? People have always been gay they just had to hide it. Why shouldn't it be out in the open? Why should they have to live in shame just for love? The ironic part is many of these actors you love in old movies were gay and forced into fake "lavender" marriages to keep their careers. I agree with you about most of the movies of today though.
@@acdragonrider I loved Parasite.
@@acdragonrider as much as I wish to live in that time period where I’d fit in mostly and die happy. All I can do is be better than this that the common man would lament over wishing for what I’d hope to become. That’s better because you can do something for yourself and that the deceased would applaud you for.
Bette Davis makes brutal honesty and cruelty look so easy with her performance.
Miss Davis could perform any role...as seen in this scene she could make us genuinely despise her while at the same time admiring her for her stabbing honesty.
She was an incredible genius: no doubt about it
Didn't hurt to have Lillian Hellman's writing
I think one of her best films. Stunning performances from all though.
Originally starred Talullah Bankhead on Broadway. I can’t even imagine how incredible she was. Bette was the only other choice for the film.
Why didn't they use bankhead for the film I wonder
@@kboyer1 not considered box office. Davis at this point was the number one female at the box office. Wyler apparently wouldn't do the film without Davis
@@malmck1758 there's a reason why bankhead was hardly doing movies. not all actors can do well both in theathers and in films. she couldn't translate well in films as she would in theaters, so davis was the ultimate choice.
She tells the truth ! Most people in the world don't want to hear the truth
Ah, but at the end her own daughter tells HER the truth, right to her face, and she gets a taste of her own medicine. Regina Giddens is one of the vilest female characters in dramatic history, surpassed in cruelty and sadism only by Goneril and Regan in King Lear.
@@jasonhurd4379 I agree. Alexandra is the last person in her life who viewed Regina with even the least idealism, and that's gone by the final scene. ("Would you like to talk with me, Alexandra? Would you like to stay in my room tonight?" " _Why Mama, are you afraid_ ?"). Additionally, and for the rest of her life, Regina will have to keep her back to a wall when in the same room with her revenge-thirsty brothers, surely about to waste no time in undermining her, no matter where she moves to.
Venom, control, and eyes that speak.
Omg she was incredible!
The Little Foxes was the best film of 1941. Yes, I'm aware Citizen Kane and HGWMV were out that year. Bette Davis and Herbert Marshall are giving an acting masterclass here. Combine that with William Wyler's impeccable direction, Hellmann's devastating script, and Gregg Toland's remarkable cinematography -- and you have a masterpiece. The entire cast of Foxes gave absolutely outstanding performances.
The Little Foxes should've swept Best Picture, Director (Wyler), Actress (Davis), Actor (Marshall), Supporting Actress (Patricia Collinge), Supporting Actor (Dan Duryea), Adapted Screenplay (Hellman). I would give Cinematography, Editing, and Original Script to Kane.
ISSO É CINEMA!
When Horace says “You’ll wreck the country and your kind..” Mr. Trump’s ears must have been burning…. For a play written in the 1930’s, still VERY topical….
Uh, The Biden administration has ruined the country. Our ship is going down, and you and your kind may not like where you find yourselves.
Each Lillian Hellman play and movie is shocking and portrayed very well.
Regina is the only likeable character in this movie. Everyone else is annoying, particularly the daughter.
Bette Davis eyes :)
I don't see what's so special about her physically? My eyes are on Teresa Wright though.
SOOOOOOOOOOOOO
GREAT !
Behold! The first Karen ever to grace the earth.
I am so glad I watched this such a classic
I’m on Regina’s side. She said she wanted Chicago. Her husband was a typical, controlling male. Listen to the pervasive voice of control throughout this scenario. It scrambles for domination.
Nobody puts baby in a corner.
@Catwoman Animated She obviously hates control and order.
@Roger Rather you two hate reality. If a person let's their values be known and your ego doesn't allow you to accept that you can't FXCK away their interests you will end up detested that's your god damned problem.
I have no pity for entitled men nor delusional women.
You see it all the time, so-called "good" people playing victim to the wickedness they are attracted to. Simply because they can't accept rejection for what it is. They can't accept their loss and just go. They try to force it because they are control obsessed psychos.
Was she faking her concern at the end when she called the servants?
Of course
There was no reason for them to question her. All they knew is that she found him on the stairs. She was a conniving, greedy, selfish bitch who was not going to stop at anything to get what she wanted---even if it meant killing Horace in the process. I was so proud of Alexandra in the final scenes when she basically told her Mother to go to hell and left home to be with David.
Allusion in the title says it all . . ."the little foxes that spoil the grapes."