The Little Foxes

In 1900 a wealthy Southern family hatches a plan to bring a Chicago industrialist to invest in new cotton mills in their hometown. Regina Hubbard Giddens, sharp and calculating, sees a chance to reshape the family fortunes through control of the mills and the power that comes with them. She teams up with her husband Horace and her brother Leo to press the deal, playing one side against the other and using money, favors, and fear to move pieces on the board. The negotiations unfold in smoke filled parlors and sunlit offices, exposing how ambition corrodes loyalty and humanity. The plan is meticulous, but the forces behind it are not easily contained, and the costs of success weigh on everyone involved. The choices threaten to ruin them all.

Released in 1941, The Little Foxes was directed by William Wyler. It is adapted from Lillian Hellman's stage play with a screenplay by Hellman and Niven Busch, produced by Samuel Goldwyn, bringing Hellman's sharp social drama to the screen.

The film is widely regarded as a searing examination of greed and power within a Southern family, anchored by Bette Davis's commanding turn as Regina. Its title has entered the cultural lexicon as shorthand for ruthless scheming that damages every vulnerable person around it and lingers in classic film discussions.

Critics praised Wyler's tight direction and the crisp, bitter dialogue that exposes how wealth and status corrode integrity. The film's themes of family loyalty, gendered ambition, and ethical compromise play out in a high stakes social theater that remains relevant to debates about power and corruption across generations today too.

Box office figures from the era are not widely cited; The Little Foxes was a prestige project for Samuel Goldwyn and earned strong attention from critics and audiences for its stage to screen adaptation. That reception helped cement Wyler's reputation.