Touches You

Just perfect...

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Watching Another Part Of The Forest tonight I was struck at how well Vladimir Pozner captured the characters of the young Hubbards. the subject of Lillian Hellman's classic The Little Foxes. If I didn't know better and maybe I don't Pozner might have had Hellman looking over his shoulder during the writing of the script.It all begins with old Marcus Hubbard played by Fredric March, patriarch of the Hubbard clan who made his fortune running the Yankee blockade during the Civil War and then charging exorbitant prices for the goods he brought in. He's not a beloved man by his neighbors in 1880 Alabama, but March has a terrible secret that if the good people knew he'd be lynched on the spot.The Hubbards are rich and despised and March's children take right after the old man. Dan Duryea who played idiot nephew Leo in The Little Foxes plays Oscar Hubbard and Edmond O'Brien plays Ben who is a real chip off the old block. It's March and O'Brien and their conflict which drives the whole film. Scheming herself is young Regina Hubbard played by Ann Blyth a few years older than when she played the spoiled Veta in Mildred Pierce. She's as spoiled as Veta, but a lot craftier. She plays on daddy's affections which border on incest to the hilt. O'Brien keeps trying to match her up with young Horace Giddens who is never seen here, but was played by Herbert Marshall in The Little Foxes. We know that eventually happens, but right now Blyth is looking to trade up in respectability and marry young John Bagtry, scion of an old plantation family and Confederate veteran.Bagtry is played by John Dall and he maybe respectable, but he's totally living in the past. As is sister Birdie played with a flair by Betsy Blair. We see the genesis of the character that Patricia Collinge plays in The Little Foxes who marries Oscar Hubbard and then just pines for the good old days of gracious living and people being kind to each other.March however dominates things, in some ways he's admirable because he wants class and respectability. He's taught himself Latin and Greek and is disappointed his kids have no pretensions to culture though Blyth plays on him with pretending. But all that culture and all that money can't get him into the best homes and the second generation doesn't even care to try.Another Part Of The Forest is a real classic with great performances all around by a fabulous cast. The spirit of Lillian Hellman's earlier work is only enhanced by this film.

Lillian Hellman, wrote her dramatic masterpiece, THE LITTLE FOXES, in 1940. It is about Regina Hubbard, her brothers Ben and Oscar, her husband Horace Giddens and daughter Alexandra, and Oscar's wife Birdy and son Leo, and how the entire Hubbard clan (except for the husband and daughter and Oscar's sad misused wife) are corrupt. The first play shows how Regina manages to allow her husband to die so that she can end up richer and more powerful (out of a questionable business deal) than her two brothers who are her partners in it. On stage it was a great dramatic triumph for Tallulah Bankhead. In 1941 it was an equally affective film directed by William Wyler, and starring Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, Theresa Wright, Charles Dingle, Carl Benton Reid, Dan Duryea, Richard Carlson, and Patricia Collinge.A few years later, Ms Hellman decided to return to the story of the Hubbards, but this time with a "prequel": How did this wealthy southern family turn out to be so rotten? ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST goes back to 1880 (THE LITTLE FOXES actually is set about 1905). Marcus Hubbard (Frederic March) was what used to be called "poor white trash" (another example of this type is the slave overseer turned carpetbagger Victor Jory in GONE WITH THE WIND). He is not a polished Southern Gentleman, but an opportunistic snake who lives and breaths to snatch his fortune in the potentially rich South. But along comes that unpleasantness of 1861 - 1865, and Marcus does not consider it his war - why should it be, he's been too poor to fight for the right to own slaves? Instead, he makes a small fortune buying and selling commodities that are in short supply or are considered contraband. In particular salt. Using the money, and the corresponding collapse of various gentleman's estates due to the reverses of the war, Marcus becomes a post-Civil War landowner. All of this has made him also the most hated man in the state.His oldest son Ben (Dingle in the other movie - here Edmond O'Brien) is his clerk (not chief clerk, but clerk) in his store in town. Ben is treated as a clerk (and a poorly paid one at that). Ben is close to his mother Lavinia (Florence Eldridge), who was married to Marcus for financial reasons by her father, and whom Marcus considers (with some reason) simple minded (actually she is the most honest member of the bunch). Marcus' second son Oscar (Reid in the other movie - here Dan Duryea) is a sullen sort, except he has joined the K.K.K. (but is dumb enough to be the only one who's identifiable), and he is romancing a local "actress" at the town's dance hall (Laurette Sincee - played by Donna Drake). Marcus favors his daughter, Regina (Ann Blythe), who realizes he likes her and thinks she can manipulate him. To an extent she can - but there is a point he refuses to be manipulated. You see, she wants to marry John Bagtry (John Dall), a member of a former Governor's family who are on hard times. Actually, Marcus would have none of this. Marcus is not adverse to further wealth and acquisition, but as he is now a large property owner (and the richest man in town) he's more pretentious. He is self taught, and he prides himself on teaching himself how to read Greek and Latin (which does not impress Ben, Oscar, or Regina). He also tries to compose for the cello, and once every couple of months has two musicians (Don Beddoes and Whit Bissell) come down to play his latest compositions. The issues of the drama are 1) Ben seeking to find a way to break out of his unendurable bondage as his father's cheap clerk; 2) Oscar's hope to run off with the attractive but socially disgraceful Laurette; and 3) Regina trying to convince Marcus to give her his okay to marry the socially proper but dirt poor Bagtry. The three siblings are constantly sniping at each other, making cooperation impossible (particularly Regina and Oscar with their separate prospective mates). The only thing that might unite them is Daddy's tyrannical approach to handling all three of them, two of whom he holds in total contempt.Lest it seems pure soap opera (of the "Dallas" or "Falconcrest" variety), ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST actually gave Hellman a chance to do some comedy scenes. Marcus has a large dinner party in Act II, and has to suffer the mortification of Oscar's drunken girlfriend, and the chattering of the prospective fiancé (John Bagtry's sister Birdie) that he wants Oscar to marry. He also learns what John Bagtry's big desire is: he is going to enlist in the Brazilian Army because in 1880 only the Empire of Brazil still has slavery! Marcus comment about that is quite droll. There is also the fiasco of Hubbard's Opus #2 for strings. In the end we see how Ben finds Marcus's one Achilles heel - an unforgivable act to his fellow townspeople which can cost him his life. And we see how Ben takes his place, for the moment at any events, as head of the Hubbard Family enterprises.ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST is a good film that deserves to be better known. Well played, and carefully laid out (with Dan Duryea here playing the father of the character he played in THE LITTLE FOXES) we watch how power rots a family's morality, but does not necessarily weakens it. For the Hubbards remain rich and powerful, and aim to become more so as this story ends. Whatever lost dreams are seen by the audience, the damage is done and the gangrene remains to grow more threatening.

This is one of the most wicked and dysfunctional families ever to make it to the big screen during the 1940s. Of course, by today's standards they would seem a bit tame! This is the same sick, backstabbing, conniving family seen in little foxes. Some of the original actors are here (such as the slimy Dan Duryea) and some new ones are along for the ride (Edmund O'Brien, Ann Blythe and Frederick March). So why did I like the movie? Well, the evilness of the characters and how deliciously they scheme and change sides when it best suits their needs make it a very mesmerizing film. Also, because the schemes change A LOT, it's tough to predict where the movie will end.This movie, though made AFTER Little Foxes, is the prequel. So after seeing this, see Little Foxes and hold on tight!

Destined for the stage, but somehow ingeniously made into a movie, this heavy drama about an ostracized family and there internal implosion gets better with each passing minute all the way up to its smashing ending. The superb cast includes an impressive list of names, but even the lesser roles (Dona Drake in particular) contribute significantly, while the story is nearly flawlessly presented, with a few touches that take advantage of the cinematic medium, especially a terrifically edited sequence with Drake doing a Can-Can in a dancehall while out in the woods the KKK is beating a carpetbagger senseless. But what gets the most attention is the constant state of maneuvering between three siblings for the father's favor and his money, and the father's utter disdain, brilliantly portrayed by Frederic March, for his two sons, the hardworking Edmond O'Brien and his lazy younger brother played by Dan Duryea. What stands out is the consistent level of fascination and intensity that the film maintains from start to finish, and the fact that it (this film) seems all but lost today.