Adapted from Lillian Hellman's 1946 play, a prequel to 'The Little Foxes'. Vladimir Pozner adapted. So the Ann Blyth character here turns into Bette Davies in the earlier story.
The family is a bunch of bastards. Father, the chameleon like Frederic March, brothers Edmond O'Brien (White Heat. The Barefoot Contessa) and Dan Duryea, mother Florence Eldridge. John Dall (Rope, Gun Crazy) doesn't want to marry Blyth, Dona Drake doesn't care one way or another if she marries Duryea. With Betsy Blair, Fritz Leiber, Whit Bissel, Don Beddoe.
The scene of the Can-Can cut to the Ku Klux Klan doesn't quite work for me - the music is at odds with itself; perhaps in the hands of a better director... It's in a way the only cinematically interesting thing in the film, which otherwise is filmed respectfully, often in wide shots or careful groupings, professionally controlled in focus by Hal Mohr. It's quite satisfying how it all turns out. Squee!
Music by Daniele Amfitheatrof. Universal.
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