The Little Foxes

- Good morning. - Morning, mose.

Never feel too weary to pray

Get. Get out from under there.

I done told you once. How many times I got to tell you?

You come back here again.

Morning, ma'am.

Get! Get!

- Morning, Harold. - Morning, miss zan.

What does your papa write you from Baltimore?

- He writes that he feels better. - That's good.

Write him my greetings, and tell him don't worry about the brass.

I'm keeping his name fine and clean.

- Thanks, I will. - Mm-mm.

Those crabs will make fine eatings, Addie.

They better. We got high-tone company for dinner tonight.

- Bye, miss zan. - Bye, Harold.

Hello, Addie. Hello, zan. You're out early.

- We've been to buy crabs. - We're having gumbo tonight.

Oh, gonna give Mr. Marshall of Chicago a real Southern dinner.

How's your mama, Mr. David?

She's fine, thank you, Addie.

Zan, she says your petticoats are ready to be fitted.

She said I shouldn't say "petticoats." I should say "underskirts" or keep still.

You shouldn't be saying "petticoats" to me.

But you know all about them. Leo says you know almost as much as he does.

I wouldn't take your cousin Leo's word for anything, zan. Nobody else does.

You don't like Leo, do you? You don't like anybody in my family.

Yes, yes I do.

There's one person I'm mighty fond of.

- Yes? - Mr. David.

It's your papa.

Don't you laugh at him, Addie. He's beneath notice.

I'll take you on a picnic Sunday, if you bring your own lunch.

Whoa!

- Good morning, darling. - Good morning, aunt birdie.

- Is your headache all better? - Yes, it's all gone.

- Good morning, miss birdie. - Good morning, Addie.

I'm gonna stop a minute. You drive the horse in.

Your mama's waiting to have breakfast. She ain't nobody to keep waiting.

All right, Addie.

Aunt birdie, guess where we drove this morning?

To lionnet. Uh-huh.

Was it beautiful? Of course it was. It's always beautiful this time of year.

Aunt birdie, I've learned the schubert for tonight.

I can play the whole thing except the middle.

Can't we skip the middle? Maybe Mr. Marshall won't notice.

No, we couldn't. I'll come down and play it through for you. You wait now.

Your mama says that Mr. Marshall's a very educated, cultured gentleman.

I'm sure he'd notice. Now, watch.

Two and one and two and one and...

Hey there!

Ow!

Good morning, uncle Ben. Well...

I've been awakened by many things but never by a concert.

Is this musical hour?

Good morning, Ben. I didn't realise. I'm so sorry.

Aunt birdie is showing me how to play a piece for tonight.

I guess I can't complain then.

- Alexandra, breakfast is ready. - Yes, mama.

Stop the vulgar shouting out of windows.

Morning, Regina.

Really, Ben.

You look very silly in your nightgown. You shouldn't show yourself.

That's why I never got married.

I'll come for breakfast with you and Alexandra.

No, don't. I hate conversation before I've had something hot.

What does your papa say?

"I still miss you, zannie, more than I can say. But you're not to worry.

I'm not lonesome, and everybody here at the hospital has been very kind."

Of course he addresses the letters to me to make me think I'm grown up...

- The way he used to when I was little. - You don't have to explain to me.

- Cal. - Yessum.

Can I have that bottle of port this evening?

- Yessum. - The one I've been saving.

That Mr. Marshall, he must be a mighty honoured guest.

- Cal, the grits is cold. Take it back. - Yessum.

The grits didn't hold their heat! The grits didn't hold their heat!

The Danvers girl is getting married in Memphis.

Is that so? I knew her mother. She stayed with me once at lionnet.

She was a Calhoun, you know, and the calhouns were kin of ours.

Mama said she was too thin for the styles, but I didn't think so.

I thought she was very pretty.

Birdie, be very pleasant to Mr. Marshall at dinner.

Oh, of course, Oscar.

- No need to say too much. - No.

If he should happen to ask about your family...

The way people are interested in where other people come from...

You might tell him who they were.

He'll probably recognise the names.

Good name is always useful.

Remember that, Leo.

Yes, sir?

Oh, I mean, I heard you, sir. Good name's always useful.

Some more coffee, David?

If it's ready, mama. I've got to get back to the paper in a few minutes.

Well, the medium-size bear and the little bear.

You don't like the hubbards much, do you?

- Mama, you're a high-tone guesser. - Heh-heh.

- Where you going? - I'm walking you to the store.

I've been walking there many years without your help.

Get back to the bank.

- Leo. - Yes, sir?

- Mind you do a good day's work. - Yes, sir, I always do.

- Hello, Harold. Howdy, Joe. - Morning, Mr. Leo.

Morning, Mr. manders. Well, what can I do for you today?

- You can do one thing, Leo. - Yes, sir, what's that?

Try keeping awake all day.

- Good morning, Mr. Ben. - Good morning to you, miss Hannah.

And here comes the big bear.

Now the sun can really shine, the day has begun.

Mr. Ben looks mighty pleased this morning.

And no wonder. "Our leading citizen, Mr. Benjamin Hubbard...

Wwill confer with Mr. Marshall of Chicago...

About building a cotton mill here.

Mr. Ben will advance admirable reasons for bringing the mill to our town.

But the real one is our justly renowned average wage...

Which ranks as the lowest in the country."

- Are they gonna print that in the paper? - No.

Mr. William Marshall, Chicago industrialist and opera patron...

Is in our midst to supper with the hubbards and giddens...

Who will show him what our famous Southern hospitality is like.

- That's pretty. - And that's the way they'll print it.

Ow!

Hold still, zan.

You had pretty hair when you was little.

You was a mighty pretty little girl.

Addie, will anybody think I'm pretty now?

Someday some fool of a man will, I reckon.

Seems there's always somebody for somebody.

But you'll do, baby.

You're too young to worry about such things, Alexandra.

You're going to have all the things I used to want when I was your age.

Addie, make the biscuits for dinner yourself tonight.

Be sure the coffee is strong and the wine is cold.

Don't you worry, miss Regina. The dinner will go fine tonight.

They used to go to Europe every year, Mr. Marshall.

Imagine going all the way to Europe just to listen to music.

And once mama met Mr. Wagner, the composer, you know.

And Mrs. Wagner gave mama and papa a signed programme.

- And another time they... - Ahem. Birdie.

Oh, no, thank you, Cal.

It's remarkable to me how you Southern aristocrats have kept together...

Kept what belonged to you. We're not aristocrats.

Our brother's wife is the only one who is.

- You make great distinctions. - They've been made for us.

- Now you take birdie's family. - They owned the plantation lionnet.

- You've probably heard of it. - Beautiful. Best cotton land I ever saw.

My mother's grandfather was governor before the war.

They had their day, those folks, and a great day too.

Cloth from Paris, horses you can't raise anymore...

- Darkies to lift their fingers for them. - We were good to our people.

Everybody knew that. We were better to them...

When the war comes these gentlemen leave the cotton and the women to rot.

My father was killed in the war.

He was a fine soldier, Mr. Marshall, and a fine man.

- Yes, yes. - Yes, birdie, certainly, a famous soldier.

That's not the tale I'm telling Mr. Marshall, birdie.

Well, sir, the war ends.

Lionnet is almost ruined, and the sons finish ruining it.

Why? Because the Southern aristocrat could adapt himself to nothing.

Too high-toned to try.

- It's difficult to learn new ways. - You're right, sir, it is difficult.

But maybe that's why it's profitable.

Our grandfather and our father learned the new ways...

Learned to make them pay.

They were in trade.

Others, like birdie's family, looked down on them.

Well, to make a long story short, lionnet now belongs to us.

Twenty years ago, we took over their land, their cotton and their daughter.

Ben, you are boring Mr. Marshall with these ancient family tales.

I hope not. I'm just making an important point for our future business partner.

You see, Mr. Marshall...

Mr. Marshall, will you try a very old port?

I've been saving it for a special occasion. Come, Alexandra.

We feel a man ain't only in business for what he can get out it...

- May 1? - Thank you. You're most polite.

The point is it's got to give him some satisfaction, something here.

Money ain't all, not by three shots.

Really? I always thought it meant a great deal.

So did I, Mr. Marshall. Ha, ha, ha.

You see, Mr. Marshall, I've always contended...

What's the matter with you?

First you chatter like a magpie, now you sulk like a schoolgirl.

What am I doing? I'm not doing anything.

You've had too much wine. Get yourself in hand, and stop acting like a fool.

You look pretty tonight, miss birdie, and young.

Me, young?

Birdie, Mr. Marshall wants you and Alexandra to play for him.

Yes, Regina. I'm coming.

You don't have to convince me. I'm sure you're right for the deal.

You want the mill here, I want it here.

- It's not my business why you want it. - To bring the machine to the cotton,

and not the cotton to the machine.

- Henry, serve the port. - My reason's more simple.

I wanna make money. And I believe I can make it on you.

However, I have no objection to more high-minded reasons.

- Mr. Marshall, I feel that... - Birdie.

- We're ready. - Yes, Regina.

You know, Mr. Marshall...

Thank you. You both played charmingly.