The Little Foxes (1941)

Bette Davis: Regina Giddens

Photos 

Quotes 

• Regina Giddens : I hope you die! I hope you die soon! I'll be waiting for you to die!

• Regina Giddens : [about a possible marriage between Alexandra and Leo]  There are a lot of things to consider. After all, they are first cousins.

  Oscar Hubbard : Well, that isn't unusual, our grandfather and grandmother were first cousins!

  Regina Giddens : Yes, and look at us.

  [laughs] 

• Regina Giddens : [final lines]  Would you like to talk to me, Alexandra? Would you... like to sleep in my room tonight?

  Alexandra Giddens : Why, Mama? Are you afraid?

• Regina Giddens : Why, Alexandra! You have spirit after all. I used to think you were all sugar water.

• Ben Hubbard : [From his balcony]  Mornin', Regina.

  Regina Giddens : Really, Ben! You look very silly in your nightgown. You shouldn't show yourself.

  Ben Hubbard : That's why I never got married. I shall dress and come over for breakfast with you and Alexandra.

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

• Regina Giddens : How much more time can you give me?

  Ben Hubbard : Horace has refused.

  Regina Giddens : He'll change his mind. I'll find a way to make him. How much longer can you wait?

  Ben Hubbard : Well, I could wait a few days, but I can't wait a few days. I could, but I can't. Could and can't.

  [laughs] 

• Regina Giddens : [about marrying Horace]  It didn't take me long to find out my mistake. Then it was just as if I couldn't stand the sight of you. I couldn't bear to have you touch me. I thought you were such a soft weak fool, you were so understanding when I didn't want you near me. The lies and excuses I used to make to you, and you believed them. That was when I began to despise you.

  Horace Giddens : [starts looking agitated]  Why didn't you leave me?

  Regina Giddens : Where was I to go? What money did I have? I didn't think about it much, if I had, I'd have known you'd die before I did. But I couldn't have guessed you'd get heart trouble so early and so bad. I'm lucky Horace. I've always been lucky. I'll be lucky again.

  [Horace drops his emergency medicine] 

  Horace Giddens : The other bottle. Please, upstairs in my room, in the drawer.

  [Regina does nothing. Horace stumbles upstairs himself and collapses] 

• Regina Giddens : I was lonely when I was young. Not in the way people usually mean. I was lonely for all the things I wasn't gonna get.

• Regina Giddens : Alexandra, I've come to the end of my rope. Somewhere there's got to be what I want, too. Life goes too fast. You can go where you want, do what you want, think what you want. I'd like to keep you with me but I won't make you stay. No, I won't make you stay.

  Alexandra Giddens : [thoughtful]  You couldn't, Mama. Because I don't want to stay with you. Because I'm beginning to understand about things. Addie said there were people who ate the earth and those that stood around and watched them do it. And just then Uncle Ben said the same thing. Really the same thing. Tell him from me, Mama, I'm not going to watch you do it.

• Ben Hubbard : Regina, you're a fool! How many times did Mama tell you it's unwise for a good-lookin' woman to frown? How many times have I told you that softness and a smile will do more to the hearts of men?

  Regina Giddens : I'll do things in my own way, Ben. I know what I'm doing.

  Ben Hubbard : I hope you do, Regina.

• Regina Giddens : Cal, the grits is cold. Take it back.

  Cal : Yes'm.

  [runs back to the kitchen with the grits] 

  Cal : The grits didn't hold the heat! The grits didn't hold the heat!

• Regina Giddens : [having learned what her brothers and cousin Leo have been up to, laughing]  Well, this'll make a fine little scandal.

  Horace Giddens : Couldn't it?

  Regina Giddens : A fine little scandal to hold over their heads. Ha ha! How could they be such fools?

• Regina Giddens : You're a good loser, Ben. I like that.

  Ben Hubbard : Well, I say to myself, what's the good? You and I aren't like Oscar. We're not sour people. I think that comes from a good digestion.

  [Regina giggles] 

  Ben Hubbard : Until one loses today, and wins tomorrow. I say to myself, years of planning, and I get what I want. And then I don't get it... But I'm not discouraged. The world's open for people like you and me. There's thousands of us all over the world. We'll own the country some day. They won't try to stop us. We'll get along.

  Regina Giddens : [Amused]  I think so.