In this 1941 film version of Lillian Hellman s 1939 play, Bette Davis takes over the role of a conniving turn-of-the-century Southern aristocrat Regina Hubbard Giddens for Broadway's Tallulah Bankhead. Regina's equally abhorrent brothers (Charles Dingle and Carl Benton Reid) want 75,000 dollars from her to help them build a cotton mill. Unable to do this without long-estranged husband, Horace (Herbert Marshall), she attempts to make peace with him. Failing to do so pushes her to arrange a wealthy marriage between her daughter, Alexandra (Teresa Wright), and her slimy nephew Leo (Dan Duryea). Leo is coerced by his father (Reid) to steal bonds from the family business, after Horace refuses to give Regina the money. Regina wants a share of the new mill and uses this information as a means of blackmailing her brothers for it. Horace declares that he lent Leo the bonds as a loan, in retaliation, thereby cutting Regina out of the deal. Horace dies from a heart attack when Regina refuses to g watch
