Another Part of the Forest (film)

Another Part of the Forest
Another Part of the Forest
	Publicity still with, from left to right, Dona Drake, Dan Duryea, Ann Blyth, Fredric March, Florence Eldridge, Edmond O'Brien, and John Dall
Directed by	Michael Gordon
Screenplay by	Vladimir Pozner
Based on	Another Part of the Forest; 1946 play; by Lillian Hellman
Produced by	Jerry Bresler
Starring	Fredric March; Florence Eldridge; Dan Duryea; Edmond O'Brien
Cinematography	Hal Mohr
Edited by	Milton Carruth
Music by	Daniele Amfitheatrof
Production; company	Universal-International
Distributed by	Universal-International
Release date	May 18, 1948;
Running time	107 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1.3 million
Box office	$800,000 (est) (domestic)

Another Part of the Forest is a 1948 American drama film starring Fredric March. Directed by Michael Gordon, its screenplay was adapted by Vladimir Pozner from the 1946 Lillian Hellman play of the same name, a prequel to her 1939 drama The Little Foxes

Plot

The Hubbard family of Bowden, Alabama, is led by its ruthless patriarach, the evil, wealthy, duplicitous Marcus. Fifteen years have passed since he made his fortune as a profiteer during the Civil War. His long-suffering wife Lavinia is riddled by Marcus' cold cruelty with physical and mental ailments, patiently waiting for the opportunity to help others and atone for the family crimes through a hospital he promises to build but never will.

Marcus raised himself from poverty in the Piney Woods, toiling at menial labor while teaching himself Greek, Latin, and the Classics. Sharpening his business skills to a deadly point he exploited his poverty-wrought neighbors, making a fortune in salt they desperately needed and collaborating with the North in the slaughter of their sons in an ambush.

He is equaled in ruthlessness only by his cold, calculating, hard-hearted eldest son Benjamin, short-leashed by his father and driven to topple him. Younger son Oscar is a spineless weasel, desperately pursuing cheap, covetous, can-can dancer Laurette Sincee, who merely plays him for what she can get, and resorting to the Klan to vanquish a romantic rival. Regina is the Hubbards' scheming viper of a daughter, who will use anyone for anything and leaves scandal in her wake Benjamin seeks to blackmail her with. Still, she remains always one treacherous twist ahead of him.

Convinced she can manipulate her father into bankrolling a more glamorous life in Chicago, she seeks to escape her outcast family with the socially superior former Confederate officer John Bagtry on her arm. John cares less that the Bagtry family plantation totters near bankruptcy; he is set on a command in Brazil that will restore his life's purpose. Blindly trusting Benjamin, his sister Birdie arranges to pledge everything the Bagtrys own against a loan that will assuredly end in forfeiture – with Benjamin skimming 40% off the top to speculate in stocks in a bid to strengthen his hand against his father.

Everything unravels all at once: John spurns Regina, Marcus discovers Benjamin's duplicity and cancels the loan, and Laurette leaves for New Orleans without her lickspittle Oscar, who crawls about searching for the $1,000 his father had promised him to leave in an envelope on a table.

When Benjamin finally twists his mother's desperate pleas for her hospital into revealing that his father was a collaborator with the Yankees and conspired with them in the massacre of the townsfolks' sons he has all he needs not merely to wrest everything from Marcus but leave the man broken and humiliated. Shifting with the sea change, Oscar and Regina swing round to Benjamin, who offers only strings that will turn them into his marionettes. They jump at the chance. Seeing this, Lavinia declares she despises all her children, and intends to find her personal sanctuary from the family hell alone in the Piney Woods.

Cast

Fredric March as Marcus Hubbard
Florence Eldridge as Lavinia Hubbard
Dan Duryea as Oscar Hubbard
Edmond O'Brien as Benjamin "Ben" Hubbard
Ann Blyth as Regina Hubbard
John Dall as John Bagtry
Betsy Blair as Birdie Bagtry
Dona Drake as Laurette Sincee
Fritz Leiber as Colonel Isham
Whit Bissell as Jugger
Don Beddoe as Penniman
Wilton Graff as Sam Taylor
Virginia Farmer as Clara Bagtry
Libby Taylor as Coralee
Smoki Whitfield as Jake
Rex Lease as Josh (uncredited)

Critical reception

Thomas M. Pryor of The New York Times called the film "a compelling entertainment" and added "Vladimir Pozner has preserved the spirit of the play in his screen treatment and Michael Gordon's direction gives a fluency to scenes which might easily have become static due to the profuseness of the dialogue."^[3]

Time stated "Under Michael Gordon's direction it is a nearly perfect example of how to film a play. There is hardly a shot which does not set up visual tension against the lashing, steel-spring dialogue; there is not a single performance which is short of adequate; the work of Miss Eldridge, Mr. O'Brien and Betsey Blair, as a shaky-minded neighbor, is much more."^[4]

TV Guide stated "This utterly depressing film is salvaged through intense performances that rivet the viewer, along with the literate, acerbic script."^[5]

Awards and nominations

Screenwriter Vladimir Pozner was nominated for two Writers Guild of America Awards, for Best Written American Drama and the Robert Meltzer Award for the Screenplay Dealing Most Ably with Problems of the American Scene.