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source: The Foxes of Harrow

Moviecut—The Foxes of Harrow

The Foxes of Harrow

The Foxes of Harrow

It's a well made movie but there are problems of the past displayed in it that will be upsetting to some audiences. I'm glad I watched but now I need to go back to comedies and things that are purely uplifting for a my next few film choices.

Whole chunks of this story were taken right out of Gone with the Wind! It's pre Civil War. Their marriage starts off badly. She gets pregnant through his act of rape. She has a child. This child is a boy, though. I guess that's a big difference? The child likes to ride. He jumps the hedge on his horse. WOW! Dad takes up with a lady of ill repute. The child is all that holds them together. Child dies. Got it? It has more about the slaves, though not much. And the most upsetting scene to me, was the two children born on the same night, being treated so VERY differently! Their 3 year old is pampered and Mom wants him carried upstairs after the fireworks because "he's tired." Then she turns to "little Inch," also celebrating HIS 3rd birthday, and tells HIM to carry all the gifts upstairs! GRRR. I'm sure things like that happened, but it REALLY made me angry! The acting of the slave characters was absolutely awful! This movie was not worthy of the talents of the leading actors. So sad.

Some interesting things going on in this one... Rex Harrison in his early days. William Schallert's first film... he probably still holds the record for the most film and TV series appearances (even more than Charles Lane!). Rex Harrison is "Fox", who started life with a couple strikes against him already. A gambler, he's pretty rough around the edges, but Fox tries to make it up to his wife. Co-stars Maureen O'Hara, Victor McLaglan, Gene Lockhart. It's a period piece, so there's strike one for me. and it's in New Orleans, so there's voodoo afoot. A lot going on, but its fairly entertaining. When they get involved in the lives of the slaves, things really get complicated. Trials, tribulations. Lessons learned. Writer Frank Yerby wrote over 30 novels, but it looks like not very many were made into film. and THIS one must not be shown on Turner Classic very often, only 290 votes so far. Shown on a double feature with Tomango on TCM.

Maureen O'Hara is always stunning, but I don't remember seeing Rex Harrison so young and handsome. Even so there wasn't much romance between two such intransigent characters as Odalie D'Arceneaux and Stephen Fox. Their relationship is tragic enough, but the film also makes no apologies for the institution of slavery that haunts the background of so many scenes. Fox starts out as a decent "maitre," who'll work alongside his workers and slaves, but he never recognizes the parallel between his own loss of family and birthright and that of Little Inch, whose fierce mother Belle intends to be a warrior. In that sense "Harrow" may be a more useful look at slavery than in more enlightened films.

This is a Cliff's Notes version of a heavily plotted historical novel dealing with Stephen Fox's rise and fall in New Orleans plantation society during the 1820's-1830's. Film has plot points similar to GWTW and "Anthony Adverse." Fox is Yerby's version of Rhett Butler; Odalie, his version of Scarlett. Rex Harrison is sadly miscast as Fox; Maureen O'Hara is waxy and cold as Odalie. Treatment of black characters is the most condescending I've seen in a film from this era (1947). Received top notch production values; should have been in color. But '47 was the year Fox made "Forever Amber" and its color went into that historical romance.