Critics of the time complained Hellman‘s work was too melodramatic. She did not believe they had the correct definition of melodrama. Hellman believed melodrama to be an important tool to show true human nature, not a style to be dismissed as over-the- top and exaggerated.
WHAT LILLIAN SAYS:
―I think the word melodrama, in our time, has come to be used in an almost illiterate manner. By definition it is a violent dramatic piece… when violence is actually the needed stuff of the work and comes towards a large enough end, it has been and always will be in the good writer‘s field.‖
What Others Say About Her:
“Miss Hellman has made an adult horror-play. Her little foxes are wolves that eat their own kind.‖ Brooks Atkinson, T
he N T ttl o ew Y ork Tmes, February 16, 1939 i ― he Li e Fxes will not increase your admiration for mankind. It is cold and cynical. But it is a very
exciting picture to watch in a comfortably objective way, especially if you enjoy expert stabbing-in-the- back.‖
Bosley Crowther, T he N ew Y ork TmesFilm Review i
―This social melodrama, or whatever term one applies to it, continues to captivate audiences no longer enmeshed in the debate between Marxism and capitalism. The underlying themes of greed and revenge continue to strike a responsive chord in audiences whenever the play is revived, and its terse, witty dialogue and tense, streamlined plot draw each new audience under its remarkable power.‖ Carole L. Hamilton, D
ra Past Productions of The L ma fo ittle Fxe o s r Studen ts
―If you believe, as the Greeks did, that man is at
the mercy of the gods, then you write tragedy. The end is inevitable from the beginning. But if you
believe that man can solve his own problems and is at nobody‘s mercy, then you will probably write melodrama.‖
Kathryn Meisle, Lindsey Wochley, Bette Davis as Regina in the 1941 Film
Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey 2009. Photo: Joe Geinert
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