The play's focus is Southerner Regina Hubbard Giddens, who struggles for wealth and freedom within the confines of an early 20th-century society where fathers considered only sons as their legal heirs.

As a result of this practice, while her two avaricious brothers Benjamin and Oscar have wielded the family inheritance into two independently substantial fortunes, she has had to rely upon her manipulation of her cautious, timid, browbeaten husband, Horace.

The touring production of The Little Foxes went on hiatus for three months during filming, and Patricia Collinge, Charles Dingle, Dan Duryea, John Marriott and Carl Benton Reid all reprised their stage roles in their motion picture debuts.

George Schaefer produced and directed Robert Hartung's television adaptation of The Little Foxes for the Hallmark Hall of Fame, broadcast December 16, 1956, on NBC.

The cast included Greer Garson (Regina), Franchot Tone (Horace), Sidney Blackmer (Ben), E. G. Marshall (Oscar) and Eileen Heckart (Birdie).

[13] Mike Nichols directed a production that opened October 26, 1967, at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in Lincoln Center, then transferred to the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.

The cast included Anne Bancroft as Regina, Richard A. Dysart as Horace, Margaret Leighton as Birdie, E.G. Marshall as Oscar, George C. Scott as Benjamin, and Austin Pendleton as Leo.

[14] In reviewing the production, Time said, "An admirable revival of Lillian Hellman's 1939 play in Lincoln Center demonstrates how securely bricks of character can be sealed together with the mortar of plot.

Anne Bancroft, George C. Scott, Richard Dysart, and Margaret Leighton are expertly guided by Director Mike Nichols through gilt-edged performances.

Geraldine Page played Regina in a production in which she starred opposite her husband Rip Torn (in the role of Benjamin Hubbard) directed by Philip Minor.

It was staged for the Academy Festival Theater at Barat College in Lake Forest, Illinois and received a rave review from William Leonard of the Chicago Tribune: "Geraldine Page is giving one of the greatest performances of her glorious career in Lake Forest and she is surrounded by a cast so superb that the Academy Festival Theater's production of "The Little Foxes" becomes a powerful, searing, unforgettable show... it is a harrowing and ennobling evening in the theater-the kind that comes along all too seldom.

We have seen other stars in the role of the malevolently, ruthlessly scheming Regina Giddens—Tallulah Bankhead years ago in her greatest triumph, Eileen Herlie five seasons back at the Ivanhoe.

The cast included Elizabeth Taylor as Regina, Tom Aldredge as Horace, Dennis Christopher as Leo, Maureen Stapleton as Birdie, and Anthony Zerbe as Benjamin.

[20] The production was revived at The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, from June 3 to 28, 2009, with Venida Evans, Ron Brice, Deanne Lorette, Brian Dykstra, Fisher Neal, Kathryn Meisle, Einar Gunn, Philip Goodwin, Lindsey Wochley, Bradford Cover, and directed by Matthew Arbour.

It starred Laura Linney (who was nominated for a Tony Award—Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play) and Cynthia Nixon who alternated the roles of Regina Giddens and Birdie, with direction by Daniel J. Sullivan.