With baseball on pandemic hiatus, I’ve revived my wintertime pursuit of watching classic movies I’ve never seen. This time out: Bette Davis, a French thriller, and a mainstay of “all-time best movies” lists.

The Little Foxes (1941)

William Wyler directed this adaptation of Lillian Hellman’s play about the machinations of a wealthy, corrupt southern family. Davis is superb as Regina Giddens, who works to thwart her brothers and her saintly but sickly husband to grab more than her share of a cotton ...