The Foxes Of Harrow (1947)

In 1827 New Orleans, a transplanted Irishman (Rex Harrison), who was the bastard son of the daughter of a nobleman, falls in love with the strong willed, stubborn daughter (Maureen O'Hara) of an aristocratic Creole family. He is determined to marry the girl and build an empire and a dynasty for their son. But her strong will is what will prevent their marriage from ever being truly happy. Based on the best seller by Frank Yerby (it was the first novel by an African-American to sell over a million copies as well as the first novel by an African-American to be bought by Hollywood), this is an old fashioned historical drama of the Old South that plays out like a good and juicy page turner. Perhaps since it was written by a black man, the film has some startling (for its time) moments as when (prescient to Toni Morrison's BELOVED), a proud slave attempts to kill her child rather than letting it grow up to be a slave or when a white woman takes a black child to replace the son she's lost. Joseph LaShelle's crisp cinematography could have benefited being shot in Technicolor rather than B&W. The rousing score is by David Buttolph. With Victor McLaglen, Vanessa Brown, Patricia Medina, Richard Haydn, Hugo Haas, Celia Lovsky, Roy Roberts and Dorothy Adams.