MovieChat Forums > The Little Foxes (1941) Discussion > Was this common/realistic?

Was this common/realistic?

posted 14 years ago by Pearl_Jade
6 replies | jump to latest

After Horace dies, everyone is sent away -- the servants, the two brothers, the nephew... even the doctor. Shortly thereafter, Regina is ready to retire.

But with her dead husband lying in a room down the hall from her? He's not even prepared/embalmed for a family viewing or a wake, nor is he ensconced in the main parlour. Was it quite ordinary to leave a corpse right where he lies if the person died "after business hours"? You would think Regina would send Cal to alert the undertaker (who I assume would be used to round-the-clock calls for services), and furthermore, that she would at least begin composing telegrams to notify Horace's relatives.

And speaking of Horace's death...

When Zannie was alone with her father, do you think he managed to tell her what her mother had done before he expired? She seems to know, even before Ben makes his suspicions known. Or did she surmise it on her own?

[–] jamesabutler44 14 years ago

It wasn't uncommon for the dead to remain in the house until preparations could be made for burial. If you watched the whole movie, you know that Regina didn't give a rat's ass about Horace. Why would she immediately start notifying people of his death. Her immediate concern was letting her brothers know that she was running things now and they'd better pay up! As for what happened at Horace's bedside, he was too weak to speak. Zan pretty much concluded that her mother didn't love her father and that it was time for her to leave.

[–] Pearl_Jade 14 years ago

Well I know that Regina didn't give a rat's ass about Horace, so I'm not surprised that she didn't make preparations for Horace's sake. My question concerns why she didn't make them for her own sake. Wouldn't the average person feel squeamish about going to sleep, alone in a dark house, with a dead body in the next room, especially if he or she were responsible for that person's demise? I'd send for the undertaker and ask him to keep Horace overnight until he can be embalmed/prepared in the morning.

As for notifying other relatives, regardless of Regina's personal feelings for Horace, she is a woman who believes in keeping up appearances. While waiting for the undertaker to arrive, I thought it would be one of the first orders of business (well, second, after letting her brothers know the score) to continue with her facade to the outside world by playing the grieving yet stalwart widow who devotedly fulfills her duties. But that's a comparatively minor point, and I can see her putting it off til morning.

[–] jamesabutler44 14 years ago

She was apprehensive about sleeping with her dead husband in the next room, hence the reason she asked Zan if she wanted to spend the night in her room. Zan saw right through this and said "What's the matter mother? Are you afraid?" I'm sure the first thing on her agenda come daybreak would be to summong the undertaker and receive friends and relatives wanting to express their condolences.

[–] deane-897-610472 14 years ago

At this time, it was very common to have the dead stay at home and be prepared by the family. If she were close to the deceased she may start preparations that night, but because she was cold she wouldn't bother, I suppose. It would creep the crap out of me! But in that day, especially in a more, shall we say, rural area, I.e. Deep South, I'd expect that they would be used to having their family members remain in the home and take their time with the funerial necessities. The whole cousin thing is what bothered me. Ewwwww

[–] MystMoonstruck 10 years ago

Lying in state was a common practice. With the Irish and others, there would be the wake. Some say that holding a wake was considered necessary for several reasons, one being to ensure that the person actually was dead and not in a catatonic state; the other, because of the concern with "Resurrectionists" aka body snatchers/grave robbers.

My maternal grandparents lived in a large, two-story house for decades. The back bedroom always was cold, even in summer. Family members would tease the children that it was because of a great-grand who had been placed in that room for the wake. (We're Irish descnt, at that time not long over from Ireland.) I will admit that we younger cousins once held a séance there with the help of a Ouija board. We did get some very creepy results before we were sent scampering when my father and granddad crept around and began tapping at the windows and moaning eerily.

You can see this in some films, including "Gone with the Wind", when Scarlett arrives back at Tara and learns about her mother. Also, there is the pivotal scene in "The Other" (1972).

Later, funeral parlors became the usual thing. In the old days, as someone said, the family took care of the body, bathing it and selecting the garments to be worn.

The custom of kissing the dead goodbye is a major part of "The Three Faces of Eve". I don't recall if her grandmother was in the parlor at home or not; I seem to think she was.

I think people were more comfortable with death and accepting it as a passage all must take. Now, it's get the body away ASAP. Then, it was thought that, if the person is beloved, why would it feel strange to be near him/her after death. Thus, the daughter makes that remark to her mother.

*** The trouble with reality is there is no background music. ***

[–] butaneggbert 9 years ago

Some very good responses here. Yes, it was common to have the body in the house.

What they did omit was washing the body. That would be done very soon after death; dying isn't always a very clean business, and it would be both disrespectful and unpleasant not to get to it quickly.

But you can see why they didn't go into that!

To the last question: when she asks Regina what he was doing on the stairs, she sounds genuinely curious. Plus Horace was pretty much beyond speech at that point. She was piecing it together.