Little Women
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy
Written by Andrew Stolt, Sarah Y. Mason, and Victor Heerman from the novel by Louisa May Alcott
1949/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant
[box] Jo March: [repeated several times] Christopher Columbus![/box]
The beloved classic gets the MGM Technicolor treatment. It’s a little too glossy for my taste but has its moments.
Probably all my readers know the story of the four sisters, each with different personality, who grow into young womanhood during the Civil War while their father is away with the Army. There is prim, practical Meg (Janet Leigh); boisterous would-be novelist Jo (June Allison); shy, frail Beth (Margaret O’Brien) and vain, selfish Amy (Elizabeth Taylor). They all benefit from the down-to-earth moral guidance of their mother, who they call Marmee (Mary Astor). The girls befriend the lonely, rich boy next door Laurie (Peter Lawford) and his tutor John Brooke. They contend with their crotchety Aunt March (Lucille Watson) and Laurie’s grandfather Mr. Lawrence (C. Aubrey Smith).
I like this movie but prefer the 1933 and 1996 versions. This one seems disjointed somehow and the March family is far too well off. Jo is the main protagonist in all the versions and June Alysson is adequate, if no Katharine Hepburn. My favorite performance is that of Elizabeth Taylor as Amy. She is so amusingly conceited and ignorant! Margaret O’Brien certainly knew how to pull on the old heartstrings didn’t she?
Little Women won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color. It was nominated for Best Cinematography, Color.
Trailer
