Little Women: A Review

He started by saying first we would see a 1933 Black and White movie starring Katherine Hepburn in Little Women and immediately following that would be a technicolor version starring Elizabeth Taylor made in 1949.

You may find this hard to believe because most people were made to read the book in high school but I never was. I didn’t care about the book. I never read anything by Louisa May Alcott. You may think that all writer have to have read the classics like Little Women but I never did. In high school I didn’t know I was a writer. I didn’t even like English that much. I did have a good English teacher in 10Th and 11Th grade who turned my upon Huckleberry Finn and Mark Twain but not Louisa May Alcott. It wasn’t until I got into college that I found about my love of the classics but even then while studying Shakespeare I never gave a second thought to this book called “Little Women.”

I watched those two movies back to back. It took me a little bit of time while watching Katherine Hepburn prance around her living room imitating a man to really get hooked. I also didn’t mind the black and white screen. I remember back when we didn’t have a colored television, only a black and white tube and I really starting getting interested. Katherine Hepburn played Jo March as the second oldest girl. Meg played by Frances Dee was the oldest. Amy was played by Joan Bennett and Beth by Jean Parker. I enjoyed the scenes of when they all were together but it was sometimes difficult for me to understand their language.

Some of the words were quite difficult for me to hear because I never hear them used that way. I do remember the most used saying was “Christopher Columbus.” I am sure there must have been are reason for this catch phrase but again I am showing my age because I don’t know what that means. Some of the scenes were quite rehearsed and dramatic. When Beth was on the bed holding Jo and telling her that she is okay and has accepted what is to become oh her, and that how Jo is like a bird and Beth is like a Cricket, this scene to me was not real. I found it hard to believe. I still don’t know why Beth died. They never said so I am not sure if it was a recurrence of the Scarlet Fever she had almost died from when she was younger or what it was. To me this was not an answered question like why did they call their mother “Marmee?”

I did love the ending with Jo running into the professor. Did she really love him though? After reading on wikipedia some history on Louisa May Alcott, the intention was not for Jo to find a man to marry. Because the book was first published in two parts, the first in 1868 followed by the second in 1869. Alcott says she had to find a love for Jo because her readers didn’t like her not marrying Laurie. A complete novel was published in 1880 but before that she published a sequel called “Little Men” and then in 1886 “Jo’s Boys.” These are two novels I never knew existed but I intend to find at my local library.

When the second movie started I just had to stay and watch it because the man who came on the first time said that this next movie was done in technicolor and starred Elizabeth Taylor. He didn’t specify which character she would play so I assumed it would be Jo but I was wrong. After looking up the information on TCM.com, Elizabeth Taylor played Amy. It was June Allyson who played Jo. When I was watching this I did not know who was who. I never watched a lot of Elizabeth Taylor movies. I only saw her on “Taming of the Shrew” with Richard Burton. I fell in love with that movie too. So it was quite a surprise because she didn’t really stand out in the movie as a star. Although I liked it being in color, the acting was awful. They didn’t emphasize how poor the Marches were. June Allyson overacted the part and could not compare to Katherine Hepburn.

Again lots of questions were not answered like why did Amy put a clothespin on her nose at night. In one scene Amy and Beth were in bed and Beth said something to the point of saying that Amy would have a beautiful nose one day. In the first movie I never saw Amy put a clothes pin on her nose. According to Wikipedia Amy did this because her nose was flat, apparently something happened to her when she was child to make it flat. But also the question of why Beth died was not addressed. Why did Aunt March, played by Edna May Oliver in the 1933 version and Lucille Watson in the 1949 version, not like Jo and took so well to Amy in both films? Both ladies played the spinster very well and I liked the way she interrogated Meg in the 1933 version about catching Meg and the lovely young man, John Brooke, embarrassing. She made Meg confess to loving Mr.Brook, played by John Davis Lodge in the 1933 movie and then by a much better looking actor, Richard Stapley in the 1949 version.

Finally, some other facts you may not know is that the Louisa May Alcott’s story “Little Women” had been made into a movie five times. The first was a silent film in 1917 in black and white. The second was in 1919 and also a black and white silent film starred Dorothy Barnard as Jo. The first was the 1933 version with Katherine Hepburn and the then the 1949 version with Elizabeth Taylor. And the latest version which I also did not know about is one made in 1994 with Susan Sarandon as Marmee, Winona Ryder as Jo, Trini Alvaredo as Meg, Claire Danes as Beth and Kirsten Dunst playing the younger Amy while Samantha Mathis played the older Amy.

I find though that the major theme is how these four sister overcome their character flaws. Meg is very vain but marry’s a poor man instead of a rich man.Jo has a hot temper and must learn to control herself so she can let others into her life. Amy is selfish and with the help of the spinster Aunt March learns to grow up in England. And poor Beth. she was the baby and her shyness became something she overcame when Mr Jame Laurence gave her the piano as a reminder of his niece who passed away. I find this ironic because Beth also dies.

So to sum this up, both movies were entertaining. From someone who never read the book, I am intrigued. I hope you find this review helpful into whether or not you would like to see the movies. Since I haven’t read the book, I now believe I will.