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DVD Little Women
This sumptuous 1949 film adaptation of the beloved Louisa May Alcott novel isn't as good as the 1933 Katharine Hepburn version, or even the 1994 remake starring an Oscar-nominated Winona Ryder, but it does offer its own pleasures, especially in seeing an all-star cast put through its paces. Erstwhile tomboy June Allyson stars as Alcott's famed heroine Jo, the budding writer in Civil War New England who pines for adventure, independence, and her own career. With Father off to war, it's up to Jo, practical older sister Meg (Janet Leigh), frail sister Beth (Margaret O'Brien), and vain sister Amy (Elizabeth Taylor) to help Marmee (a saintly Mary Astor) keep the home fires warm while dealing with the rigors of adolescence. It's all poured on with a generous amount of syrup, including lavish sets, hoop skirts, and petticoats, but anyone who's ever read Alcott's book will take comfort in its familiar story line. The dialogue is clunky but earnest, but you'd have to have a heart of stone not to get caught up in Jo's plight. And rarely do you get to see such stars go at it with such gusto: Allyson and Peter Lawford (as neighbor and rich boy Laurie) are a match made in B-movie heaven, Taylor is spunky and hilarious in an early comic performance, and Leigh does the matronly thing with aplomb. And nobody, but nobody, cries and suffers like Margaret O'Brien! Watch it in the wintertime, with a fire roaring. --Mark Englehart
If you want to know what family can mean and should mean, this movie will show you. None of the other four movie versions will do that. This is the one that is true to the spirit of the book. It is also the best movie.
The members of the cast were superb in their roles. Margaret O'Brien gives a definitive performance as Beth. Mary Astor is the Marmee of the novel brought to life on the screen. Sir C. Aubrey Smith gives a moving performance as Mr. Lawrence. The scene between him and Beth would make a statue cry. (Unfortunately, this was the last film of his distinguished career. He died six months after the film was completed.)
The 1933 version had Katherine Hepburn but not much else.
The 1971 BBC version with its three and a half hours included more of the book, but the acting was lamentable, and even the BBC departed from its policy of faithfulness to literary works by substituting feminist advice when Marmee advises Meg on her marital problems. (Read this passage in Alcott's book. Its wisdom would save many a modern marriage.)
The 1994 version throws the book away, replaces all the characters with contemporary teenager types and turns Marmee into a radical feminist.
(Note that a novelization of this 1994 movie was published when the movie was released. It is simply the filmscript written into novel form, a hundred pages or so and, like the movie, bears little resemblance to Alcott's novel. Many people read that book, thinking they were reading the 800 page Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Possibly, this is the version that the Amazon reviewer read. Otherwise, it is impossible to explain his rather bizarre review. There are also abridgments in print. Caveat emptor. Such literary crimes ought to be against the law.)
But whether you care about the book or not, if you want a good family movie, this is it.
Beautiful Movie!
I love to read books and I love movie adaptations of books! I saw the 1933 black and white movie adaptation of Little Women that starred Katharine Hepburn as Jo and I think it's a very good movie and she was very good as Jo but then I watched this 1949 color movie adaptation for the first time and I liked it even more than I liked the 1933 movie. This 1949 movie starred June Allyson as Jo and I think this movie is wonderful and while there are a couple of changes like making Beth younger then Amy when in the book Amy is younger then Beth I still felt like it was pretty close to the book and I think June Allyson was a very good Jo and was exactly what I pictured Jo to be like and I also liked Margaret O'Brien as Beth and I think she really captured the sweet, shy Beth from the book. The other Actors were good too, Elizabeth Taylor was a perfect Amy, Janet Leigh was very good as Meg, Mary Astor was a good Marmee and I loved the underappreciated Peter Lawford as Laurie and I also liked Rosanno Brazzi as Professor Bhaer who I think was very convincing as the German Mr. Baher and I very highly recommend this wonderful movie and this DVD to fans of the book! I have seen complaints written that the actors in this movie are too old to be playing the young Jo, Meg, Amy, Beth and Laurie but it is such a beautifully filmed and acted movie that if you get past the age thing you will see that the acting is very good and that it makes up for it and you forget about the ages of the actors but I have also seen the same age complaints written about some of the actors from the 1933 and 1994 versions too and to me the age of the actors is just a minor thing and I don't think the actors looked all that old!
A Pleasant Watch
This is a sweet little movie; one to watch in wintertime, curled up on the sofa with a cup of hot chocolate. I am a big Rossano Brazzi fan, and it was a pleasure to see him in his first significant American role as the professor. His warm personality really showed through. However, it took a bit of will power to overlook the fact that the professor was supposed to be German, and Rosano Brazzi is about as Italian as you can get. But hey; details, details!
Louisa May Alcott's beloved story is one of the most-read novels ever written. It has also proved popular film and telefilm fodder (at least six versions plus a TV series). In addition, Little Women is one of those rare literary projects that can truly be done well on screen. This, the 1933 version, chronicles the lives and loves of sisters Jo, Meg, Amy, and Beth (played, respectively, by Katharine Hepburn, Frances Dee, Joan Bennett, and Jean Parker). It's a superior rendering to the amiable, perky 1949 version with June Allyson, Janet Leigh, Elizabeth Taylor, Margaret O'Brien, and Peter Lawford, and comparable to the beautiful, feminist Gillian Armstrong 1994 take. Douglass Montgomery's Laurie isn't nearly as dreamy as Christian Bale's (1994), but the lack of chemistry between him... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Katharine Hepburn - Joan Bennett Director(s): George Cukor DVD Release Date: Released the 13 November 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The flaws are easily forgiven in this beautiful version of Louisa May Alcott's novel. A stirring look at life in New England during the Civil War, Little Women is a triumph for all involved. We follow one family as they split into the world, ending up with the most independent, the outspoken Jo (Winona Ryder). This time around, the dramatics and conclusions fall into place a little too well, instead of finding life's little accidents along the way. Everyone now looks a bit too cute and oh, so nice. As the matron, Marmee, Susan Sarandon kicks the film into a modern tone, creating a movie alive with a great feminine sprit. Kirsten Dunst (Interview with the Vampire) has another showy role. The young ensemble cast cannot be faulted, with Ryder beginning the movie in a... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Gillian Armstrong DVD Release Date: Released the 25 April 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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One of the finest American musicals, this 1944 film by Vincente Minnelli is an intentionally self-contained story set in 1903, in which a happy St. Louis family is shaken to their roots by the prospect of moving to New York, where the father has a better job pending. Judy Garland heads the cast in what amounts to a splendid, end-of-an-era story that nicely rhymes with the onset of the 20th century. The film is extraordinarily alive, the characters strong, and the musical numbers are so splendidly part of the storytelling that you don't feel the film has stopped for an interlude. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Director(s): Vincente Minnelli - Alan D. Courtney - Roy Mack DVD Release Date: Released the 06 April 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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A three-hour weepy extraordinaire, this 1944 offering from producer David O. Selznick (who also wrote the screenplay) was a tribute to all the families who stayed behind while their men went off to fight in World War II. Claudette Colbert is the mother of daughters Jennifer Jones and Shirley Temple; first seen coming home after dropping her war-bound husband at the train, she becomes the model of courage and strength on the homefront. The plot has a Saturday Evening Post feel today, as it follows the family's day-to-day life and struggles, whether with a crotchety boarder (a delightfully starchy Monty Woolley) or oldest daughter Jones's doomed romance with departing serviceman Robert Walker. They don't make them like this anymore and it's too bad. Nominated for a fistful of Oscars,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Claudette Colbert - Jennifer Jones Director(s): John Cromwell DVD Release Date: Released the 19 October 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The ultimate tearjerker, this 1942 romance classic directed by Mervyn LeRoy (based on a novel by James Hilton) stars Ronald Colman as a British army officer suffering from amnesia after World War I. After falling in love with and marrying a dance-hall singer (Greer Garson), Colman's happy character begins a career as a writer and doesn't seem to mind that he doesn't remember who he is. A car accident changes all that, however, causing the hero's memory to return and making him forget all about his lovely cottage and bride. LeRoy modulates the obvious suspense element in the story (for example, is Colman going to remember Greer or not?) extremely well, building ever-so-deliciously slowly toward a huge payoff. This is one of the great date movies of all time. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Ronald Colman - Greer Garson Director(s): Mervyn LeRoy DVD Release Date: Released the 11 January 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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