Little Women (1933 film)

Set in Concord, Massachusetts, during and after the American Civil War, the film is a series of vignettes focusing on the struggles and adventures of the four March sisters and their mother, Marmee, while they await the return of their father, a colonel and chaplain in the Union Army. Spirited tomboy Jo dreams of becoming a famous author, and she writes plays for the family to perform for the local children. She also spends several hours every week reading to her Aunt March, though she dislikes it. Amy is pretty but selfish, Meg works as a governess, and sensitive Beth practices on her clavichord. The girls meet Laurie, who has come to live with his grandfather - Mr. Laurence, their wealthy next-door neighbor. Laurie invites the girls to a lavish party where Meg meets and becomes interested in John Brooke, who is Laurie's tutor. While Beth and Amy sit on the stairs and watch the party, they meet Mr. Laurence. He is impressed by Beth's love for music and offers to let her use his piano. During the next several months, John courts Meg, Beth regularly plays Mr. Laurence's piano, and Jo's first short story is published. Meanwhile, Laurie falls in love with Jo, who sees them as no more than best friends. Marmee travels to Washington, D.C. after learning her husband is recuperating from an injury in a hospital there. During her absence, Beth contracts scarlet fever from a neighbor's baby and nearly dies. Worried about Beth, the March parents return. Beth recovers but remains in a weakened condition. Later, Meg marries John, which upsets Jo because she wants things to stay the way they are. After the newly married couple leaves, Laurie confesses his love to Jo, who rejects him. Wanting time to consider her relationship with Laurie, Jo moves to New York City to pursue her writing career. While there, she lives in a boarding house where she meets Professor Bhaer, an impoverished German linguist. With his help and encouragement, Jo improves her writing and resolves her confused feelings about Laurie, who has been living in Europe. Beth, still suffering from the effects of scarlet fever, is near death. Jo learns of this after an evening with Bhaer and promptly returns to Concord to be with her family. After Beth dies, a grieving Jo learns that Amy, who accompanied Aunt March to Europe, fell in love with Laurie and accepted his proposal. Laurie and Amy return as a married couple and Jo is happy for them. While the family celebrates, Professor Bhaer arrives from New York City and brings Jo's manuscript for Little Women, which is soon to be published. He confesses his love to Jo and proposes. Jo accepts, welcoming him to the family. ==Cast==

• Katharine Hepburn as Josephine "Jo" March • Joan Bennett as Amy March • Frances Dee as Margaret "Meg" March • Jean Parker as Elizabeth "Beth" March • Spring Byington as Marmee March • Douglass Montgomery as Theodore "Laurie" Laurence • Paul Lukas as Professor Bhaer • Edna May Oliver as Aunt March • Henry Stephenson as Mr. Laurence • John Davis Lodge as Brooke • Samuel S. Hinds as Mr. March • Nydia Westman as Mamie • Harry Beresford as Doctor Bangs • Mabel Colcord as Hannah • Marion Ballou as Mrs. Kirke • Olin Howland as Mr. Davis (uncredited) • Bonita Granville as Amy's classmate (uncredited) ==Production==

Development David O. Selznick conceived the idea of creating a film based on Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. Selznick left the studio before it could be made and received no screen credit. As a result, Merian C. Cooper took over production. His co-producer was Kenneth MacGowan. John S. Roberton was originally employed as the director, but he was replaced with George Cukor. Cukor had taken a job with MGM, but RKO executives were willing to let him go if he directed this film as his last with the studio. Selznick and Cukor planned the film as they traveled from Los Angeles to New York City on the ocean. Cukor, who thought of Joan Bennett as an unemotional actress, Cukor noticed that she was "sweet and funny". She became the second billed actress in the cast. Spring Byington, who portrayed Marmee, had previously been a stage actress. After the studio contracted a number of cast members, Cooper increased the budget so they could improve the cast.At Hepburn's request, costume designer Walter Plunkett designed an opera dress for her character based on one worn by her maternal grandmother. Cukor requested that the costumes be simple to evoke the fashion styles of the Civil War era. Plunkett designed the dresses to look shabby, adding frays and fabric patches. He designed the costumes so they could be shuffled among the March sisters in different scenes to emphasize the family bond as well as their poverty. The prime goal of director George Cukor was to emphasize the juxtaposition between sacrifice and family life in Little Women. Fireplaces and candles were hand-colored in original prints of the film. Filming Filming began in July 1933. The film cost $424,000 to make, with 4,000 people working on it during the year-long production. It took longer to make than was initially planned, and went over budget. Cukor had to limit the number of takes for each scene because of the low budget allotted. During production the sound crew went on strike, which meant the producers and director used a less-experienced crew for parts of the film. Because of their inexperience, Beth's death scene had to be shot several times. Eventually, Hepburn became so exhausted that she vomited, to which a frustrated Cukor responded, “Well, that’s what I think of the scene, too.” For another scene, Cukor told Hepburn not to "mess up" while carrying food upstairs. When Hepburn stumbled and food spilled on her costume, Cukor slapped her and called her an “amateur”. Hepburn felt a personal connection with Jo because she had been a tomboy as a child. She felt connections between Marmee and her own mother, as well as her own New England upbringing, and based her acting on what she knew about her grandmother. Camera methods were used to conceal Bennett's pregnancy, such as adjusting the blocking and filming her above the waist. Score The score, composed by Max Steiner, was written for a 21-piece orchestra; the small size was a result of RKO's lack of confidence in the film's success. Steiner filled the score with music reminiscent of the mid-19th century, including classical pieces and lyrical songs. In his own words, Steiner wanted the score to sound “quaint and old-fashioned”. The main title theme, reminiscent of a Victorian lullaby, eventually becomes Jo's theme. This was reused in the 1949 remake. Beth's theme is the 19th-century song “Bloom, My Tiny Violet”. When she dies, Steiner creates a sense of the afterlife by combining an orchestra with a vocalizing choir. While Cukor disliked Steiner's score for its sentimentality, Hepburn enjoyed it. ==Release==

The film opened on November 16, 1933, at Radio City Music Hall. Despite the fact that it was the coldest November 16 in half a century, the film broke opening-day records with 23,073 attending. By the end of the day, it broke box office records by $500. It was officially released on November 24 Over 20,000 attended each day of opening week, and lines were still full when the theater closed. The restored version was later released on Blu-ray via the Warner Archive Collection on August 29, 2023. ==Reception==

Critical reception The film was praised by critics upon its release.Time Magazine predicted that Little Women would “place Katharine Hepburn near the top of the list of U.S. box-office favorites”. Motion Picture Herald expected its attendance to bypass the attendance of films from the last eleven months. The Film Daily predicted that it would “get a rousing reception” and commented that “it seems as though the characters had actually come to life”. Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times wrote, "The easy-going fashion in which George Cukor, the director, has set forth the beguiling incidents in pictorial form is so welcome after the stereotyped tales with stuffed shirts . . . The film begins in a gentle fashion and slips away smoothly without any forced attempt to help the finish to linger in the minds of the audience." He later rated it as #8 in the top ten best films of 1933. Variety called it "a superbly human document, sombre in tone, stately and slow in movement, but always eloquent in its interpretations." John Mosher of The New Yorker declared it "an amazing triumph" and "a picture more intense, wrought with more feeling, than any other we are likely to see for a long time to come." The New York World-Telegram credited the film "a stunningly clever job of recapturing on the screen all the simplicity and charm of its author", writing that Hepburn gave "an unforgettably brilliant performance and that once and for all she definitely proves how unlimited and effortless an actress she really is." The New York American wrote, "at the moment, and for days, weeks, months to come, Miss Hepburn's characterization will stand alone on a pedestal of flaming brilliance." Little Women has also received more recent critical attention. Tom Milne of TimeOut Film Guide says that even though the film has “a rich vein of sentiment, . . . Hepburn’s Jo, making a subversive choice of what she wants her life to be, . . . ensures that the cosiness isn’t everything.” Film historian Charlie Keil comments that scenes where Hepburn alternates between feminine and masculine traits for Jo shows both her acting skills and Jo's acting skills. Author Anne Boyd Rioux remarks that Hepburn emphasizes Jo's tomboyishness to the point that it suppresses her feminine traits. Leonard Martin’s Classic Movie Guide remarks, “[The] film offers endless pleasure no matter how many times you’ve seen it; a faithful, beautiful adaptation”. Little Women was voted one of the ten best pictures of 1934 by Film Daily's annual poll of critics. The film was included by the Vatican in a list of important films compiled in 1995, under the category of "Art". Little Women has an approval rating of 89% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 18 reviews, and an average rating of 8.4/10. Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 92 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". General reception RKO may have benefited from the fact that Depression-era audiences were especially receptive of the film's evocation of life in a simpler and more innocent world. In addition, as studios had been criticized in 1932 and 1933 for violent and sexual themes, many viewers valued the film's conservative nature. Cukor's adaptation highlights the Marches' financial hardships. Viewers related to the financial struggles and simple way of life, Accolades The film was nominated at the 6th Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director for Cukor and Best Adaptation, winning the latter. Katharine Hepburn was not nominated for Lead Actress for this film, but she was nominated for Morning Glory, for which she eventually won. == Adaptations and legacy ==

With the film's success, Madame Alexander produced and sold Little Women dolls. Around the same time, a United Press correspondent staying in Paris claimed that women's fashion was beginning to hark back to old-fashioned styles because of the film. The film was also incorporated into school programs. In 1947 Hepburn played Jo for a radio dramatization of the story, while the other actresses occasionally appeared as their characters in additional radio dramatizations. When it was remade in 1949 by MGM, Cukor declined working as the director because he felt it would not be as charming as the 1933 version because Hepburn was not cast as Jo. The script was almost identical to the script of the 1933 version. Once it was released, Cukor felt it lacked “magic”. López-Rodríguez claims that of the 1933, 1949, and 1994 adaptations, “the Jo March closer to Alcott’s description is Katharine Hepburn”. Other filmmakers wanted to release films that had a similar mood to the 1933 Little Women. Anne of Green Gables (1934) was produced to achieve this effect. ==See also==