LITTLE WOMEN

US, 1933, 117 minutes, Black and white.
Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Jean Parker, Frances Dee, Edna May Oliver, Spring Byington, Paul Lukas, Douglass Montgomery, Henry Stephenson.
Directed by George Cukor.

Little Women is an adaptation of the novel by Louisa May Alcott, considered a classic and remade by MGM, colourfully, in the late 1940s. It was also a mini-series of the 1970s.

This was one of the earliest films directed by George Cukor who was to go on to direct Katherine Hepburn in a number of films including The Philadelphia Story.

The film is a piece of Americana coming at the last stages of the Civil War, echoing the life of women in the times but indicating some changes coming, poverty and gentility, good manners and a changing robustness. A young Katherine Hepburn plays Jo with great vigour (and a touch of overacting) Joan Bennet is believable as the rather more self-centered Amy. Jean Parker is the ill Beth. Frances Dee is in the background as Meg. Spring Byington is Marmee. (The roles are played, respectively, in the remake by June Allyson, Elizabeth Taylor, Margaret O'Brien, Janet Leigh and Mary Astor.)

The film focuses on life in a small American town in the 19th century and is full of sentiment as well as American high-mindedness. This seems rather outdated, even quaint now -but reminds us American idealism.

1. The status of the film? Classic? Director and cast? A film of the early 1930s?

2. Black and white photography, style, re-creation of period? Musical score?

3. The title, the focus on mother and daughters - and father asking them to be Little Women?

4. The focus on 1864 and the background of the Civil War, men away at the front, patriotism? Mr March as a chaplain at the war? His absence, the importance of his letters, his return? Life in the town, helping the poor? School? The ending of the war and the late 19th century, the advances for women in publishing, going to New York, travel to Europe?

5. Jo as the central character, her strength of mind, Katharine Hepburn's performance? Reading to Aunt March, Aunt March's tyranny, her place in the family, ruggedness, the friendship with Laurie, going to see him, his grandfather, wanting the friendship with the grandfather?, Her love, for her sisters, for everything to stay as it was? The money and the gifts for Christmas, the gifts to Marmee? Giving the breakfast to the poor? The reward from their neighbour? Her play and enjoyment of performance in rehearsal? Her stories, reading them to her sisters, telling Laurie about the cheque? The friendship with Laurie - but her not submitting to romanticism? Losing Laurie? Her decision to go to New York? Meeting the Professor, the exhilaration of the life in the city? Her love for the family at home and concern about Beth's health? Her return home, Beth's death? Aunt March and Amy going to England? Amy marrying Laurie? His return home, their friendship? Memories of the past and the interaction and her helping Laurie to stand on his own feet? Her wariness about Meg's wedding, resigned to it? The Professor's arrival - a future with him? A woman ahead of her time?

5. Meg, demure, governess? Her role in the family? In love, her beau? Her marriage? Amy and her vanity, at school, her cartoon? The gift, buying the cologne for her mother? Flirtatious, at the dance, watching Laurie and Jo dance? Her opportunities, in love with Laurie, the trip to Europe, her marriage?

6. Beth, poor health, painfully shy? The dance and her watching from the staircase? The neighbour and his gift of the piano? Her joy? Illness, the death of the baby and her hiding in the closet? Her death?

7. Marmee, her place in the town, generous? The joy of the gifts, giving of the breakfast? The reading of the letters and the emotions? the daughters responding to their father's letter and trying to change? The household, the maid? The neighbours? Socialising? The return of her husband?

8. Aunt March and Edna May Oliver's comic touch? With Jo, visiting in New York, taking Amy to Europe?

9. The people in the town, the man with his sons killed in the war, the poor family and their cold, the death of the baby! Service of the poor?

10. American sentiment, belief in the family?