Little Women (1949)

Director:

Mervyn LeRoy

Writers:

Louisa May Alcott (novel) and
Victor Heerman (screenplay)

Release Date:

10 March 1949 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Family | Romance

Tagline:

THRILLS OF YOUNG LOVE! (original print ad - all caps)

Plot:

Louisa May Alcott's autobiographical account of her life with her three sisters in Concord Mass in the 1860s...

Plot Keywords:

Women | Tomboy | Nostalgic | Professor | Scarlet Fever

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 1 nomination

Cast

June Allyson	...	Jo
Peter Lawford	...	Theodore Laurence 'Laurie'
Margaret O'Brien	...	Beth
Elizabeth Taylor	...	Amy
Janet Leigh	...	Meg
Rossano Brazzi	...	Professor Bhaer
Mary Astor	...	Marmee
Lucile Watson	...	Aunt March
C. Aubrey Smith	...	Mr. Laurence (as Sir C. Aubrey Smith)
Elizabeth Patterson	...	Hannah - March family maid
Leon Ames	...	Father March
Harry Davenport	...	Dr. Barnes
Richard Wyler	...	John Brooke (as Richard Stapley)
Connie Gilchrist	...	Mrs. Kirke - NY landlady
Ellen Corby	...	Sophie - Mrs Kirke's maid

Runtime:

121 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate #13422) | South Korea:All | Sweden:Btl | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Chile:TE | Finland:S | UK:U

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

In the scene where Beth (Margaret O'Brien) tells Jo (June Allyson) that she doesn't mind dying, June Allyson's tears were real. She was so moved by Margaret O'Brien's performance that she was sent home early, still crying, and had to pull over several times on her journey home as her tears rendered her unable to drive.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Laurie stalks off after Jo rejects his marriage proposal, his shadow is visible on the backdrop that is supposed to make it look like they are sitting outdoors.

Quotes:

Jo March: [repeated several times] Christopher Columbus!

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Private Screenings: Child Stars" (2006)

This Movie represents one of the finest most beautifully filmed of all of MGM's costum drama's from that era.

The opening scenes of Little Women are so beautifully captured on film that it looks almost like a Currier and Ives post card. It is so magically evocative of a New England in the early 1860's that the viewer is transported to that time visually and emotionally. The characters are so well crafted, warm and human that you truly wish you knew them. The way the movie glides through the season's, from the deep snows of winter, to the bright flowers of spring, through the summer into the golden hues of autumn each season is so wonderfully captured that viewers one hundred years from now will feel that they time tripped to that age so long ago. With the brutal civil war as the backdrop to the play, the movie tells the sensitive and gentle story of four young sister's on the homefront. Each sister is defined and likeable. Brought to life brilliently by June Allyson, Janet Leigh, Elizabeth Taylor and Margaret O'Brien. Each actress captured fully the innocents, decency and depth of their roles, imprinting forever the definitive characterizations that would have made Louisa May Alcott proud. I love this most beautiful work of cinematic art so much that I never tire of watching it. It is a treat for the eyes, the heart and the soul and at the end when the camera pans back to view the sky festooned with a glorious rainbow your emotions leap for joy that a movie can so utterly express the simple elegance of human decency and goodness.