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, affectionately known as Marmee, while they await the return of their father, a colonel and a chaplain in the Union Army. Spirited tomboy Jo, who caters to the whims of their well-to-do Aunt March, dreams of becoming a famous author, and she writes plays for her sisters to perform for the local children. 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, the Marches' wealthy next-door neighbor. The Laurences invite them to a lavish party where Meg meets Laurie's tutor John Brooke. During the next several months, John courts Meg, Jo's first short story becomes published, and Beth often takes advantage of Mr. Laurence's offer for her to practice on his piano.
Marmee learns that her husband is recuperating in a hospital in Washington, D.C. after an injury, so she travels there to care for him. During her absence, Beth contracts scarlet fever from a neighbor's baby. She recovers, but is in a weakened condition. The March parents return, and Meg marries John. Laurie confesses his love to Jo, who rejects him. When he snubs her in return, Jo moves to New York City to pursue her writing career, and she lives in a boarding house. There she meets Professor Bhaer, an impoverished German linguist. With his help and encouragement, Jo improves her writing, and she resolves her confused feelings about Laurie.
Beth is near to death, so Jo returns to Concord to be with her family. After Beth dies, a grieving Jo learns that Amy, who accompanied Aunt March to Europe, has fallen in love with Laurie and accepted his proposal. Upon the return of Laurie and Amy, who are now married, Jo is happy for them. 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.
Katharine Hepburn as Jo from the trailer for Little Women (1933)
Development
David O. Selznick conceived the idea of creating a film based on Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women.[3] Selznick planned to modernize the adaptation in order to conserve money, but after a survey discovered that the majority of potential viewers wanted it to be authentic to its original setting.[4] Selznick left the studio before it could be made[3] and received no screen credit.[5] As a result, Merian C. Cooper took over production.[3] His co-producer was Kenneth MacGowan.[6] Cooper supported the idea of making the film a period piece.[4]John S. Roberton was originally employed as the director, but he was replaced with George Cukor.[7] Cukor had taken a job with MGM; RKO executives were willing to let him go if he directed this film as his last with the studio.[8] At the time movies based on books were often widely different from the books in order to improve capital potential.[7] The studio was presented with several unsuccessful scripts that did not follow the novel closely[7] until Victor Heerman and Sarah Y. Mason were recruited as screenwriters.[9] Cukor had previously directed a play adaptation of Little Women written by the husband-wife script writing team.[3] Cukor wanted to preserve the episodic nature of the novel,[10] and Cooper established that he wanted the film to be influenced by the book rather than the play.[11] RKO executives were doubtful about whether or not audiences would want to see or enjoy Little Women because it followed the novel closely.[12]
Cukor, who thought of Joan Bennet as an unemotional actress,[7] impulsively decided on her for the role of Amy March after meeting her at a party while she was slightly inebriated.[13] Cukor noticed that she was "sweet and funny".[9] She became the second billed actress in the cast.[13] After seeing her work in her film debut A Bill of Divorcement, Cukor decided to cast Katharine Hepburn as Jo.[12] Through the course of production Cukor and Hepburn developed a strong friendship that lasted for several years.[14]Eric Linden was cast as Laurie but was replaced by Douglass Montgomery.[7]Louise Closser Hale was originally scheduled to portray Aunt March, but after her death on July 26, 1933, Edna May Oliver assumed the role.[15]Spring Byington, who portrayed Marmee, had previously been a stage actress.[7]Little Women marked her film debut.[16] After the studio contracted a number of cast members, Cooper increased the budget so they could improve the cast.[3]
"When I directed Little Women I had to develop a new technique to ensure the best results from the collaboration of Miss Hepburn and myself...a fine actress, Katharine Hepburn is more than a personality. She is a human dynamo. Without meaning to be, and simply because of the vigor of her own mind and the intensity of her attitude toward her own work, she can be, if given the chance, what I would call an artistic bully...I do not say that had I decided to “lie down” to her from the start, a less good picture would have resulted. But a director with a conscience will fight tooth and nail to get the picture as he wants it. Let me hasten to say that Miss Hepburn and I did not fight at all. I confess freely that I used many weapons in dealing with her -simulated rage, ridicule and good-humored cajolery. She has a great sense of humor, and is capable of directing it against herself. - Director George Cukor, from Behind the Screen, 1938.[17]
At Hepburn's request, costume designerWalter Plunkett designed an opera dress[18] for her character based on one worn by her maternal grandmother.[7] Plunkett needed to redesign several of Joan Bennett's costumes to conceal her advancing pregnancy, a condition that Bennett intentionally had not mentioned to Cukor when he cast her in the film.[19] Cukor requested that the costumes be simple to evoke the fashion styles of the Civil War era.[20] Plunkett designed all of the costumes thoughtfully, purposely shuffling clothing items among the March sisters in different scenes to emphasize the family bond[21] as well as their poverty.[22] The prime goal of director George Cukor was to emphasize the juxtaposition between sacrifice and family life in Little Women.[21] Costumes, furnishings, and other household items were made accurate by researchers over the period of several months.[7] Hobe Erwin, a former artist and interior decorator, was hired to oversee the set decoration,[23] and he modeled the interior of the March home after Orchard House, Louisa May Alcott's Massachusetts home.[15] Having an art director allowed Cukor to focus on working with the actors.[23] Outside scenes were filmed at Lancaster's Lake in Sunland, Providencia Ranch in the Hollywood Hills as well as the Warner Bros. Ranch in Pasadena.[24] Fireplaces and candles were hand-colored in original prints of the film.[25]
Filming
The film cost $424,000 to make,[26] with 4,000 people working on it during the year-long production.[24] Filming began in July 1933.[9] In the end it took longer to make and cost more than the budget allowed for.[27] Cukor had to limit the number of takes for each scene because of the low budget allotted.[20] During production the sound crew went on strike, which meant the producers and director used a less-experienced crew for parts of the film.[7] Because of their inexperience, Beth’s death scene had to be shot several times.[7] Eventually Hepburn became so exhausted that she vomited, to which a frustrated Cukor responded, “Well, that’s what I think of the scene, too.”[18] For another scene Cukor instructed Hepburn to not mess up while carrying food upstairs. However, when she stumbled and food spilled on her costume, Cukor slapped her and called her an “amateur”.[18] As she played Jo, Hepburn felt a personal connection with her character because she had been a tomboy as a child.[27] She also based her acting on what she knew about her grandmother.[7] Camera methods were used to conceal Bennet's pregnancy, such as adjusting the blocking and filming her above the waist.[7]
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.[20] Steiner filled the score with music reminiscent of the mid-19th century, including classical pieces and lyrical songs.[28] In his own words, Steiner wanted the score to sound “quaint and old-fashioned”.[20] The main title theme, reminiscent of a Victorian lullaby, eventually becomes Jo’s theme.[20] Her theme was later reused in the 1949 remake.[29] Beth’s theme is the 19th-century song “Bloom, My Tiny Violet”.[20] When she dies Steiner creates a sense of the afterlife by combining an orchestra with a vocalizing choir.[20] While Cukor disliked Steiner’s score for its sentimentality,[30] Hepburn enjoyed it.[28]
Release
Advertisement from 1933
The film opened on November 16, 1933 at Radio City Music Hall, and despite the fact that it was the coldest November 16 in 50 years, the film broke opening-day records with 23,073 people attending.[31] It earned more than $100,000 during its first week of release.[15] A record 451,801 people attended the three-week run at Radio City Music Hall before the film was moved to RKO's Center Theatre, where an additional 250,000 people attended over the course of four weeks.[31] During its initial release, Little Women earned total theater rentals of $2,000,000, with $1,397,000 from the U.S. and Canada and $663,000 from other countries. A 1938 rerelease earned an additional $70,000 in total rentals, resulting in an overall profit of $849,000.[1][2] It was among the most popular films at the American box office in 1933.[32][33]
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.[3]
Home media
The film was released on DVD for Region 1 markets (U.S., Canada and American territories) on November 6, 2001 by Warner Home Video. It was released on Blu-ray in Region A on August 29, 2023 as part of the Warner Archive Collection.[34]
Reception
Lobby card
Critical Reception
The film was overwhelmingly praised by critics upon its release. 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. It matters not that this chronicle is without a hero, or even a villain, for the absence of such worthies, usually extravagantly drawn, causes one to be quite contented to dwell for the moment with human hearts of the old-fashioned days. 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."[35]
Variety called it "a superbly human document, sombre in tone, stately and slow in movement, but always eloquent in its interpretations."[36]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."[37] 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."[38] 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."[38]
TV Guide rated the film four stars, calling it "unabashedly sentimental" and "an example of Hollywood's best filmmaking." It added, "The sets, costumes, lighting, and direction by George Cukor all contribute greatly to this magnificent film, but the performances, especially Hepburn's, are what make the simple story so moving. There are laughs and tears aplenty in this movie, which presents a slice of American history in a way that children will find palatable. Released during the depths of the Depression, Little Women buoyed Americans' spirits. It still does."[39] Little Women was voted one of the ten best pictures of 1934 by Film Daily's annual poll of critics.[40] The film was included by the Vatican in a list of important films compiled in 1995, under the category of "Art".[41]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.[42]Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 92 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[43]
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott takes place in the midst of the Civil War (during the 1860s). By the time the 1933 film was made the United States was in the midst of Great Depression and would be fighting in World War II in the near future. References that were once meant to be about the Civil War became all too relatable for audiences. Especially at the beginning of the film, the constant emphasis on food, frugality, conservation, activism, social reform, and want for family and morality are just a short list of the ideals that transferred directly from the Civil War era to the mindsets of Americans in the Great Depression. Cukor's focus on hardship and relief partnered with intense familial commitment creates a nostalgic and sentimental picture of joyfulness, moral improvement, and social progression. The 1933 film became a trademark of “an activist spirit grounded in unbreakable ties to family and community” as the March girls represent the hope and determination that was prominent during both the Civil War and the Great Depression.[21]
1 2 3 Jewell, Richard B. (1994). "RKO Film Grosses, 1929-1951: the C. J. Tevlin ledger". Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 14 (1): 37–49. doi:10.1080/01439689400260031.
1 2 3 Jewell, Richard B. (1994). "Appendix 1". Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 14 (S1): 1–11. doi:10.1080/01439689408604545.
Cotta Vaz, Mark (2005). Living Dangerously: The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper, Creator of King Kong. New York: Villard Books. ISBN1-4000-6276-4.
Jewell, Richard B.; Harbin, Vernon (1982). The RKO Story. London, England: Octopus Books Limited. ISBN0-517-546566.
Koszarski, Richard. 1976. Hollywood Directors: 1914-1940. Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Catalog Number: 76-9262.
Lasky, Betty (1984). RKO: The Biggest Little Major of Them All. Prentice-Hall. ISBN0-13-781451-8.
Levy, Emanuel (1994). George Cukor, Master of Elegance. William Morrow and Company. ISBN0-688-11246-3.
McGilligan, Patrick (1991). A Double Life: George Cukor. St. Martin's Press. ISBN0-312-05419-X.
Rioux, Anne Boyd (2018). Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters. W. W. Norton and company. ISBN9780393254730.
Smith, Steven C. (2020). Music by Max Steiner: The Epic Life of Hollywood's Most Influential Composer. New York City: Oxford University Press. ISBN9780190623272.
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