Little Women (1933 and 2019)

For actors, there are certain roles (mostly courtesy of Shakespeare), that a new generation of men have the opportunity to perform again and again.  Think Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, or King Lear.  Numerous actors have played these roles both on stage and screen.  OCEAN'S 11 (1960) with a predominantly male cast including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis, Jr was remade with a superstar male cast at the start of this century in Steven Soderbergh's OCEAN'S ELEVEN (2001) starring George Clooney, Matt Damon, and Brad Pit among others.  For actresses, there are not as many of these perennial roles (both Desdemona and Ophelia are worthy but more supporting roles). But Louise May Alcott's 19th century novel Little Women is the noteworthy exception. LITTLE WOMEN has inspired not only two silent film adaptations of Alcott's novel but four versions in the talkie age starring some of the best and brightest young actresses of their generation starring as the four March sisters.

The first version of LITTLE WOMEN I saw was Gillian Armstrong's 1994 version starring Winona Ryder, Claire Danes, Susan Sarandon, and Christian Bale. I can honestly say I do not remember a single thing about that film.  CrazyFilmGuy's mind set at that time was Spielberg and Schwarzenegger films, anything but a period piece about a New England family with four daughters. But as I have grown older and found a new appreciation for not only period films but films that are not male dominated, the most recent version of LITTLE WOMEN (2019) directed by up and coming Greta Gerwig (LADY BIRD) gave me another chance to appreciate Alcott's story. Gerwig's retelling of LITTLE WOMEN also came at an opportune time as female empowerment was on the rise nationally.

To watch LITTLE WOMEN you almost need a scorecard to remember the four Marchs sisters, their names, and their personalities.  CrazyFilmGuy is here to assist you.   There's the literary daughter Josephine (or Jo), the tomboy-ish Amy, the quiet Elizabeth (or Beth), and the prettiest Margaret (or Meg).  A very young Katherine Hepburn appeared in George Cukor's LITTLE WOMEN (1933), the very first talking version. Elizabeth Taylor and Janet Leigh were among the young actresses in the next version of  LITTLE WOMEN (1949) directed by Mervyn LeRoy.  The 1994 version of LITTLE WOMEN that I saw was the first version directed by a woman, Australian director Gillian Armstrong (MY BRILLIANT CAREER) starring Winona Ryder, Claire Danes, and Kirsten Dunst. And most recently, Greta Gerwig's LITTLE WOMEN (2019) stars some of today's brightest young actresses including Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, and Emma Watson.  For sanity's sake, CrazyFilmGuy is going to review the 1933 and 2019 versions this time and will revisit the 1949 and 1994 versions in a year or two. 

The 1933 LITTLE WOMEN had the good fortune to have George Cukor (THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, A STAR IS BORN) as its director. Cukor was well known for his handling of actresses and female themed films and he doesn't disappoint.  With a screenplay by wife and husband team of Sarah Y. Mason and Victor Heerman based on Alcott's novel, LITTLE WOMEN chronicles the lives of the March sisters in 19th Century Concord, Massachusetts beginning on Christmas Eve as the Civil War rolls on. We meet Jo March (Katherine Hepburn), the most free-spirited sister, trying to sneak away from reading to her Aunt March (Edna May Oliver) so she can be with her sisters on Christmas Eve. Amy March (Joan Bennett) is the most rebellious and artistic, made an example by her teacher Mr. Davis (Olin Howland) for drawing a caricature of him in class. Beth March (Jean Parker) is shy but likes to play the clavichord (a type of piano). Meg March (Frances Dee) is the prettiest and works as a governess. The girls mother Marmee March (Spring Byington) arrives home from work and the girls all gather together as she reads a letter to them from their father Mr. March (Samuel Hinds) who's away serving as a colonel and chaplain on the Union side in the Civil War.

Jo wants to be a writer. She puts on her play The Witch's Curse for some school girls, she and her sisters playing the parts. But the set falls down. Upset, Jo goes outside and throws a snowball at the house next door where a handsome young man Theodore "Laurie" Laurence (Douglass Montgomery) has returned from Europe. Laurie lives with his rich grandfather Mr. Laurence (Henry Stephenson). Jo and Laurie hit it off, recreating the fight scene from Hamlet as they entertain each other during the winter. Mr. Laurence takes a liking to the March girls and invites them to a party at his home. Jo dismisses many would be suitors. Mr. Laurence invites Beth to play on his grand piano.  Meg is courted by the dashing Mr. John Brooke (John Davis Lodge), Laurie's tutor. Laurie rescues Jo from her doldrums as the party ends.

Jo secretly goes to the local newspaper and sells her first story for $1.50. Laurie spies her leaving the building. Jo and Laurie have a romp in the park and stumble across Meg and John on a date. Mr. Laurence buys Beth a piano.  Mrs. March gets word that her husband is in a hospital in Washington, D.C. Mrs. March goes to D.C. to care for Mr. March. The girls pray for their parents safe return.  Jo continues to sell more short stories to the newspaper. The sisters celebrate Jo's success but then Beth becomes ill with scarlet fever from a neighbor's child. Laurie sends word to Mrs. March to return home. Mrs. March comes home as Beth's fever breaks.  Mr. March is with her.  The March family is reunited.

Jo begins to realize that she and her sisters are growing up, growing apart as their lives take different directions. Meg and John Brooke are married, the ceremony conducted by Mr. March. The wedding saddens Jo. Laurie tries to console Jo who rejects Laurie's feelings toward her. Jo leaves for New York, looking for new inspiration for her writing. Jo finds a room at a boarding house where she meets another boarder, the kindly, older Professor Bhaer (Paul Lukas), a German linguist. Amy and Aunt March visit Jo before heading to Europe. Laurie's also in Europe but didn't stop in New York to see Jo. Jo finds success with her stories in New York with guidance (and some criticism) by Professor Bhaer.  Professor Bhaer begins to fall in love with Jo. But a letter from home sends Jo back to Concord where a death in the March family will bring Amy, Aunt March, Laurie and Mr. Laurence back from Europe.  Amy and Laurie are engaged, having met in Europe. Laurie and Jo remain friends.  As family and friends gather together once again, Professor Bhaer shows up from New York on a rainy night with Jo's manuscript for Little Women. He proposes to Jo who accepts his marriage offer. 

Of the four March sisters in LITTLE WOMEN, the character of Jo is the strongest.  Jo has the biggest arc from bubbly school girl to the dawning of a young woman. Jo is independent yet she's the one who strives to keep the family together. The other sisters represent pieces of Jo.  Amy is outgoing and rebellious. Beth melancholy and quiet.  Pretty Meg the most accepting of men and marriage offers. Jo experiences all of these characteristics during the film but follows her own path, taking her to a brand new world in the big city of New York. 

One of the strengths of LITTLE WOMEN is its theme of family.  It's tough times for the March family. Instead of a homemaker, the girls mother Marmee works in a store to provide for the family while Mr. March is away in the Civil War.  The sisters sing together on Christmas Eve and take their Christmas breakfast to a more needy family.  The sisters support each others hobbies whether it's acting in Jo's play, listening to Beth play the piano, or appreciating Amy's drawings. The love and support the four sisters have for each other is uplifting.  There's no family rivalry between them unlike Scarlet O'Hara (Vivian Leigh) and her cousin Melanie Hamilton (Olivia DeHavilland) in GONE WITH THE WIND (1939).

You can't tell the March girls without a scorecard. From left to right: Frances Dee, Joan Bennett, Katherine Hepburn, and Jean Parker.

All of the young actresses in LITTLE WOMEN would go on to fine film careers. For Katherine Hepburn, LITTLE WOMEN (only her fourth film) would be her first memorable performance in a string of acclaimed roles.  Hepburn would work with director Cukor again in SYLVIA SCARLETT (1935) co-starring Cary Grant, THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940) with Grant and James Stewart and ADAM'S RIB (1949) one of many films Hepburn made with Spencer Tracy. Not surprisingly, Joan Bennett who plays the closest to a bad girl as Amy in LITTLE WOMEN would parlay that dark side into two femme fatale performances in two Fritz Lang films: THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW (1944) and SCARLET STREET (1945) both co-starring with Edward G. Robinson. 

Frances Dee, perhaps the prettiest of the group as Meg would mostly work in the 30s and 40s in films as diverse as OF HUMAN BONDAGE (1934) with Bette Davis and Leslie Howard and Jacques Tourneur's I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943).  Her beauty cost her the role of Vivian Leigh's cousin in GONE WITH THE WIND (producer David Selznick went with Olivia DeHavilland instead). But don't feel bad for Frances Dee. Dee would marry actor Joel McCrea (SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS, FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT) who she met on the film THE SILVER CORD (1933) and they were married for fifty seven years until McCrea's death. Jean Parker who plays Beth March is probably the least well known of the group.  But like her costars, LITTLE WOMEN would propel Parker to a lengthy career with roles in Laurel & Hardy's THE FLYING DEUCES (1939), Edgar G. Ulmer's BLUEBEARD (1944) with John Carradine, and Henry King's western THE GUNFIGHTER (1950) with Gregory Peck. 

The men are periphery characters in this version of LITTLE WOMEN which is fine. Mr. March is almost like an extra. But Louise May Alcott did create two interesting men who support the March family in Mr. March's absence.  Douglas Montgomery as Laurie is an exuberant young man who seems to be there for each daughter whether in times of mirth or sadness. He's closest to Jo but will ultimately marry Amy. I had never seen Montgomery before but the handsome actor worked steadily from the 30s thru the 50s (MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD, THE CAT AND THE CANARY) until he died at the relatively young age of 58 due to cancer.  And Henry Stephenson as Laurie's grandfather Mr. Laurence first appears as a stern, scary man who becomes a soothing benefactor to the March family during their ups and downs. If there was one creepy part in Cukor's LITTLE WOMEN, it would be Paul Lukas as Jo's German suitor Professor Bhaer.  Lukas is far too old to be the man that Jo falls in love with.  Lukas would go on to appear in Alfred Hitchcock's THE LADY VANISHES (1938) and win an Academy Award for Best Actor in WATCH ON THE RHINE (1943) with Bette Davis.  But Lukas is badly miscast in LITTLE WOMEN.

One person who would not make the mistake of miscasting is director Greta Gerwig in her 2019 retelling of LITTLE WOMEN.  Gerwig chose the perfect moment to revisit the March girls as the female empowerment movement was rising up in 2019 following the #metoo movement.  Gerwig not only directed LITTLE WOMEN but wrote the screenplay.  With the 1933 version and subsequent remakes following Alcott's narrative from beginning to end, Gerwig mixes things up with her LITTLE WOMEN by starting the film in the last act with Jo in New York and then juxtaposing flashbacks seven years earlier with where the March girls are presently in their lives.  I had seen the new LITTLE WOMEN about a year ago and didn't fully appreciate the storyline or the characters.  But now having watched Cukor's LITTLE WOMEN, everything made sense even if Gerwig chose to tell her version out of order.

Everything you need to know about Gerwig's take on LITTLE WOMEN can be found in the first and last scene of the film.  Jo (Saoirse Ronan) visits newspaper editor Mr. Dashwood (Tracy Letts) in New York and pretends she's selling a short story for a friend even when it's really her short story. Dashwood agrees to buy the story but with some edits.  He pretty much tells Jo what she's going to get paid.  By the end of LITTLE WOMEN, Jo has her manuscript Little Women ready to be published.  Dashwood's daughters have read it and Dashwood knows he has a best seller in his hands.  But this time, it's Jo who does the negotiating, demanding a higher percentage and ownership of the copyright for her book.  She's not pushed around by Dashwood this time.  She's in control. 

Gerwig's LITTLE WOMEN kicks off with Amy March (Florence Pugh) in Paris with her Aunt March (Meryl Streep).  While out on a carriage ride, Amy runs into her old neighbor Laurie (Timothy Chalamet) walking in the park. Meg March (Emma Watson) is married to Laurie's old tutor John Brooke (James Norton) and lives in Concord, Massachusetts, close to where she and her family grew up.  And Josephine "Jo" March lives in a boarding house in New York, looking for inspiration for her stories. A young German professor Friedrich Bhaer (Louis Garrel) befriends Jo and will critique her stories and help her to become a better writer. But a letter arrives from home for Jo.  Her youngest sister Beth (Eliza Scanlen) has taken ill back in Concord.

We flashback seven years earlier.  The March family bond together on Christmas morning in the absence of their father Mr. March (Bob Odenkirk) who's away fighting in the Civil War. Their mother Marmee Match (Laura Dern) asks the girls if they can donate their Christmas breakfast to a needy family. Next door, young Theodore "Laurie" Laurence sees their generosity. When the March family return home, a lavish breakfast awaits them, courtesy of Laurie's rich grandfather Mr. Laurence (Chris Cooper). Laurie and Mr. Laurence will become friends with the March ladies. The March sisters will invite Laurie to join their theater group.  Mr. Laurence will take a shine to Beth who plays the piano and reminds him of his deceased daughter. Jo and Laurie will have a special relationship that makes Amy jealous. Meg will be the belle of the group, adored by many young men at social parties. Jo flees the suitors, hiding and dancing with Laurie outside, away from all the prying eyes. 

Back in the present, Jo returns to Concord to find Beth very sick (Beth earlier had scarlet fever but pulled through).  Beth doesn't want Amy to know about her illness and ruin her overseas trip. In Europe, Aunt March tells Amy she needs to marry someone wealthy like Fred Vaughn (Dash Barber) as she's her family's last hope for prosperity.  Laurie teases Amy for considering marrying for money over love. Gerwig flashes back to a Cape Cod beach picnic for the sisters, happier times. Beth tells Jo to keep writing. Meg and John are engaged.  Jo tries to talk Meg out of marriage but Meg wants to settle down. Marmee receives a letter from Washington D.C. that Mr. March is in the hospital and leaves to visit him. Aunt March invites Amy rather than Jo to Europe, devastating Jo. Laurie professes his love to Jo but she rejects his intimations. "Women, they have minds, and they have souls, as well as just hearts. And they've got ambition, and they've got talent, as well as just beauty," she says. "I'm so sick of people saying that love is just all a woman is fit for." Marmee returns with Mr. March, briefly reuniting the family.  Mr. March presides over Meg and John's marriage. But then life changed for the March family.

The film finishes up in the present with Beth passing away.  Amy, Laurie, and  Aunt March return from Europe upon hearing of Beth's death. Jo is ready to give her love to Laurie but learns Amy and Laurie are engaged. Aunt March passes away, leaving her house to Jo who plans to turn it into a school for boys and girls. The young Professor Friedrich Bhaer shows up in Concord to visit Jo who left unexpectedly and without saying goodbye to him in New York. Friedrich charms the March family but not Jo. Friedrich tells Jo he's headed to California to teach.  Jo wishes him well. As Friedrich heads to the train station, the March family and the Laurence's make Jo realize Friedrich's in love with her. Jo races off in the Laurence's carriage to catch Friedrich before his train departs.  LITTLE WOMEN ends with everyone helping out at the new school: Jo with Friedrich, Amy with Laurie, Meg with John, and Mr. and Mrs. March all together.

Give credit to writer/director Gerwig for breathing new life into LITTLE WOMEN.  All of the characters, whether leading or supporting roles, have greater layers of depth revealed than the 1933 version was able to show. The March girls all have more spunk, even the dour Beth who lives vicariously through her sisters. And we discover that the March girls do not all get along.  Amy is jealous of her siblings.  When Jo and Meg go on a double date with Laurie and John, Amy is so furious that she burns Jo's early version of her novel. Amy's near drowning in a nearby icy pond while following Jo and Laurie and her rescue by them will patch up their differences.  We discover in this version Laurie is both charming and rude (unlike Douglas Montgomery's Laurie who's all charming). Laurie insults Meg at a prestigious Boston coming out party.  In Europe, Laurie blows off Amy at a party, embarrassing her by showing up with two other dates. Laurie's not perfect but he's smart enough to realize his mistakes and make amends, becoming a trusted friend and confidant.

Timothee Chalemet is a smart casting choice as Laurie to counter the strong female cast. Chalemet is the hottest young dramatic actor right now, appearing with Ronan in Gerwig's LADY BIRD (2017) and receiving acclaim for his performance in CALL ME BY YOUR NAME (2017). Laurie touches each of the March girls in some way. He's a sounding board for Jo and an irritant to Amy and Meg. Even minor characters are more interesting in Gerwig's LITTLE WOMEN.  If you're going to have Meryl Steep (THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA) play Aunt March, you need a few juicy scenes for Meryl to chew up the scenery which she does in fine fashion.  Aunt March is lovable, cantankerous, and honest.  Mr. March who we barely see in the 1933 version is given new life by Bob Odenkirk (TVs BREAKING BAD). He's only in a few scenes but Odenkirk lends warmth and love to the role.  We understand why the girls miss him so much.  "My little women," he proudly beams at his daughters.  Chris Cooper (AMERICAN BEAUTY) shines as Mr. Laurence, Laurie's grandfather. Mr. Laurence's role is more pronounced as he becomes a sort of surrogate father to the March sisters in their father's absence. Even the March's maid Hannah (Jayne Houdyshell) stands out more than the same character in Cukor's version.

Director Gerwig and her editor Nick Houy adroitly weave back and forth between flashbacks and the present story, highlighting important elements in the March sisters past and present lives.  When Beth is first sick, Jo goes to her room the next morning to find her bed empty.  Jo rushes downstairs believing she's dead and at first finds only Mr. March and Marmee at the kitchen table before revealing Beth alive when Marmee leans back.  Beth becomes seriously ill a second time a few years later. Gerwig repeats the same sequence: empty bed, run downstairs, Marmee and Mr. March at the table only this time there's no reveal of Beth.  She's died.  By putting the sequences, past and present, one after another, Gerwig makes the passing of a sister more profound.

LITTLE WOMEN benefits from actual locations for this version.  Gerwig filmed the entire film in Massachusetts where Louise May Alcott set the story.  Gerwig and cinematographer Yorick Le Saux capture the classic nostalgic New England town of Concord and its countryside in all its fall and wintery glory as well as Cape Cod and the red brick houses of Beacon Street in Boston. It feels good to see LITTLE WOMEN in real locations and not so studio set bound as the 1933 version.

Saoirse Ronan as Jo is not as physically tall as Katherine Hepburn was as Jo but Ronan balances Jo's independence and strength with a hidden vulnerability. Ronan has grown up before our eyes from a little assassin in Joe Wright's HANNA (2011) to a young Irish immigrant in BROOKLYN (2015). Florence Pugh might be the surprise casting in LITTLE WOMEN as Amy.  Pugh is better known as a more physical actress in films like FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY (2019) and BLACK WIDOW (2021). But Pugh can play child-like and jealous sister with equal aplomb. Emma Watson is a nice choice as Meg, the beauty of the March girls. Watson's role was originally to be played by Emma Stone but Stone had to bow out due to prior commitments. Meg may be the prettiest but she's also the most down to earth, sacrificing perhaps a better life with someone wealthier for genuine love for a regular teacher. We all know Watson has Hermione Granger in the HARRY POTTER films but Watson showed she could play a princess like character as Belle in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (2017). Australian actress Eliza Scanlen (HBO's SHARP OBJECTS) is the least well know of the group. Scanlen's Beth is the shyest of the four girls but Beth develops a deep friendship with Mr. Laurence who Beth reminds him of his deceased daughter. 

Both these versions of LITTLE WOMEN are classics in their own right.  Cukor's 1933 LITTLE WOMEN version tells Alcott's story in broader strokes (even though it's a pre-code Hollywood film before censorship was introduced with the Hays code) but captures all the key points from the novel. It's the perfect primer before watching Gerwig's latest version of LITTLE WOMEN where the director assumes the audience is familiar enough with the story to tell it out of order (and if you're not familiar enough with the story, Gerwig does a nice job of laying it out for you). LITTLE WOMEN offers four distinct female roles that each new generation of young actresses can sink their teeth into.  It will be interesting to see in the next twenty five years who the next promising young actresses will be who step up to play Jo,  Amy, Meg, and Beth March.