Little Women ***** (1933, Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Frances Dee, Jean Parker, Paul Lukas, Spring Byington, Edna May Oliver) – Classic Movie Review 4265

Director George Cukor steers this antique 1933 classic RKO movie of the novel by Louisa May Alcott safely and smoothly to the screen, with a great vintage cast to help him. Little Women (1933) won one Oscar for Best Writing, Adaptation (Sarah Y Mason and ­Victor Heerman), and was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director (but lost to Cavalcade and Frank Lloyd).

In Louisa May Alcott’s famous Little Women story, a quartet of little women find romance as they mature to adulthood in New England during the American Civil War. It is set in Concord, Massachusetts, with a side trip to New York City.

Cukor’s picture is genuinely winsome thanks to his sensitive handling, wife-and-husband screenwriters Sarah Y Mason and ­Victor Heerman’s intelligent, Oscar-winning screenplay from Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 novel and especially the graceful and appealing portrayals of Katharine Hepburn as Jo, Joan Bennett as Amy, Frances Dee as Meg and Jean Parker as Beth, the lovely March sisters, as well as the homely support cast.

Yes, it is cosy and sentimental, but it is also warm hearted and emotional, and packed full of moments that make you glow inside. Hepburn is a particular success as a tomboyish Jo March, a role that suits her style and personality very well.

Also in the cast are Paul Lukas as Professor Bhaer, Spring Byington as matriarch Marmee, Edna May Oliver as Aunt March, Henry Stephenson as the Marchs’ kindly rich neighbour Mr Laurence, Douglass Montgomery as his spirited grandson Laurie, Samuel S Hinds as Mr March, John Lodge as Brooke, Nydia Westman as Mamie, Mabel Colcord as Hannah, Marion Ballou as Mrs Kirke, Harry Beresford as Doctor Bangs, Bonita Granville as Amy’s classmate and Olin Howland as the school teacher Mr Davis. Howland played the role again in the 1949 Little Women.

The March home interior was modelled on Alcott’s Massachusetts house, Hillside. Artist and interior decorator Hobe Erwin was hired to oversee the set decoration. Painstaking research authenticated 3,000 costumes, furnishings and household items.

It was remade in 1949 as Little Women, in 1978 as Little Women and again in 1994 as Little Women and again in 2019 as Little Women.

Little Women is directed by George Cukor, runs 117 minutes, is made and released by RKO Radio Pictures, written by Sarah Y Mason and Victor Heerman, based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott, shot in black and white by Henry W Gerrard, produced by Merian C Cooper (executive producer), David O Selznick (uncredited) and Kenneth Macgowan (associate producer) and scored by Max Steiner, with Art Direction by Van Nest Polglase.

Hepburn asked the costume designer Walter Plunkett to copy a dress for her that her maternal grandmother was wearing in an old photo. Hepburn recalled: ‘This picture was heaven to do. George Cukor perfect. He really caught the atmosphere. It was to me my youth!’

Selznick found it hard to persuade RKO executives to produce Little Women, as the perceived wisdom was that films based on historic novels were unpopular, particularly one about women in the Civil War. Selznick won, and the film was a hit. Opening on 16 November 1933 at Radio City Music Hall, it broke records, earning more than $100,000 in its first week. It took $1.3 million in US rentals, made $2,000,000 worldwide, and overall a profit of $800,000.

Though Cukor followed RKO Radio Pictures producer David O Selznick over to join MGM in February 1933, he agreed to return to RKO to finish the film with Selznick also returning to supervise the production. Selznick then went on to produce the Civil War romance Gone with the Wind (1939).

Edna May Oliver took over as Aunt March on the death of Louise Closser Hale in the middle of filming on 26 July 1933,

Jane Murfin, Wanda Tuchock, John Twist and David Hempstead are among a slew of uncredited contributing writers.

Original prints were hand coloured for fireplaces and candles by Gustav Brock.

It had a large budget of $1 million, employed 4,000 people, and took a year to make. It was shot between late June 1933 and 2 September 1933.

Oustide filming was done at Lancaster’s Lake in Sunland, Providencia Ranch in the Hollywood Hills, and the Warner Bros Ranch in Pasadena.

A sequel was released the following year, the 1934 Little Men.

It follows two silent versions, in 1917 with Minna Grey and in 1918 with Dorothy Bernard.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4265

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