Little Women (1949)

Set in Massachusetts during the American Civil War. The March sisters: Jo (June Allyson), Amy (Elizabeth Taylor), Meg (Janet Leigh) and Beth (Margaret O'Brien) live in genteel poverty with their mother (Mary Astor) while their father (Leon Ames) is away in the war. Based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott and directed by Mervyn LeRoy (LITTLE CAESAR). This is the first film version of LITTLE WOMEN that I saw, you might say I grew up with it, first on B&W TV, then in color. It was much later when I caught up with the acclaimed 1933 George Cukor version and even later, more film and TV versions, all good and sometimes much more than that. But this will always be my LITTLE WOMEN. Shot in Technicolor, the film has the look of an old fashioned pastel Victorian candy box (its art direction won an Oscar). Changes have been made from the book but it still remains faithful to Alcott. Unfairly compared to Katharine Hepburn's 1933 Jo, I liked Allyson's feisty hard headed Jo and Elizabeth Taylor's vain Amy is charmingly narcissistic. Lovely Janet Leigh does what she can with Meg (the most colorless of the sisters) and Margaret O'Brien brings a quiet strength to Beth. With Peter Lawford, Rossano Brazzi, C. Aubrey Smith (in his final film role), Lucile Watson, Elizabeth Patterson, Richard Stapley and Connie Gilchrist.