Twelve Hidden Yuletide Gems
Louisa May Alcott’s novel Little Women is one of the most popular books of all time, especially among women. Believe it or not, there have been at least 16 films and TV movies based on this novel, as well as a Japanese anime series and an opera!
Year after year, more children discover this novel, learning to love the characters as passionately as readers first did in 1868. For most fans, the four March girls are so well-drawn, and yet so different from one another, they seem as real as our own siblings. Like Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Alcott’s novel is one that readers return to again and again in a lifetime. No wonder passions run so high over the three films adapted from the novel. The spirited, chummy way that the March family deals with scarcity at Christmas, and the absence of their father, fighting in the Civil War, has always been appreciated by audiences – but becomes even more inspiring in difficult times.
Hence, the standard which all other versions of Little Women are measured by is still the 1933 adaptation with Katherine Hepburn, filmed in one of the worst years of the Great Depression.
Audiences throughout the country not only understood the plight of the March family – as many men had also left their families to seek better paying positions, with children helping bring in money to their families – but truly adored Hepburn in this role. Barring an unfortunate time in which she was branded by theater owners as “box office poison”, and then remade a name for herself with Stage Door and then The Philadelphia Story, Hepburn remained one of the country’s great treasures until her recent death.
You don’t have to be a fan of Katherine Hepburn’s – you just have to accept that she owns this role. Playing Jo, the sister most readers identify with, Hepburn is at once sensitive and hearty, brave and a bit pigheaded – just as many readers imagined their favorite character. Jo’s mannerisms and bright passion come to life, whether she’s fencing her new friend Laurie on New Year’s Day, dreaming of getting her name in print, or twirling with delight after a night at the opera. Although the story is set during the Civil War, and we are aware of the trials of many families, most of our sympathy goes to Jo.
One scene shows Jo crying in her sleep, after she sacrifices her vanity for the sake of her family – although this is the same girl who barely cared that her frock had been singed by a fireplace. But we believe Jo’s pain, thanks to Hepburn’s high-strung, high-energy performance. Her counterpoint is the demure, sweet Beth, played by Jean Parker, whose role becomes more and more noteworthy as the film continues. The remaining performances (which include Joan Bennett as the equally willful Amy, Frances Dee as Meg, and Paul Lukas as the Professor), are very solid, and the old-time score by Max Steiner is as sentimental and well-worn as a favorite music box.
The most recent adaptation, which starred Winona Ryder as Jo, is not for everyone. Even for long-time fans of Gillian Armstrong, who likewise adapted My Brilliant Career (Miles Franklin’s semi-autobiographical novel, the tale of a pioneering woman writer in Australia), the selective rewriting is rightly controversial. (Strangely, Armstrong herself opened many doors for women in the arts, not only in Australia, but as a female film director of the sound era – yet her considerable talents are usually overshadowed by the fact of her gender.)
Armstrong’s film tries to have its cake and eat it too – as Patricia Rozema would later do with her adaptation of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, the director adds a modern feminist streak that was not in the book, and muddies up the plot by mixing the real life of the Alcotts with the fictional March family. Little Women was partly autobiographical, and Alcott was often frustrated that many readers confused the real person with the fictional Jo. The feminism in the novel is not as overt as in the film, considering the Victorian times in which it was written and first loved. Although Alcott and her family supported causes such as abolition, she was often at odds with her father Bronson, an educational reformer who believed his daughter was too willful.
Putting aside some of the film’s other flaws, such as the miscasting of waif Winona Ryder as tomboyish Jo, it is still worth viewing. Although Jo is still the center of the narrative here, the people to watch are Kristen Dunst, who gives spirit to a spoiled Amy – and especially Claire Danes, whose performance as Beth transcends “angel-of-the-hearth” stereotypes. She plays Beth as a deeply introverted and insecure girl, who nevertheless feels passion for her family, friends, and beloved music. Danes’ Beth is the most interesting of all the characters, making the audience wonder how the piece would differ, if Beth, rather than Jo, were at its center. Likewise, Christian Bale, in an electric performance as Laurie, gives the strongest interpretation of the character yet – and seems capable of walking off into his own story.
And lastly, the third major adaptation of Little Women, starring June Allyson, is a bit more “love it or hate it”. The hoarse-throated Allyson shows her own sweet and sour charm, and is convincing as Jo, but all four actresses playing the sisters (Janet Leigh as a demure Meg, Elizabeth Taylor as Amy, and the gifted child actor Margaret O’Brien as Beth) have shone brighter in other roles. Peter Lawford is utterly inappropriate as Laurie. Moreover, its lush Technicolor scenes seem both picturesque and unrealistic at the same time.
Perhaps this is why the next film, also filmed by MGM in ruddy, candy-colored shades, and also starring Leon Ames and Mary Astor as the parents of Margaret O’Brien, is so loved today – for introducing more wit, and strange humor that keeps the proceedings from being treacly…
