Little Women (1949 film)

Little Women is an American feature film, directed by Mervyn LeRoy from the year 1949. The film is based on the 1868 published novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and was produced for Metro -Goldwyn- Mayer.

Content

Scene of action is the small town of Concord, Massachusetts at the time of the Civil War. While Mr. March is fighting for the Union Army, educates Mrs. March, who is affectionately called Marmee, their four daughters temporarily alone. The daughters: these are the spirited Jo, the vain Meg, the selfish Amy and the timid Beth. The tomboyish Jo wins the friendship of Laurie, the grandson of a rich neighbor who courts her, but is rejected because Jo wants to devote her life to writing and never married. From disappointment Laurie will later leave for Europe.

When the news arrives that the father has been wounded, Marmee makes his way to him. After their departure, Beth fell seriously ill with scarlet fever, which the sisters realize how much they are dependent on the mother. A little later, the family is reunited, however, and Beth is on the mend.

Disappointed with the loss of both her ​​friend Laurie and Meg, who has now married Laurie's teacher John Brooke, Jo goes to New York to establish himself there as a writer. She meets the teacher Prof. Bhaer, who introduced not only in the cultural life of the city, but also criticized their immature literary work and recommends her to write from the heart. As follows, the next disappointment: the rich Aunt March, the Jo had promised a trip to Europe, that instead has taken up together with Amy. Amy will meet in Europe later Laurie and marry.

As Jo learns that Beth is seriously ill again, she goes home and cares for the now dying. From the grief out she is writing a novel " My Beth " finds a publisher for the Professor Bhaer. At the end is a pair of Jo and Professor Bhaer also.

Production and reception

Little Women is the seventh film adaptation of the least in the United States to this day extremely popular youth novel Little Women. 1933, adapted the book with Katharine Hepburn and Joan Bennett for RKO Pictures George Cukor.

The film was originally a project of David O. Selznick, who started it in September 1946 with the shooting, but they stopped because of the post-production of Duel in the Sun still too took him to complete. In his version Jennifer Jones ( Jo ), Diana Lynn (Amy ), Bambi Linn ( Beth ), Rhonda Fleming ( Meg ) and Anne Revere ( Marmee ) would have played the lead roles. Selznick eventually sold the script and its intellectual property but to MGM.

The screenplay differs in many outlying points from the novel. So in the film not Amy is the youngest of the sisters, but Beth. The filming of those produced in Technicolor and 35mm film began on June 29, 1948 and ended in September 1948. The Actress of the 15 -year-old Jo March, June Allyson, was at the time of the shooting actually already 31 years old. Elizabeth Taylor, who was 16 years old and for the Little Women was already the eleventh film, appeared here with a blond wig.

It was the last film by British character actor Sir C. Aubrey Smith, who had died at the release of the film at the age of 85 years.

The film premiered on 10 March 1949 in the United States. In West Germany he ran for the first time in 1951, in Austria in 1952. In the U.S. alone, he played $ 3,600,000 a.

Awards

The Setdekoration by Cedric Gibbons, Paul Size, Edwin B. Willis and Jack D. Moore in 1950 was awarded an Oscar. The cinematographers were nominated for an Oscar.

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