Anatomy Of A Movie: Little Women 1933
Christina: Hello everyone. This is sort of unique different podcast. We are going to rank eight main stream versions of Little Women. This is not entirely my idea. I did get it from another youtube channel. The tryguy I am going to promote them on here. One of them does this thing called the ranking. I thought that we should do that with Little Women. We are going to rank the eight mainstream versions of the adaptations and the criteria, are most certainly faithfullness. Obviously when you are adapting something you want to see how faithful it is. We can add and take away points for any reason we have.
Niina: Cool
Christina: For any reason. I just wanted to say, wherever we put them at the moment, it doesn’t have to stay that way. Let’s say we decide to put one adapation the third and then we decide, Oh we actually want to remove this to the number fourth place. That is totally fine. We will not make any final decisions until we get to the end of it, with all the rankings. I think we should start it off with the chronological order of how they came out. The versions we are discussing are the 1933 version, with Katherine Hepburn. 1949 June Allyson. 1970 BBC version. The 1978 one with William Shatner. 1994 one. Winona Ryder one. 2017 Masterpiece Theater. 2018 modern day version and 2019 one that really pushed it all off.
Niina: 1933
Christina: Yeah. How do you feel it is in faithfullness?
Niina: I’d say it is pretty faithfull.
Christina: Maybe it is not exact faithfullness of the book, but it certainly feels when I look at it, I go, this definitely feels very true to it and pretty impressive because I think the film is not as long as, some of the other ones. I want to say I could be wrong, maybe it is just a little over an hour. Movies back then were pretty short, I feel. Compared to like now, where the standard is two hours.
Niina: Yes. I think it has a lot of things that are not in any other movies, but they are still in the book. I remember watching it and it has a scene where, when Beth dies her spirit kind of looms over Jo, and that is in the book.
Christina: Oh yeah with the birds. I remember that. All the birds they come back and Jo is like, the birds are going to be sad.
Niina: Her spirit is present and it has this moment, after Beth dies, where Jo wants to take Beth’s place. She tries to be this spirit of the home. That is also in the book, but it is not in any other films.
Christina: Yeah, that is very prominent and the other thing I really enjoy about it and this is something that really, in some adaptations are either hit or miss. This really feels like it is the story of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy and not like, Jo is Jo. I don’t know…I felt like we saw all of them go through their own stories, rather than just be ”Oh here is Jo observing her sisters stories”. You know what I mean?
Niina: Yes, I agree. I think it actually puts more effort on Laurie as well. He doesn’t have a full character arc but there is that scene where he proposes Jo and he is really angry when she says no. You get the idea that he does have this violent side but it is not in the other films.
Christina: I always kind of remember. I feel like this was the first Little Women adaptations I have ever seen. I always remember the way that, when he walked away. I just remember being like ”Oh” I guess I found that little scary. I didn’t know why he was reacting that way but I was like ”that is harsh”. Now, at that point I was probably like seven. I hadn’t read the book yet. So it definitely got that feeling, that I got when reading the book as well. Sort of unreasonable and I was very much clear, these two do not belong together.
Niina: He is puffing when he walks away. He is so angry.
Christina: Yeah! and that guy, he was pretty famous actor at that time. He was in the mystery of Edmond Drew. That one had Montgomery in it. He was kind of that same way little bit in there.
Niina: haha
Christina: But it worked because he was, he wasn’t Edwin but he was the brother and he is suppose to have kind of tantrum. I think that was kind of his thing to have these tantrum characters but it worked.
Niina: Okay. The actor’s name is Douglas Montgomery. He is the first Laurie.
Christina: I have to say overall. I think all the actors in this are very good. As much as again, I always say. Amy should be played by two actresses. One younger, one older. This one is probably one of the better, older actress playing younger Amy type of things, because they don’t make her too annoying. Comparing to some of the other ones out there I will mention that. I feel like, she did allright here.
Niina: That is true. She is not a character that I hate in this version. I like her.
Laughter
Niina: I don’t usually hate Amy but some versions want you to hate Amy, which is very unfortunate.
Christina: That is why I feel like a lot of people are fueled by the idea ”Oh Amy is so annoying” because some of the versions they see, is a twenty-something year old going around screaming and whining. Trying to act like a little kid, when it just makes them more annoying. Amy is a character who deserves much better representations and this is I would say a pretty good presentation here. Funny enough the actress at some point was like five or six months pregnant which is why you see in some scenes, her dresses are a little worn down, but they make it work. They are poor and they manage to work that around it.
Niina: I didn’t know that so they made it work.
Christina: It was like in the beginning of the shoot. She was like ”Oh by the way I’m pregnant”. Obviously she wasn’t pregnant by the time, I think, if I remember correctly, when Amy is older, towards the end scenes, because she is wearing more fitting dresses, but in the beginning when she is a school girl, when she is suppose to be really young, she is pregnant. I always thought that was amusing.
Niina: It helps that the actress has kind off a baby face.
Christina: Yeah, and the writing I think did pretty well too, that is the thing. If you are going to do it, you shouldn’t adjust it to fit. Instead of her being twelve, she probably comes across here more like fifteen sixteen if I had to try to put an age to her. She is still obviously the youngest but not childish.
Niina: With the movies that were made in the 1930s a lot of times, the actors they look older than the characters they are suppose to play because they make up was quite heavy during the time.
Christina: Katherine Hepburn was in her twenties right? It feels very much like she is teen ager in the beginning, that is just the power of Katherine Hepburn.
Niina: She makes it work. I was actually planning to buy Katherine Hepburn’s biography. The one that she wrote herself, because I want to hear what were her thoughts about Little Women. That would be interesting.
Christina: Oh yeah. I can only imagine. I hope she would say there that she had a good time, because sometimes you will hear certain actors to be like ”Oh I love this movie and I loved this role” and then they go like ”Oh I hated doing it. I hated the part”okay. I think she liked it.
Niina: Yes I think so. We talked about this earlier. There are people who complain that she is not pretty enough to be Jo, but Jo is not written to be conventionally beautiful. Katherine Hepburn she was this tall woman. She has sort of a angular face.
Christina: There was a movie where she dressed up to be a guy, with Gary Grant. She has very androgynous appearance.
Niina: Then we have Douglas Montgomery who played Laurie, and he is more feminine.
Christina: Yes. Very pretty.
Niina: Very pretty guy.
Christina: Casting in this was very good. They were great and I think that the story went really well. It followed through the story and without them saying you know like ”Oh two years have passed” instead of saying Meg getting in engages to marry John. They didn’t have to get all that to know that time has passed. The story told itself and the actors made it go ”oh they are growing up”. So I think that is a bonus. If you would have to put into a spot at the moment, where would you want to put it?
Niina: I think this goes pretty high on my list.
Christina: I am thinking of number two or number three at the moment.
Niina: I think it is going to be my number three at the moment.
Christina: I am just going to put it down to my little notepad so I don’t forget. At the moment it is number three.
Niina: Paul Lukas who playes professor Bhaer, he was from Hungary.
Christina: Yes and I actually remember that because I was just looking at my post I made about Friedrich and the different actors and their nationalities because the next one. Rossano Brazzi, he is Italian and I think he is probably one of my favorite Friedrich’s.
Niina: It has been a while since I saw the 1933 version but I think it also has the scene where Friedrich plays the piano and Jo is listening.
Christina: I just remembered the words ”My senses fail, the burning desire depowers me”. That is from Goethe. Am I saying that right? Goethe?
Niina: Goethe, yes.
Christina: That is the poem that is at the music.
Niina: It is perfect because Louisa May Alcott loved Goethe and he was one of the models for Friedrich’s character. Whoever wrote the 1933 film, I guess they knew about it and it makes me so happy.
Christina: One thing I will say about the 1933 version, I think it was a good starting off for the Jo and Friedrich shippers. It is not as much as in the book, but it is still pretty good. There is the piano scene but then you also have their first meeting. It shows off who he is very clearly. Great with kids, helpful to the staff and a gentleman. I think the overall vibe that the film has is probably one of the best of the adaptations of book to screen.
Niina: I think there is even a moment when he asks Jo, if he could write to Jo’s father. He wants Jo’s father’s permission, before he is going to ask Jo to marry him.
Christina: That is right before she goes ”Oh yeah I have been writing about you to them” that is when she finds about Beth being sick and she goes home. I remember that. This is one of the versions I think, if you are going to introduce Little Women to anyone, this is one of the ones that you start off with.
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Niina. Thank you so much for listening. Christina and I continue our ranking of the Little Women adaptations, next time.
Take care and make good choises
Bye.
