For the first time, he worked closely with an art director (Hobe Erwin) to create the perfect look for the film, establishing a tradition of quality that would mark most of his mature works.Īlthough he had directed Hepburn's screen debut, A Bill of Divorcement (1932), Cukor and the actress did not become close friends until they teamed for Little Women. Little Women marked a breakthrough for director George Cukor in terms of visual style. He would also take the same approach as an independent producer and score his greatest success with Gone with the Wind (1939). After the picture's proven success, he was able to convince MGM brass to finance and distribute screen adaptations of David Copperfield and A Tale of Two Cities (both 1935). Selznick, however, had always contended that audiences went to film adaptations to see a faithful treatment of a favorite novel. Hollywood thinking at the time held that even the best-known literary sources had to be completely re-written to make them more commercial. Little Women was one of the first classic adaptations to become a hit while also staying true to its source material. While some of her other films of the period would establish a fluttery, affected screen image that eventually led to her being declared "box office poison" in the late '30s, Little Women would show just how fine an actress she could be and provide fans with the perfect embodiment of her brisk, New England strength. The role of Jo March was a perfect match for the young Katharine Hepburn's flinty, New England independence. Eventually, Amy and Laurie marry, and Jo, who readily blesses the union, accepts the proposal of her sincere professor. After Beth dies, Jo learns that Amy, whom Aunt March had taken to Europe, has fallen in love with Laurie. When Beth, who never fully recovered from her fever, nears death, Jo abandons Baer and returns to Concord. Helped by the professor, Jo greatly improves her writing and overcomes her confused hurt about Laurie. Laurie's subsequent snubbing causes Jo to move to a New York boardinghouse, where she meets Professor Baer, a poor German linguist. Inspired by the wedding, Laurie confesses his love to Jo, who reluctantly rejects him as a suitor. Then, in spite of Jo's objections that the happy March family will be forever torn apart by her romantic "defection," Meg marries John. Beth survives, however, and is reunited with both Marmee and her father. As Beth's fever worsens, Jo prays that Marmee will return before she dies and tearfully reveals her deepest fears to Laurie. While she is away, Beth contracts scarlet fever from Mrs.
hospital, she leaves her daughters to go to her husband's side. March has been wounded and is convalescing in a Washington, D.C. Over the next few months, while Meg is being romanced by John, Jo has her first short story published and Beth overcomes some of her shyness so that she can practice on Mr. To cement their new friendship, the Laurences invite the March girls to a lavish party, at which Meg meets Laurie's tutor, John Brooke.
Jo immediately ingratiates herself to Laurie, and even impresses the inscrutable Mr. Later, after the sisters have performed one of Jo's original "dramas" before a crowd of appreciative children, Jo boldly introduces herself to Laurie Laurence, her wealthy next-door neighbor whose grandfather has terrified her for years. On Christmas morning, Marmee is pleasantly surprised by her daughters' impetuous generosity, particularly that of Amy, and asks them to donate their holiday breakfast to the Hummels, an impoverished local family. As a Christmas present, Aunt March gives each of the girls one dollar, which they then decide to spend on presents for their mother, whom they call Marmee. While pretty but selfish Amy finishes her schooling, and timid, sensitive Beth practices on her broken-down clavichord, envious Meg works as a seamstress, and spirited, tomboyish Jo, who dreams of becoming a famous author, panders to the whims of her gruff but well-to-do Aunt March. In Concord, Massachusetts, at the height of the Civil War, sisters Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy March struggle to keep their spirits high in spite of their poverty and the absence of their father, who is fighting with the Union Army.