Corinne Hosfeld Smith

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The Little Women Project: Reviews of all of the Movies

     Early in 2019, I knew that the new Little Women movie was scheduled to be released on Christmas day. I figured that I would see it and write a review of it for Rambles.net. But then I wondered about the previous movie versions of Louisa May Alcott’s book. I knew about a few of them: most notably “the Winona Ryder” version of 1994, which seemed to be the favorite of the Alcott fans I knew. I saw that no one had ever reviewed any of the previous Little Women on Rambles.net. Voila! My assignment was born! I would watch them all and would write and post reviews of them, before Christmas day. Then I would see the new one and review it, too. By the end, I would be steeped in the activities of the fictional March family. I would know it all.

     I started this project in late October 2019. By early November, I was watching the third movie when I realized that the screen writers had very different ideas when it came to choosing scenes from the book to bring to life. And it had been at least 40 years since I had read the book. So I went back and re-read Little Women, too. Now I had an even better handle on what Miss Alcott wrote and how contemporary filmmakers interpreted her words. Which wasn’t always the way I would have done it.

     At first, I thought I knew how many films had been made of Little Women. But I kept finding more, as I went along. Good heavens! It made the task that much more difficult. But it also made it easier too, because I could compare the movies with one another, and not just with the book. Anyway, I’m glad I assigned myself this project. (I can admit that I am also glad to see the finish line.) Here are my reactions. Click to read.

Little Women (1933) The Katharine Hepburn

Little Women (1949) The June Allyson

Little Women (1970) The Angela Down

Little Women (1978) The Susan Dey

Little Women (1994) The Winona Ryder

Little Women (2017) The Maya Hawke

Little Women (2018) The Sarah Davenport

Little Women (2019) The Saoirse Ronan

Also:

The March Sisters at Christmas (2012)

Katharine Hepburn at Orchard
House, 1932, 
Courtesy of Orchard House.

 

 

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