Fantastic!

Excellent but underrated film

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

This movie has an all star cast and they do a fine job of telling the now familiar story of a group of young women, living in Civil War times. Father is off to war and the women manage the home. They are poor because there is a war on, so they must do without. One of them is ill and fading. Living next door is a young man who loves Jo and does everything he can to get him to love her. Jo is an independent and a dreamer, not the one who is going to just accept what life hands her. For me, June Allyson is not the correct choice for this character. Hepburn killed it. Still we live and die with these girls. They may be a bit too goody two shoes for modern tastes, but this is a nicely drawn representation of the classic novel.

Very colorful film of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel about the March family girls--Jo (June Allyson), Beth (Margaret O'Brien), Amy (Elizabeth Taylor) and May (Janet Leigh). It also involves their neighbor Laurie (Peter Lawford) and Prof. Behr (Rossano Brazza).First off this is NOT a faithful adaptation of the book--the original novel runs over 500 pages so a lot was cut out. For some reason Amy (the youngest in the book) is now the second youngest with Beth becoming the youngest! The change is not needed. Also most of the cast is far too old--Allyson was playing a teenage girl and she was 32 when she did this! Taylor and Leigh (two wonderful actresses) seem totally lost in this. The picture is far too pretty also. The March family is supposed to be living in poverty--but they live in a HUGE house and all the girls have beautiful clothes on! Still, as a glossy Technicolor big budget production it works.Everything (and everybody) looks beautiful. There's always something beautiful to see on the screen. The movie moves fairly quick and there's good acting by Allyson (who captures Jo's personality beautifully), Lawford and Brazza (who, unfortunately, doesn't pop up till the last half hour). O'Brien though is perfect in every scene she's in. She has the impossible role of a saintly little girl bur pulls it off. So, as an adaptation of the book it's bad but as a movie it's lots of fun and so beautiful! I give it an 8.

The cast of this film reads like a who's who of MGM studio: C. Aubrey Smith, Harry Davenport, Mary Astor, Leon Ames, June Allyson, Janet Leigh, Elizabeth Taylor and Margaret O'Brien... The accumulation of all of these stars is a super-treat for fans of the films of the 30's and 40's. And - oh, yeah - they all deliver stellar, memorable, poignant performances!But this film is deserving of the designation of "classic" and is superior to the 1933 version primarily because of the performance of June Allyson. Every time she exclaims, "Christopher Columbus!" it seems very natural. In fact she makes all of her difficult dialog (including the oath, "bilge!") seem very natural. This ability to appear completely comfortable and natural stands in stark contrast to the delivery of Katherine Hepburn in the '33 version. These words never seem to be Jo's own, when spoken by Hepburn; whereas, they are indeed Jo's when spoken by Allyson. They are glaring and obtrusive in Hepburn's dialog, and a seamless part of Allyson's. Hepburn is an actress losing a struggle with uncomfortable dialog; Allyson embraces it. This alone makes Allyson the definitive Jo, and makes this 1949 version the definitive "Little Women." Allyson's Jo is real flesh-and-blood, while Hepburn's Jo is a melodramatic character.

Even Louisa May Alcott would have been disappointed wih this 1949 remake.With her hoarse voice, June Allyson lacks the exuberance of Katharine Hepburn. Elizabeth Taylor is as sour at the beginning as can be. She is almost cruel and as self-centered as they come. Did it make sense to all that while her young sister was dying, she went off to Europe with her maiden aunt, nicely played by Lucile Watson. Watson did an excellent job in reprising the role so memorably created by Edna Mae Oliver in the 1933 original. However, must they have made the trip in order to catch up with Peter Lawford, who had been abandoned by Jo (Allyson)?Janet Leigh, as the sister who married, and "dad" Leon Ames are totally wasted here. Leigh appears but says so little and does anyone realize that when Ayres appeared, the great Civil War must have ended. What happened there?Rosano Brazzi is way out of his league as the foreign-born professor who brings culture and love into the life of Jo.