Little Women (1949)

Academy Awards, USA 1950

Won Oscar	Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color Cedric Gibbons Paul Groesse Edwin B. Willis Jack D. Moore
Nominated Oscar	Best Cinematography, Color Robert H. Planck Charles Edgar Schoenbaum

MGM
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Turner Classic Movies)

Nostalgic glimpse at life in the mid 19th century, centered around a warm home consisting of four girls, their mother and housekeeper. June Allyson is Jo, the tomboy and aspiring writer, who more or less tells the story. She flirts with the boy next door, only to leave him for New York, becoming best friends in the process. Janet Leigh is her big sister, both wise and proper, occasionally clashing with Jo, a budding romance with another boy. Elizabeth Taylor is Amy, the prim, stuck-up one of the bunch, but mellowing over the course of the years covered in the film. Margaret O'Brien is the youngest, Beth, a sickly girl with a love for music, befriending the elderly matriarch next door. The fine ensemble cast is rounded out by June Astor as Marmee, the mother who holds them all together. The time and setting simply radiate in Technicolor: from the warm, amber glow of the kerosene lights to the red velvet interiors of the wealthy family next door. The plot only falters perhaps in the final act, where the sentimentality takes a turn for the maudlin.