"Little Women" (1949)

Regular readers know how much I loved director Greta Gerwig's "Little Women" last year.  It was my personal #2 Favorite Movie of the Year.  I knew that Gerwig's version was one one of many film versions (more on that later) of the Louisa May Alcott classic.  Fun Fact: Since the novel was published in 1868, it has never gone out of print, and it has been published in well over fifty languages.

Anyway, the 1949 version of this movie popped up on TCM a few months ago and has been sitting on my DVR since then, and last night we got around to watching it.

Clockwise from top:

Allyson, Taylor, Astor, O'Brien, Leigh

This one starred June Allyson, Janet Leigh, Elizabeth Taylor, and Margaret O'Brien as the Little Women and Mary Astor as Marmee.   I enjoyed this one very much, I must say.  Allyson as the spunky Jo Marsh was very good in the role, as was Taylor - a blond in this one! - as Amy, and how can you not just love Margaret O'Brien in just about anything?

I found it to be a delightful movie, and I give it Two and One-Half Grandstander Stars.

In doing some research for this post, I see that "Little Women" has more film versions than a cat has lives.

The first version that I could see was made in 1933 by George Cukor and starred Katherine Hepburn and Joan Bennett.

In 1948, director Mervyn Leroy made the version that I watched last night.  

There then followed a TV movie in 1978 that starred Meredith Baxter and Susan Dey, a 1994 version that starred Susan Sarandon and Winona Ryder, and another feature film in 2018 that starred Lea Thompson as Marmee and no one else you've ever heard of.  There was also a short lived TV series that ran for one season in 1978. 

And of course, there was Gerwig's hit film of 2019 that starred Saoirse Ronan and Emma Watson, and I look forward to watching this one once again very soon on my recently purchased Blur-ray.

Finally, a word about Margaret O'Brien, who is still with us at the age of 83.  

She made her first film appearance at the age of four in 1941.  She won an Oscar as Outstanding child Actress in 1944. She is probably best known for her role as Tootie in "Meet Me In St. Louis" (1944), where she costarred with Judy Garland.  

Another Fun Fact: "Met Me In St. Louis" also featured Mary Astor and Leon Ames, both of whom were in 1949's "Little Women" with O'Brien.  They were her parents in both movies.  IMDB lists 77 acting credits for her, the latest one coming in 2018.  Lots of forgettable movies and, of course, the TV roles in shows like "Marcus Welby MD", "Love, American Style", and "Murder, She Wrote."  Like I have often said, all actors want to do is work, and Margaret O'Brien, God bless her, has been working at her craft for close to eighty years.