Videodisc release of the 1933 motion picture. Special features: Cast & crew [text feature]; Scoring stage session cues [audio feature];Hepburn & Cukor [text feature]; Theatrical trailer (3 min.); Awards [text feature]. Participants: Katharine Hepburn (Jo), Joan Bennett (Amy), Paul Lukas (Prof. Bhaer), Edna May Oliver (Aunt March), Jean Parker (Beth), Frances Dee (Meg), Henry Stephenson (Mr. Laurence), Douglass Montgomery (Laurie), Spring Byington (Marmee), Samuel Hinds (Mr. March). Audience: MPAA Rating: Not rated; Canadian Home Video Rating: G. Awards: Winner, 1934 Academy Award, Best Writing, Adaptation--Victor Heerman, Sarah Y. Mason; Winner, 1934 Venice Film Festival Golden Medal, Best Actress--Katharine Hepburn. Starring Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Paul Lukas, Edna May Oliver, Jean Parker.
Contents:
Credits -- Mrs. March -- Jo and Aunt March -- Sketch artist Amy -- Fainting rehearsal -- Father's letter -- At the spinet -- Christmas morning -- Movable feast -- "The Witch's Curse" -- Visiting the Laurences -- Fastidious party guests -- Their admirers -- Celebrated authoress -- Gift of music -- The telegram -- Beth stricken -- Bedside vigil -- Homecoming -- Pledged to each other -- Wedding day blues -- Jo's decision -- Mrs. Kirke's boarding house -- Kindred spirits -- Europe-bound -- Writing from the heart -- Her Beth -- Mutual comfort -- Learning about love -- Brother and sister -- All together -- Not empty now -- Cast list.
Summary:
This tale centers on the March household: mother "Marmee" and her four daughters; Meg, Amy, Beth and Jo, and chronicles this New England family's joys and tribulations during the Civil War. The girls are committed to "showing father proud," father being a minister gone off to meet the spiritual needs of Yankee soldiers at war. Buoyed by their mother, the girls learn the meaning of giving and sacrifice with a jollity that may be off-putting to jaded 21st century viewers, especially when faced with the March girls presenting a "play" in their living room to the delight of invited neighbors and the consternation of one cantankerous but lovable aunt. The girls' placid lives are disrupted when one sibling falls ill, and the story becomes as real as life, at its most joyful and painful.
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