If you haven't seen the 1933 version, the casting of Joan Bennett as Amy is even worse; she was 23 (and pregnant!), a grown woman the same height as her costars dressed in pinafores and wearing a little girl hairstyle, playing a schoolgirl. She looked even more ridiculous than Taylor, who at 17 at least was only five years older than when we first see Amy in the book (although going from 12 to 17 is a big leap).
Both the '33 and '49 versions, while very similar (they share a screenwriter) suffer from miscasting in my humble opinion. Katharine Hepburn was 26, 11 years older than Jo, and she looks too old, but June Allyson was 33! There's a scene in the '49 version when Marmee is going to D.C. to see about the father when Beth (Margaret O'Brien, at 12 one of the only "correct age" actors) is standing next to Jo/Allyson at the door, and June Allyson looks like her mother. And being 21 years older, she could be.
The two Beth's are the only ones who look like the young girls they're playing; in the '33 version, Frances Dee was 18, playing a 13-year-old; maybe because Hepburn, Bennett and the actress who played Meg were so much older, she seems OK, about right. For some reason, in the '49 version, they made Beth the youngest daughter (rather than Amy as in the book); O'Brien was 12, and in the book Beth was 13 when the book opened, so the only one, technically, in the "right" age range.
As for the Laurie's, coincidentally both Douglass Montgomery (from the '33 movie) and Peter Lawrford (from the '49 version) were 26. In the book, Laurie is older than Jo but younger than Meg, so 15 and a half? So both actors are 11 years older than the character. But Montgomery is the superlative Laurie and possesses the youthful innocence to pull it off. Lawford, on the other hand, is too urbane and sophisticated, and at 26 looks 36 (or older)—a handsome man, but not right for Laurie.
To recap this rather obsessive post: Both Hepburn and Allyson were too old for the roles, with Allyson being way too old.
Liz Taylor had the Amy character's traits down, and at 17 wasn't that far off (five years) in age, but she did already have that famous figure (read: big boobs, as my mother said about her in "Suddenly, Last Summer"; Bennett was as out of place as Allyson.
The Megs...aw, it doesn't really matter. Douglass Montgomery was the far better Laurie; Lawford was miscast.
Margaret O'Brien was perfect in the role of Beth, as she was the right age and she did a great job; Frances Dee ('33) was OK, agewise, compared with her movie sisters, that is.
I think it's worth remembering that the book is called "Little Women," not "Not-So-Little Women," and the characters in the classic American novel are 12, 13, 15 and 16 (not 23, 26, 33). Did the actors pull it off? Mostly no. Watch those movies today, and it sticks out like a sore thumb.
reply
share