Thread:Ultimatebooknerd/@comment-33161451-20190225164957/@comment-2605:6000:D048:9000:D5B8:7D78:86B:87C8-20190226201619

Dear Ultimatebooknerd,

Hi! How many times have you read LITTLE WOMEN? I'm 64 years old, and I read it periodically just to wash my brain of the stuff that accumulates when you watch too much news. Sometimes I even try to go to sleep to the 1933 movie version--the one starring Katharine Hepburn as Jo. I've heard that many people disapprove of Alcott's matching Jo with Professor Bhaer, but it really is the best way to handle that relationship. Jo WASN'T the best one for Laurie. However, Alcott had HIM be the one to fall in love instead of Jo--an interesting reversal. Usually it's the girl who notices the handsome, rich young man. Jo was a tomboy, and she just hadn't progressed in her femininity by the time Laurie declared himself. Amy was better suited to Laurie because she had refined her character to fit his upbringing and interests.

Bhaer and Jo were suited to one another because she needed a steady hand to guide her, and he needed to recapture a little bit of youth. Both were supposed to be plain-looking, both enjoyed the same interests. The problem was that Jo, by the time she left New York, was still not romance-minded, or she might have caught on to Bhaer's behavior toward her. She still thought of him as a friend. The book doesn't SAY that they wrote to one another; we just have to suppose that they did. Too much time had elapsed and too much had happened in Jo's family for her to just fall in love the minute she saw him at her door the day Amy, Laurie, and the others had come home from Europe, so we can surmise that he wouldn't have just let her go, nor that she would want to lose touch with the friend that she hoped to keep all of her life.

In my humble opinion, the 1933 movie is actually the best adaptation of the book. In 1949 a very similar adaptation was made with June Allyson as Jo and Rosanno Brazzi as the Professor, and it was okay, but just like the previous one, there was too little of Jo's relationship with the Professor to make the leap from friendship to romance. I've seen a British TV version--which has a shrill, often hateful tone between the sisters, and it doesn't portray Beth or Amy well. Laurie is a bit of a disappointment, too. However, it has the most realistic Bhaer of them all. An American TV version came out on NBC in the '70s or '80s, starring William Shatner as Bhaer, Susan Dey as Jo, Dorothy McGuire as Marmee, Robert Young as Mr. Lawrence, Greer Garson as Aunt March, and Richard Gilliland as Laurie. It had scenes generally left out in other versions--for instance, Jo taking Beth to the beach and realizing that Beth knew the truth about her condition. However, they completely changed the Jo and Bhaer scene in the rain. They all do that, and I don't understand why; that scene would be so easy to dramatize! I don't approve of the 1994 version with Winona Ryder because there is too much feminism in it, and Bhaer and Jo NEVER kissed in the book until the end of their umbrella scene; that would not have happened in the culture they lived in, anyway.

One thing I liked about the Masterpiece version is the fact that they actually used the favorite song of Beth--"Land of the Leal." They sang it, and it was beautiful. You can hear it on YouTube by pulling up the scene where they are singing just before John goes off to war. Mark Stanley was a good-looking Bhaer, which I approved of, since I never thought Alcott's Bhaer should have been so plain anyway!

I could go on and on, but I'm sure you're tired of reading this tome! I would have had more made-up scenes that represented what was said about Bhaer 's character and habits by the author and other characters, and I would have written the goodbye scene when she goes home. Other scenes could have also have been written to show how their relationship grew so that the ending would make more sense. Alas, I don't think I would ever get a screenplay into anyone's hands that would do something with it.

Read the book again, then endeavor to see the movie. I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts.

Regards,

Karen

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