BEHIND THE SCENES - LITTLE WOMEN (1933)

Just before Little Women started filming, RKO production chief David O. Selznick signed to produce films for his father-in-law, Louis B. Mayer, at MGM. His successor, Merian C. Cooper, fought to keep the project alive.

Selznick took director George Cukor to MGM with him. RKO agreed to let Cukor out of his contract if he would agree to return to direct Little Women after his first MGM assignment, Dinner at Eight (1933), and direct one more film for them (the 1933 Our Betters, starring Constance Bennett). They also got MGM to loan them contract player Lionel Barrymore.

Katharine Hepburn modeled her performance on stories she had been told of her maternal grandmother, who actually lived during the Civil War era. Although Grandmother Houghton had died before the actress was born, Hepburn's mother had painted a vivid picture of her in family stories. The dress Hepburn wore for Jo's first trip to the opera was modeled on one of her grandmother's gowns.

Cukor avoided what he called "Hollywood chi-chi" in the sets by hiring a studio outsider, New York interior decorator Hobe Erwin, to supervise the design. The studio even paid for Erwin to do research in Alcott's hometown, Concord, Massachusetts.

The design for the March family's home was copied from author Louisa May Alcott's own house.

Joan Bennett was pregnant during the filming but hoped they would finish her scenes before she started to show. When they didn't, costume designer Walter Plunkett redesigned her costumes to conceal her condition, and Cukor shot most of her scenes from the waist up. They also re-wrote one scene requiring her character to fall off a chair; Hepburn's character did it instead.

Before shooting the scene in which Hepburn runs upstairs with a dish of ice cream, Cukor warned her that there was no replacement for the dress, so she had to be very careful not to spill it. She spilled it anyway, then laughed. Cukor was so angry he struck her.

During filming, the soundman's union went on strike, forcing Cukor to work with an inexperienced crew. Sound problems forced him to make 15 takes of Hepburn's crying scene after Beth's death. When they finally got the take, Hepburn threw up.

by Frank Miller