page_title: Little Women (1933 film)
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: Little Women (1933 film) / Production
caption_attribution_description: Screenshot of Katharine Hepburn from the trailer for the film Little Women
context_page_description: Little Women is a 1933 American pre-Code drama film, directed by George Cukor and starring Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Frances Dee and Jean Parker. The screenplay, by Sarah Y. Mason and Victor Heerman, is based on the 1868-69 two-volume novel of the same name, by Louisa May Alcott. A sequel was released the following year, titled Little Men.
  This is the third screen adaptation of the book. It follows two silent versions, the first released in 1917 with Minna Grey and the second in 1918 with Dorothy Bernard. After this 1933 sound version came the 1949 Little Women, with June Allyson, Elizabeth Taylor and Peter Lawford, the 1994 film Little Women, starring Winona Ryder, and the 2019 film Little Women featuring Saoirse Ronan.
context_section_description: Although David O. Selznick received no screen credit, he returned to RKO from MGM to supervise the production as the last film left in his contract with the studio.
  The prime goal of director George Cukor was to emphasize the juxtaposition between sacrifice and family life in Little Women.
  At Hepburn's request, costume designer Walter Plunkett created a dress for her character copied from one worn by her maternal grandmother in a tintype Hepburn had. Plunkett also had to redesign several of Joan Bennett's costumes to conceal her advancing pregnancy, a condition Bennett intentionally had not mentioned to Cukor when he cast her in the film. Plunkett designed all of the costumes very thoughtfully, purposely shuffling clothing items between the March sisters in different scenes to emphasize both the family bond of sisters sharing and the reality that each girl would only have so many clothes but an individual's closet could be drastically expanded by sharing with siblings.
  Louise Closser Hale originally was scheduled to portray Aunt March, but after her death on July 26, 1933, Edna May Oliver assumed the role.
  The film was budgeted at $1 million, and 4,000 people worked on it during the yearlong production schedule. 3,000 separate items, including costumes, furnishings, and household appliances, were authenticated by research. Hobe Erwin, a former artist and interior decorator, was hired to oversee the set decoration, and he modeled the interior of the March home after Hillside, Louisa May Alcott's Massachusetts house. Exteriors were filmed at Lancaster's Lake in Sunland, Providencia Ranch in the Hollywood Hills, and the Warner Bros. Ranch in Pasadena.  Original prints of the film employed the use of hand-coloring for fireplaces and candles.
caption: Katharine Hepburn as Jo
   from the trailer for Little Women (1933)
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