FAQ for
Little Women (1933) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

Yes. Little Women is a classic novel by American novelist Louisa May Alcott [1832-1888]. The novel was first published in two parts in 1868 and 1869. Both parts were published as a single volume in 1880. The novel was adapted for this movie by screenwriters Sarah Y. Mason and Victor Heerman. Little Women is loosely based on Alcott's experiences with her own three sisters: Anna, Elizabeth, and Abigail Alcott. The popularity of the novel has given rise to numerous other screen adaptations of the story including two silent movies, Little Women (1917) and Little Women (1918), and (so far) five other "talkies": Little Women (1946), Little Women (1949), Little Women (1958), Little Women: Pilot (#1.0) (1978), and Little Women (1994), as well as several TV series.

They are the four March sisters, Meg (Frances Dee), Jo (Katharine Hepburn), Beth (Jean Parker), and Amy (Joan Bennett), and their mother Marmee (Spring Byington).

In the novel, Meg is the oldest at 16, Jo is 15, Beth is 13, and Amy is 12. Exact ages are not given in the movie. However, Katharine Hepburn was about 25 years old at the time the film was shot, 10 years older than her character Jo. Joan Bennett, who plays the youngest sister Amy, was 23 at the time, 11 years older than her character.

As the professor (Paul Lukas) explains to Jo after singing the song, that was Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt (None But the Lonely Heart), lyrics by the German novelist and polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe [1749-1832] and music by the Russian composer Pyotr IlyichTchaikovsky [1840-1893]. Lyrics (in German with English translations) can be found here.

Father (Samuel S. Hinds) is fighting for the Union (North) during the Civil War [1861-1865]. The Marches live in Massachusetts.