While their father is away fighting in the American Civil War, the four March sisters -- Meg (Meredith Baxter), Jo (Susan Dey), Beth (Eve Plumb), and Amy (Ann Dusenberry) -- grow up before their mother Marmee's (Dorothy McGuire) eyes.
Little Women is a classic novel by American writer 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 made-for-TV movie by screenwriter Suzanne Clauser. The story of 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) (1917) and Little Women (1918) (1918), and at least five other "talkies", including: Little Women (1933) (1933), Little Women (1946) (1946), Little Women (1949) (1949), Little Women (1958) (1958), and Little Women (1994) (1994), as well as several TV series.
No. Although all movies adapted from Louisa May Alcott's book will tell a similar story, the 1933 and 1949 versions of Little Women were based on a script by Victor Heerman. Suzanne Clauser's screenplay is a re-adaptation of the novel and not a remake based on Heerman's script.
At the beginning of the novel, Meg is the oldest at 16, Jo is 15, Beth is 13, and Amy is 12. Susan Dey was about 25 years old at the time the film was shot, 10 years older than her character Jo. Meredith Baxter was 30 at the time, 14 years older than the Meg of the novel. Eve Plumb, who plays Beth, was about 20 at the time, and Ann Dusenberry, who plays Amy, was 25. The movie spans about six or seven years so, by the end of the movie, the characters are a little closer in age to the actresses playing them.
Father (William Schallert) is fighting for the Union (North) during the Civil War [1861-1865]. The Marches live in Massachusetts.
Scarlet fever (aka scarlatina) is a disease caused by the Streptococcus germ. Scarlet fever was given this name because of the yellowish-red hue given to the cheeks of the face. Symptoms include, among others, fever and a discolored tongue called "strawberry tongue". Nowadays, scarlet fever can be controlled with penicillin. In the timing of Little Women, which took place and was written in the 1860s, neither germs nor penicillin were even known. Complications of scarlet fever in the mid1800s could include rheumatic fever, which led to heart disease. This may have been what happened to Beth, who already had a weak heart to start with.
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