{"id":12,"date":"2007-02-19T17:52:46","date_gmt":"2007-02-20T00:52:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/craiggrazianohmygod\/2007\/02\/19\/box-office-poison-killed-beth-march\/"},"modified":"2007-03-13T20:11:57","modified_gmt":"2007-03-14T03:11:57","slug":"box-office-poison-killed-beth-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/craiggrazianohmygod\/2007\/02\/19\/box-office-poison-killed-beth-march\/","title":{"rendered":"Box Office Poison killed Beth March."},"content":{"rendered":"

1933 was a long time before Katherine Hepburn was labeled (Libelled, she’s not a pickle jar!)\u00c2\u00a0as “Box Office Poison,” a term she later was thankfully able to shake, and I think her independent nature\u00c2\u00a0fuels Jo and brings her to life, it’s not often that a character and actor are so close in spirit.<\/font><\/p>\n

I liked how the characters,\u00c2\u00a0mainly Jo and Amy, were introduced in this George Cukor adaptation, since first impressions are always important and a film is no different. Having Jo at her aunt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s home, trying to sneak out of reading out loud, resulting in a shouting match and her pleading so she could work on a play. In less than 5 minutes we know the details of her job, her temper, her passion for creativity, and her skill for talking her way out of things. With Amy too we see both her lack of interest in school and how, when she is caught, she does not take punishment well. Always show rather than tell, and I think Cukor managed to show quite a bit to his audience. <\/font><\/p>\n

Just as the film strongly establishes Jo and Amy, it also manages to give Laurie an awfully bad hand. From the first time he opens the window to say hi, we see Laurie as buffoonish. He may have his moments like at the party, but Laurie definitely conjured up the most laughter for his all-around hokey attitude. Though it may have been due to the culture\/time difference between my generation and the 1930\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, it appeared to try and prove to the audience just how bad Laurie was for Jo. The portrayal of Bhaer offered a lot more humility and patience than the portrayal of Laurie. <\/font><\/p>\n

While watching, this idea popped into my head that there may be a connection with this post-Civil War book, and how its film adaptations also always following major international conflicts. The 1933 one is a stretch, since WWI ended in 1918, but the other adaptations are all a\u00c2\u00a0few years after American military campaigns. WWII \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 1949,
\nVietnam \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 1979, and Desert Storm \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 1994. Little Women<\/em> certainly does offer a lamentation for those who are away fighting, what with the March girl\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s father away, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think this means that there is some deep underlying message due to that, instead maybe it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just an example of how America loves both this novel and getting it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s war on simultaneously.<\/font><\/p>\n

Finally I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d just like to point out my favorite exchange of dialogue:<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Christopher Columbus!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh Jo, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t use such dreadful expressions!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1933 was a long time before Katherine Hepburn was labeled (Libelled, she’s not a pickle jar!)\u00c2\u00a0as “Box Office Poison,” a term she later was thankfully able to shake, and I think her independent nature\u00c2\u00a0fuels Jo and brings her to life, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-little-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/craiggrazianohmygod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/craiggrazianohmygod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/craiggrazianohmygod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/craiggrazianohmygod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/craiggrazianohmygod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/craiggrazianohmygod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/craiggrazianohmygod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/craiggrazianohmygod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/craiggrazianohmygod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}