"LITTLE WOMEN"

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 75, 29 March 1934, Page 11

"LITTLE WOMEN"

COMING TO- ST. 'iJAMES

Louisa jtf. Alcott's: fLittle:/Women" comes to the motion picture screen at the St. James Theatre on < Saturday iri,< an elaborate.-production designed to' animate this classic of wholesome romance with all:its native thrill^ sweetness, and power..; ..The version,' is said to encompass all.the adventures \ of "Little Women";that.brought the book recognition as a.-.classic and that even now, sixty-five years after its' publica,; tion, cause it to demand a brisk sale. ■ According to" the. research of RKORadio covering the sixties,' the pnblication of "Little Women immediately put Louisa' Aleott on. a pedestal of fame, and the book swept through the United States and Great Britain like a wave of healing lotion,'redeeming the ideals of young humanity from, the callous and rieckless.; morals brought about by the depression, of the Civil War. The story of fayi lovely, girls and their progress into ah expression of womanhood in its full beauty gripped the entire English-speaking world.- It is said to have marked the beginning of the end of-loosely-written literature, which disappeared more or.less, to make its reappearance during.the World War. Today the story is rated as a classic. It is a sort of girls' lesson in. life, because in its mysterious fashion, and' its genius it makes of doing good and being good the happiest of accomplishment. "As I look back over the career of this celebrated story I cannot help but feel that the screen version of it will have the same effect upon, theatregoers as a whole as the book had; upon the reading public," stated Mr. George Cukor, the director. "The film, which, to me, is the sweetest yet.most powerful story ever told in celluloid, makes its debut under somewhat the same condition which' greeted the book. Sex and sophistication have been the keystones of a large per cent, of modern talkies. Hundreds of censorship boards throughout the world . battle against these productions, just as jrearsago the mothers of the nation,- fearful of the influence upon their children of the seni sational and fiery novels of that 'day, battled, to squash them. It was Tather a futile struggle, however, for in those days .women were not organised. In 1865, I Relieve, there was but one woman's club in all America, and but one women's college, Vassar. I ant confident, as are RKO-Radio executives, that our version of this story, .produced with absolute fidelity to the letter and spirit of the original book, will create a sensation in the theatrical world and will be viewed by millions of people, young and old, who ordinarily do not patronise film houses."