joan bennett

little women bluray cover

I’ve had several movies to watch and review for Cinema Sentries which explains why I haven’t been writing much for my Great British Cinema Series. I have watched several British films in the interim and will write about them soon. But for now I’ll catch you up on my Cinema Sentries writing.

For large swaths of my life I tended to stay away from what is sometimes derogatorily called Women’s Pictures or Chick Flicks. I wasn’t necesarilly a man’s man either, I grew out of action movies early in college. But emotionally charged films about women in need of romance and other such things held very little interest for me.

I can’t say that I am mainlining romantic comedies these days, but I’ve soften somewhat in this regard. As you’ll read in my review, I first saw a version of Little Women in college and didn’t much care for it, but I’ve come to rather love it. This version starring Katharine Hepburn is one of my favorites.

fathers little dividend poster

Like many of my generation, I am more familiar with the Steve Martin remakes of the Father of the Bride series than the original Spencer Tracy versions. The original is less flamboyant (there is no Martin Short counterpart), more realistic (the mother is not also pregnant), and more notable for its 1950s sensibility (Tracy is shocked – shocked – that his daughter would think of having a baby naturally) than its general film qualities.

It is a cute, well-made picture. The jokes are mostly funny, if not all that memorable or hilarious. The cast (including a very young Elizabeth Taylor) plays its parts well. The direction is adequate if again not all that memorable.

There are a couple of particularly lovely moments including a card game played while Elizabeth Taylor’s character bursting at the seams. She squeals at a lousy hand forcing a reaction out of everyone else as if she was having the baby on the table.

Overall, the picture is a harmless, enjoyable viewing, but nothing that will last much past the night. It’s the kind of movie to watch with your grandparents on a lazy Sunday afternoon that you can feel warm and pleasant after watching.