Little Women (1949)

Meet Jo, Beth, Amy and Meg. They're the March sisters, the Little Women of Mervyn LeRoy's Academy Award-winning Technicolor version of the cherished Louisa May Alcott novel. Set during the Civil War, it chronicles the Marches' lives and loves, underscoring the era's expectations about a woman's place in the world. Golden-tressed Elizabeth Taylor portrays pretentious Amy, Janet Leigh is earnest Meg and Margaret O'Brien is dear, tragedy-stricken Beth. June Allyson plays spunky Jo, resolved to be a writer, but unaware that the elusive muse she seeks is the life she shares with her sisters and mother (Mary Astor).