This lush adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel has the benefit of a good cast, but the studio settings and the MGM production requirements really get in the way of the storytelling. Elizabeth Taylor and Janet Leigh are far too knowing for their roles, and top-billed June Allyson is too coy (and too old) for Jo. There's charm, certainly, whenever Margaret O'Brien and Peter Lawford are around, and the whole is very pretty to look at, but the classic source material demanded sterner stuff than this cotton-candy confection, which ultimately resembles an animated Christmas card.

Four sisters come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War.