Little Women (30th anniversary)

Here we come a-wassailing and here's a new episode to warm you up! For only the second time in this podcast's history, three guests join Mark for a special discussion, and these guests are practically family! Mark's sisters from other misters - Sarah Menaquale, Kit Sheehan, and Melissa Ward - are here to celebrate the classic Louisa May Alcott story Little Women and its great 1994 film adaption from Gillian Armstrong for its 30th anniversary. They mourn the death of Beth, praise the Thomas Newman score, and will never forgive Amy for burning Jo's manuscript. Plus, they compare the 1994 vs. 2019 Greta Gerwig versions and ask which Laurie do you prefer: Christian Bale or Timothée Chalamet? When you finish this episode, head to the YouTube channel for Part 2 of this discussion: https://www.youtube.com/@releasedaterewind/videos

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Straw Hut Media.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Hello, dear listeners, gather around for this first episode of
twenty twenty five. Happy new Year, and welcome to release date. Rewind,
a podcast celebrating milestone movie anniversaries. I'm your host, Mark J. Parker,
a movie lover, movie celebrator, and movie maker, and I'm
a little under the weather. You might be able to
tell if you listen to the show. Often you can

(00:26):
hear them a little nasally getting over a cold, So
please excuse me, but thanks so much for checking this
show out on the straw Hut Media network wherever you
get your podcasts or watching on YouTube. I don't know
about you, but twenty twenty four was rough at times,
and December was not easy for some of us. So
I hope this episode warms your heart like it does mine,

(00:48):
as you hopefully are able to relax, get comfortable and listen.
I have another drama here that's having a special anniversary
with strong female characters who are navigating life and liberty.
We're going back to December nineteen ninety four, when Mariah
carries All I Want for Christmas song was brand new,

(01:09):
and when a new film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's
Little Women was released. I love this movie, this cast,
and this story so much as do my guests. Now,
if you need to watch or rewatch this Oscar nominated
classic before continuing, it seems to not be streaming anywhere
right now in the US with a subscription, but you

(01:31):
could borrow it from your library. You could rent it
or find it online somewhere. All right, sisters and misters,
hop in my carriage and let's head to Massachusetts because
it's time to readwatch. Oh, okay, are you gonna keep

(01:57):
the butt or you're gonna let it all out?

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Letting it all out? Oh my hair is actually post
or pre pre selling it to that for that, it's
like pretty too much love.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah, you're one beauty. Oh my god, any such a
And I like how in that scene no one responds
to her. No one even says like Amy. They're just
like okay, anyway.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Joe, that's true.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
They're like, yeah, okay, everybody. I was just telling these
amazing women in my life. How this is like the
pinnacle of this podcast, this movie, this conversation, this group.
We're gonna talk about Little Women nineteen ninety four, but
we'll talk about a bunch of the versions because we
got lots of things to say. But my own little

(02:48):
women in my life. I mean, I don't know my
Marmie or out of the four of us, I guess
i'd be Meg because I'm the oldest. So we'll go
in We'll go in age order. I'll introduce you all.
So I guess I'm the Meg of the group. Then
we have I guess would be the Joe of the group.
Is Melissa Ward Is back on the show? Him mel
welcome at least age we'll talk about, you know, if
you actually you know, I feel that the same personality.

(03:11):
Next in line would be the Bath of the group
would be missian Is back on the show. Hello kid again,
just age order, not necessarily your personality or your future.
And then last, but certainly not least, the youngest of
the amy, although far nicer, and I don't think would

(03:32):
ever throw anything of ours in the fire. We don't know.
It depends on the circumstances. But Sarah Menequa is finally
back on the show. It's been a while, Sarah since
you were last on Hello. You were last on was
it Sex and the City or was it something more recent?
Do you remember Oh yeah, you me and mel Okay,

(03:56):
cut this, You're like, oh, I just talked about it
so much with different people. I can't keep driving.

Speaker 4 (04:04):
I'm always recording myself talking about sex and the city.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
It's a different version of Little Women. Basically. Right as
I was rewatching this great movie that we're about to
nerd out about, I realized, like, am I the only one?
Or like, would you guys want to see a sequel
with like like the girls, what happens? What's next? Or
are you happy like where the story ends? Would you
ever want to see like a continuation of like Joe

(04:28):
and Friedrich or Megan her twins, or Amy and Laurie,
or you like, don't know, I don't.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Want a sequel if you know it was Joe and.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Laurie an alternate timeline.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
You guys too, No, I mean I love him, but
like I don't I don't necessarily need to see what
I saw of Joe and Friedrich. Yeah, yes, off.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
Of her, he's he's like a full grown man. She's
still only what twenty one? Maybe I mean back in
the day.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
And he's like Gabriel Burn can get it. But at
the same time, like why is he one hundred when
she's twelve, So.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
Now yeah, yeah, because he feels like her teacher and
like he's getting he's helping her get her book publish
and everything like this is like a.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
This is aging her writing? Is this like what you
want to do? And she's like, I can't vote, so
and like so Luna tic vampire thing.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah, the vampire thing. I'm like, uh, Joe, let Joe
do that because in like a hundred years it's all
that anyone's going to talk about. Okay, So he was.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
Like, did Luisa may Alcott actually write those? Because like
we should read those awesome lunatic vampire Well, I actually.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
Now, have you guys ever read the book, the original
Louisa may Alcott book? Or you have Sarah okay not
long long ago? Okay, Well I never read the real book,
never owned it, but I do own a book I
still have never read. You guys know, I'm a very
painfully slow reader. But I have Little Women and were Wolves,

(06:09):
which is the story, but of course with another writer
changing up into a horror story, so maybe I'll actually
find bombies.

Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
This came out after that, and I thought it was like, honestly,
I hope so because I mean, let's have him do
like something for a while.

Speaker 4 (06:30):
What else does he bring?

Speaker 3 (06:31):
Right, Athrophy?

Speaker 5 (06:34):
Yeah, we come a among the leaf spines, and here
we come a wand to you and to you, and
God bless you and send you a happy new year,
and God send you a happy New Year.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
This is a very Christmasy movie, would you all agree? Like,
would you consider? I mean, it goes through all the seasons.
But is this a Christmas movie for each of you? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yeah, yeah, Winter, yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
Winter, winter in general. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:10):
And I usually start watching my wintry movies around Christmas too,
so it always Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
I introduced you all in age order according to character.
But before we get into all the details, who I
want to ask? And I think I might have asked
you Melan Sarah about this for Sex and the City
a while ago, who do you most relate to of
the four sisters?

Speaker 6 (07:30):
Like?

Speaker 2 (07:31):
And you can say combinations. I'm a little bit of this,
I'm a little bit of that. I'm definitely not her who.
I mean, I feel like everyone's a little bit of Joe.
She's the Carrie, right, But what do you think? I'll
start with you, Kit, who do you feel like you are?

Speaker 4 (07:43):
Like?

Speaker 2 (07:43):
Most comprised of.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
Well, it's funny. I was talking about this with Ashe
this morning, and I had also so growing up, I
had always wanted to be amy because my mom love
her dearly love you. Alburns had like very much emphasized
the idea of like, well, it's more it's important in
this world, like people are gonna love you if you're beautiful,
but it's better to be It's like morally better to
be smart. And that's good because like you're not beautiful,

(08:07):
you're smart, and like, so I like wanted to be
I wanted so much to be here to this she will.
I don't know that she knows.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
Well, I have a surprise. I have a surprise for you.
All right, all right, everyone else mute, because now we're
gonna let Elburne speak and say her piece.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
Hello everyone, You're so beautiful. Melissa, Oh my god. I
told Kate she needed to fix a hackause going to
be on it. She said, Melissa sick, And she said,
Melissa sick, It's still gorgeous. This is old. This is

(08:56):
not who she is anymore and is not reflective of
the work we have both done in therapy. This is
not these are just bits. These are just fun.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
Ye that we love.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
Story short you wanted to be Amy and.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
In your version Amy and Marmee are not good. I'm getting.

Speaker 3 (09:18):
In that house. And my mom was always like, you're
Joe your Joe. Of course, growing up and looking back
on it, I am very much more like Joe. She's
very dramatic, she's very headstrong in what she and that
she would give up anything for to pursue the dream
of being a writer to pursue this dream of telling stories.

(09:39):
But I'm also a little best because I do feel
homebody And I was even saying I'm also a little Meg,
like completely independent of like prescribed gender roles. I love
taking care of babies and I love the houses and stuff,
and I'm like I do love that too, So I yeah,
definitely a blend. I think we all But that's amazing.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
I love that. Well said what about you, Sarah, who
how how does the percentages fall for you? Would you say?

Speaker 4 (10:07):
I think I am probably an Amy's sun, Amy moon
Joe rising the I think there's more Amy and Me
than not, with maybe a smattering of Joe. I'm definitely
a homebody. I mean, you know, I moved back to
more some homebody like Beth, I love my home, but

(10:28):
I think our connection really ends begins and ends there
like going and holding someone else's sick kid.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
Never dark scene.

Speaker 3 (10:41):
I know you're basic watching sentence.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
I don't know that. She just freaks me out so much.
We could talk about it later, Clarity that scene, clardines, Yeah,
particularly when she like goes to like go and they
she gets handed that baby. Like it's like, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (11:04):
I don't like, I don't like the two women yelling
at her in German.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
Yeah, it's like a very uncomfortable scene.

Speaker 3 (11:10):
Yeah, can't we just grab that biscuit if I thank you?
And I was like, that's her biscuit.

Speaker 4 (11:18):
Scarlette fever, Like what the fuck?

Speaker 2 (11:21):
I know? Yeah, oh of course we can curse, oh
curse away.

Speaker 6 (11:26):
No.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yeah, the way she holds the baby and like the
I think the camera slowly zooms in. It's truly like
a horror scene, like it's like, oh shit, and the
way she's like and I know, I know some of
us don't love Claire Danes and you know, sometimes she's
too much, but that Claar Danes cry chin wiggle will
always get me. Oh yeah, I agree, and we're going
to talk about her death scene, because it, if anything,

(11:48):
somehow I've seen this movie so many times it gets
me even more as I get older, and like, right,
like the power of it, right, but the chin wiggle,
like and she's holding this kid and she's freaked out
because she doesn't understand the language. But then also she
knows something's wrong, like it's just terrible.

Speaker 3 (12:04):
It's like and she's so nice to be like, no,
sentenced to death, Like yeah, she's almost like, oh, why
am I doing this? Why am I doing this? But
my other option is to drop a baby in a snowbank.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
Totally it's so bleak, I know, yeah, but so okay, Sarah,
So yeah, you're mostly Amy, definitely some Joe, not much Meg,
you think, I mean.

Speaker 4 (12:26):
Who is Meg? Really?

Speaker 3 (12:27):
You know?

Speaker 1 (12:30):
Who is?

Speaker 6 (12:33):
Right?

Speaker 2 (12:34):
Mag is just sort of yeah, standing there correcting everyone
right according to other people's rules.

Speaker 4 (12:41):
Yeah, I don't think I have big sister energy.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yeah what she is?

Speaker 4 (12:47):
So I don't think I have a ton.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
There you are the baby, as is Mel. I'll move
over to Mel, the other baby in her family. Who
how did the percentage just fall for you? Who would
you say you are?

Speaker 3 (12:58):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (12:59):
Of course, like everyone else a mixture of everything, but
I don't Meg probably in that you know, more traditional
mother role, and of course Amy because I am the
youngest and kind of braddy in that sense. In Beth
because I yeah, I I do long for like days

(13:21):
of the past a lot, like I miss, you know,
our youth and all that. So I definitely get what
Beth feels, because it's really it is sad to watch
everyone around you grow up and you just want to
go back to those times. Well said, I don't know
Joe actually probably the least like her, you're a writer.

(13:45):
Other than that, I don't relate to her too much.
She's so like.

Speaker 3 (13:50):
I guess, anti establishment.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah yeah, and I'm like a little forceful.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
Yeah yeah. She's just so set in like her beliefs
and they're so like far to one extreme, especially for
that time, for that time, not for now. But yeah,
and also I just I can't forgive her for what
she did to with Laurie. So that's so I can't

(14:19):
relate to her at all.

Speaker 2 (14:20):
Yeah, Okay, yeah, she totally shut the door on something
good and obvious. Right, Yes, that's interesting. That's so interesting. Well,
when you have been l dot in your past, I
would say, you're very Joe then, right you are.

Speaker 1 (14:34):
What's the connection to this?

Speaker 3 (14:35):
Bring do? This is on national television, This is on
local television.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
This is on national local television. No, but you know
el Dot was a little body and a little uh
wild and you know, so there's a little bit in
Joe and the alter ego you know, will be right back.
What do those girls do over there?

Speaker 3 (15:02):
All day? Over?

Speaker 2 (15:03):
The mysteries of female life?

Speaker 6 (15:05):
There is drawn a veil best left undisturbed.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
I'm probably the least Amy, just cuz I don't know,
I just feel like I'm probably the least her. But like, also,
I love I do love that Len she grows up
and is an artist and like doing all that and
doesn't really even though she's so boy crazy when she's young.
I do kind of love that, Like later on she
does mature and I like that she's kind of like

(15:30):
doing her thing, but she is still kind of money focused, right,
Like yeah, so a little bit of her. And then
I'd say I'm probably a good amount of the other three,
mostly Joe with the whole writer thing. I mean, when
I was a kid seeing this movie, and then I
want to ask you all, when you first saw this
one if you remember, but when I was a kid,
and I'm not lying everybody. When Joe writes that novel

(15:51):
at the end and it's right there and it just
says a novel by Josephine March and she ties it up.
That was I think the first time I saw porn,
I was like, Wow, that's beautiful, Like that is hot,
Like yeah, like hold that thing and just show it off,
you know. Like, so I definitely am a Joe. And
then I do feel like Meg, maybe because I am

(16:12):
the oldest of you know, me and my sister, so
definitely feel like being the other parent when you need
and like kind of like setting an example. And then yeah, Beth,
I mean yeah, I think we all do love our
homebody moments for sure. And I totally hear you out.
I'm glad you're saying that that. Yeah, like just kind
of seeing people move and change, and it's you know,

(16:34):
the nostalgia as we especially get older, I just really
feel like, oh, man, like too bad. Naturally, everyone's gotta
make moves, and you know it can't just be in
your little bubble, right Yeah. Yeah, So now I'm gonna
ask you all if you remember when was like the
first time you saw this movie. It came out thirty
years ago Christmas Day ninety four. I don't think any

(16:55):
of us saw it in the theater, right, Probably not.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
No, not in the theater, But I definitely I saw
it very young and watched it often when I was young.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah. Probably. I feel like it was probably like HBO
or something like that when I first saw it, and
I remember loving it, taking it on like VHS from
TV and just replaying it. What about you, Sarah, do
you have any memories of when you first saw did
you rent it? Maybe?

Speaker 4 (17:18):
I know it was not the theater, but it was.
It had to be shortly after it came out, because
you know, Little Women was so canonically important in my family.
My grandfather and grandmother were obsessed with the book and
had four daughters and named them all tangentially after the

(17:39):
Little Woman. And so I'm sure that I watched it.
I remember being very young watching it because I had
the story had been just part of our family lore
for so long. So I know I was very young,
too young probably to be watching Beth die, don't. I
don't recall seeing it in theaters. It couldn't have been.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
Yeah, that we would be so young. Because also at
this time, other popular movies were Dumb and Dumber, which
I mean iconic. I mean, can you imagine going to
the theater and seeing like Little Women and then right
next door Dumb and Dumber.

Speaker 4 (18:13):
My double feature is so cuckoo that it works.

Speaker 3 (18:16):
It's cuckoo right in any nineties, but it would just
go down like a grilled cheese.

Speaker 2 (18:23):
Yeah, you need your protein and then you need like
your sides. You gotta have some, right, Yeah, but yeah,
Dumb and Dumber came out the same day as Street Fighter,
was Jean Claude van dam disclosure of sexual thriller with
Demi Moore, who what we know is having a moment again,
and Michael Douglass and oh the Santa Claus, which I'm
sure a lot of us did see in the theater.

(18:44):
I know I saw that in the theater. That was popular,
so that was kind of what was going on at
the time. But Little Women I remember being intrigued by.
But I saw it later for sure. What about you, kid?
You saw it on TV?

Speaker 3 (18:55):
Yeah? I think on TV later definitely, I'm realizing because
I didn't see The Santa Claus in theater either. I
am not. I don't know how much I was taken
as a kid kid to see because being the only child,
it was kind of like, well, you know, like we
we take you to muse dams that are for you,
and I had time at the TV that was like

(19:16):
for me, you know, but it was kind of like, oh,
we're not all going to go see this movie if
you're the only one.

Speaker 1 (19:25):
Lion King in the theater.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
Yeah, Lion King definitely, because I was earlier in ninety four.
It was the same year as this, so we don't
remember that.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
Yeah, yeah, yes, okay, so yeah, I was definitely seeing
Lion King. I saw Lion King some things, Yeah, but
this one I saw like on TV. But I really
remember when they're kids, and that probably was because I
was a kid. Like I really remember the Amy stuff,
not only because I loved Amy and I loved Kirsten
Dunce like even at the time, but like I really

(19:54):
remembered like when they were younger, and I sort of
tuned out when Joe went.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
To kind of do Yeah, I don't like that party either.

Speaker 3 (20:03):
That's why I like and we'll talk about it. But
that's why I like the Credit her Wig one because
it kind of intersperses that part, so I don't have
to like live in it for the entire but I
can still like understand what Yep, that's.

Speaker 2 (20:14):
Totally valid, I hear you. Yeah, As you guys might
remember from years ago, I would like remake movies I
like Twister and Muppet Treasure Island in my own version
of Greece. I was writing my own version of Little Women,
like I was. For some reason, I just have such
a distinct like like you know, in a bridge, like
a like a fifteen page handwritten like Beth dies and
then Joe, you know, like much shorter. But I just

(20:37):
had this specific memory of falling in love with the
end credits because if you guys rewatch those, like they
show images of the sisters throughout the credits, and like,
I just thought that was such an interesting way to
like keep the movie going. And it's not just like
the names, like we're still in it, you know that.
I just remember like starting to write end credits like

(20:57):
for my like made up movies like I Guess Putting
You All Down and like various celebrities and just like
loving end credits very nerdy, very weird.

Speaker 4 (21:08):
Revenge is Mine.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
Excellent. You ought to publish it.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
Show really, let me set the scene a little bit.
Let me tell you so, I told you what other
popular movies were out the popular song. Okay, I had
no idea what this was. You guys. Once I sing
a little bit of it for you, you'll be like, oh, yeah,
that one. But the top song was a song called
Here Comes the Hot Stepper?

Speaker 4 (21:32):
Is that all right?

Speaker 2 (21:36):
Because I'm like, what is that from?

Speaker 3 (21:38):
I don't know it. I may know it.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
Any commos comose, I don't know. I don't know their name,
but it's Nana no no, no, no, no no no. Yeah,
so we all know it. But I had no idea
that's what it was called, you know. So yeah, yeah,
I love that. That was on your birthday playlist. You said, yes,
love it?

Speaker 4 (22:00):
That and the Little Women ninety four soundtrack love it?

Speaker 2 (22:04):
That was it amazing? And Sarah, wait before we continue,
do you want to? I mean, let's talk about Josie.
Do you want to share you know why? Yeah? You
named her that? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (22:15):
So I have a daughter named Josephine Josie and she
is It was for in many ways, for Joe Marsh,
who is one of my favorite literary characters and movie characters,
and that also honors my grandfather Joseph and her other
great grandmom, Josephine. But she, yeah, she for sure. The

(22:38):
primary inspiration was Little Women and she was born in March,
so she's.

Speaker 2 (22:44):
You're so right perfect.

Speaker 4 (22:46):
And she is a demon.

Speaker 3 (22:48):
So we're going to say, which who do you think
Josie is? What's her main of the four?

Speaker 4 (22:54):
Oh, that's a great question. I think she's probably fifty.

Speaker 2 (22:59):
For okay, very similar to TAM's you know, yeah, those
were the two. Yeah, what about what about you mel?
For Gigi? I know it's early to tell, but who
is she from the story? Can you tell.

Speaker 1 (23:12):
She's not an ensemble character? You know, she's gonna be
the star or something else that she's the rich girls.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
That yeah, like she's that one rich girl that tells me,
I want you to be my pet.

Speaker 3 (23:25):
Oh yeah, that is actually, oh my god, no has
a soul.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
To be fair, that that one rich girl who says
that isn't so bad. The other ones are worse right,
and that scene because the ones like they have like
views on slavery. It's like, oh geez.

Speaker 4 (23:43):
Again, forgot about that part. Actually, totally artist, I'm surprised
you wouldn't say, oh.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
Yeah, it's again too soon to say, but right she
really is just her own.

Speaker 3 (24:02):
Air, like it needs to be, not collectively men little me.

Speaker 1 (24:11):
Yeah yeah, yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
But so now I'm going to just briefly talk about
our stars and where they were in their careers, and
then we're going to nerd out. So, of course this
we know is based on the of course, Louisa may
Alcott novel. This was the fifth feature film adaptation. Now
we all have seen the Greta Gerwig version. That's the
last one. Have you guys seen any other movie versions

(24:34):
other than these two, because I have a.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
Lot all the way through. I've seen parts well and
part of the the Liz Taylor one too literally only
part like in clip shows when I'm like looking, like
looking at a YouTube thing about the Little Women, the
newer ones.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
What did it? What did it look like? K Like,
did it look like something you want to continue? Or
you kind of like? I have other good versions.

Speaker 3 (24:59):
I don't know, And I would definitely be very interested
to watch the Catherine Hepburn one in full. I think
I would still end up preferring the story of Little
Women told through the more recent ones. Just because I
haven't seen the mini series, but I really love the
nineteen ninety four one and the twenty nineteen one, so
I'm like, I would like that still, I think. But

(25:22):
Catherine Hepburn was so fascinating as Joe, Like they really
played up her physical like the tomboy aspect. I watched
this whole thing on it and it was like, really interest.
They were like, so she was like climbing and stuff.
But then by the time you got to the nineteen
ninety four one, they were like, well she doesn't. You
don't just like want to be a guy. If you
have independence, you might just be want you want to
tell your stories and you're totally you know. So they

(25:43):
had her more intellectual and wasn't about rough and tumble
so much. Like it was a little but not. And
then the Liz Taylor one, they were like, they made it.
This is so fascinating. They made it in nineteen forty nine,
so it's post World War two. They had just MGM
did it. So it was technicolor everything. They were like,
everything was bright, not a hair out of place, and

(26:05):
it was post war. So instead of emphasizing how the
March Sisters were poor and trying to figure out, like
how you get by with one pair of gloves. They
emphasized that, like this post war Joy, they get a dollar,
and instead of the girls talking about whether they're gonna
like what they're gonna do, they go on a spending spree.
They're like, let's go shopping, and they're like, let's buy

(26:26):
Marmie all this stuff. They literally added a shopping spree
thing to be like it's a very American thing.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
Wow, Okay, I could see.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
The very definitely time capsules.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
I could see that being like a very exciting moment
for audiences at the time. But then seeing this version,
which seems to be closer to the book, I mean,
that's pretty different to have a shopping spree.

Speaker 3 (26:50):
I mean you just can't. I no shade it all
to like a fun like, oh we got a tinsel
and we gotta celebrate because it's been bleak. But I
just feel like maybe a little Women's not the vessel
for that story, Like just just make another one.

Speaker 2 (27:05):
You know, just make a knockoff.

Speaker 4 (27:06):
We'll ask a question while we're talking about them being poor.
So I feel like at the start of the movie,
they're saying they're poor because of the war and because
he's serving in the war and he can't work and
he has family money, but he's kind of rejected the
family money. Whatever. Why do they still seem poor years

(27:26):
after he gets home. Why does it seem like their
station never changes?

Speaker 1 (27:32):
I think because they like to give away their money
and stuff and help other people.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
Yeah, they don't seem to have much coming in, and
then they're giving some stuff away often. So yeah, they're
kind of always like at the same.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
They're just like not motivated by money, you know, but like.

Speaker 3 (27:49):
To the point where like I think it's because Ash
was while we're watching, He's like, why are they always
just like giving away? Like He's like, what like saccharin
and sweet and just like here you go. I think
that they actually tell the story well because best dies
because of it, Like they give so much away that
their daughter is so run ragged with it that she

(28:09):
catches the scarlet fever and like die.

Speaker 2 (28:13):
I know, I'm glad you're bringing that up, because on
this latest rewatch I was kind of like, I mean,
you know, I don't want to blame anyone obviously, like
the Himmels, this German family like are to blame because
they got her sick, but Marmy definitely said to Beth.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
I don't want to blame anyone.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
Go go check on them, right, She's like, go check
on them for me. Okay, well I'm gone. And that's
like yes, Marmy. And it's like Marmie like you.

Speaker 3 (28:36):
Know what's.

Speaker 4 (28:40):
She's what thirteen?

Speaker 3 (28:41):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (28:42):
Like so it's kind of like, you know, it's sort
of like should you be that nice or should you
scale it back?

Speaker 3 (28:50):
Like, actually, what are they going to eat for Christmas?

Speaker 1 (28:53):
Oh my god, I think I'm a bad person because
I hate that scene when they're.

Speaker 3 (28:57):
Like, show me the part where they up some of
their own shit where they wrap, show me the part
where they set up a plate for everyone in the
Humble family. They just know.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
I just feel like, no, you guys, that's yours. You
deserve it. You don't need to give that away.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
It's really nice today today that is all yours. Okay,
you have the day off carrying up. I don't know.

Speaker 4 (29:19):
It seems like they're helping everyone but themselves, Like why
is Meg living at home with her husband and their
two babies. Help your daughter go get a house?

Speaker 2 (29:27):
Huh?

Speaker 4 (29:29):
I wish she had a home. Well, you could solve that.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
Actually, yeah, yeah, you're right at the end. I know
we're jumping around, but I know Joe says to Friedrich,
like my aunt gave me this house. But it's like, well,
why why aren't Meg and her husband and their their
kids in that house? Unless do they have a house
of their own. I don't think they do, right, they do.

Speaker 3 (29:50):
Like or I think they end upon But it's like,
if it is, maybe I'm just thinking the twenty nineteen one.
If it is, it's like two rooms, it's like it's
not it's they talk about it not being enough.

Speaker 6 (30:08):
Columbia Pictures invites you to share the holidays with a
family of little women.

Speaker 2 (30:15):
Out of the four girls, Meg is the one with,
in my opinion, like the most kind of thrown away ending.
It's like she finds love and she becomes a mom. Okay,
but back to like the juicy ones, you know what
I mean?

Speaker 4 (30:28):
Wait, though the reveal of the twins have a daughter
and the son, girl, why are you just standing like hot?

Speaker 3 (30:39):
It feels like she set it up. She was like okay,
okaykay when he comes in, like okay, so I'm gonna
be laying here, and then you do you say for you.

Speaker 4 (30:46):
Go the original gender reveal party.

Speaker 6 (30:50):
Their destiny you have a daughter was wherever their hearts
would take them.

Speaker 3 (30:58):
They had to like her because the nurse kept coming first.
She was like, no, the sun has to be second.

Speaker 2 (31:04):
God, yeah, Megan. Megan is like first second, first second, Okay.

Speaker 3 (31:09):
Why is this so hard for you? Come on?

Speaker 2 (31:14):
Oh my god, that's too funny. Yeah. In both versions
i've seen, you just feel like towards the end, like
no one cares about Meg and it's sad, but it's
like you get things started. But yeah, you were not
really watching you to end the story we're watching.

Speaker 1 (31:29):
Yeah, it is interesting that she does take a more
prominent role in the beginning beginning. Yeah, and then it's
like god, like, oh, all.

Speaker 4 (31:37):
Just shows what settling for yourself will do, right, No
one wants to follow that story.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
Yeah, it's like she's only there at the end to
like tell Joe how Beth is doing and let's focus
on Yeah, and like that's really And then to have
kids and it's like, you know, that's it.

Speaker 3 (31:52):
It feels a little bit like they're kind of they're like, oh,
and then you become a mom, Like I don't know,
I don't know. What it's about the time period or
what it said about Louise may alcohol. But it feels
a little bit like and then you're a mom, and
like that's your thing. You're happy being a mom. Becoming
a mom isn't like this whole other, totally different, fascinating

(32:15):
adventure timeline that you go to.

Speaker 1 (32:18):
Well, I guess maybe a reflection of what how Louis
and may Alocott felt that mother.

Speaker 3 (32:23):
I think did she ever get I should have looked
this up. Did she ever marry? Did she ever have children?

Speaker 6 (32:30):
No?

Speaker 1 (32:30):
I just google that. Did I'm looking at it right
now because I wanted to see Yeah, no, it says she.

Speaker 2 (32:39):
Never wow, okay, that she.

Speaker 3 (32:43):
Saw it like that. At the time, it might have
felt that way too. It might have been like holy shit,
literally watching how people ignore mothers, and but like, yeah,
it does feel a little I'm like, well, yeah, because
it's like one of the most fascinating things that you like,
something she related.

Speaker 2 (33:02):
To I could be open to, like seeing a sequel
right to seeing like Meg like be a mom and
like Auntie Joe. But I know I'm kind of like
crazy Joe, Auntie Joe and like Amy, you know, Uncle
Friedrich maybe he dies. I don't know. Then it's starting
to just become in just like that. So maybe I'm

(33:22):
this is right.

Speaker 5 (33:25):
If I were going to be a writer, I'd go
to New York and pursue the stage.

Speaker 2 (33:30):
Are you shocked?

Speaker 4 (33:32):
Very?

Speaker 2 (33:33):
This was written by a writer, Robin swickgord I believe
it's her name, directed by Gillian Armstrong So produced by
Denise Dedanovi and Amy Pascal, who then produced the Greta
Gerwig version. So a bunch of women behind the scenes
and important roles, which is awesome. And you can really
feel that in this movie that like it's made with
care and like it's the female perspective, female empowerment. I
do feel like it would it would have come out

(33:55):
a little different if like a guy was directing, do
you know what I mean? I feel like you'd be
able to sense that a little more. And our amazing cast.
I love this cast. I know like this, I'd say
most of the cast and the new one is great,
but like this to me is like the ultimate And
like you were saying, kid, we had Katherine Hepburn, we
had Liz Taylor. We had also in the Liz Taylor
one was Janet Lee Jamie Lee Curtis's Moms. She played Meg. So,

(34:18):
I mean, we've had some stars in the past, but like,
whoa this casting Let's start with Winona who got an
Oscar nom for this movie, which I think sometimes I forget.
I'm like, oh, yeah, you know, because she's so good,
but there's not like a certain amount of scenes where
you're like, oh my god, like amazing work, you know
what I mean, But overall so good. So she had

(34:38):
last just done Reality Bites in ninety four, so that's
kind of where she was. She was like on top
of the world. They only made this movie with her
in mind, like the apparently the studio was like, we
are not doing Little Women and making a female movie
without Wanona River in the lead, right, So she got
it made right.

Speaker 3 (34:54):
They called it a beatle in the eye movie.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
I saw that too, Yeah you saw that one.

Speaker 3 (34:58):
Yeah, where they were like, as in a husband would
say to a wife, I'd rather have a needle in
my eye than watch that movie. I'm like, really, really
them watch Little Women, right, not even Confessions of a
Shapaholic or something a very famous right, very exactly.

Speaker 2 (35:16):
So that was where win no Ona was coming off.
Let's talk about Susan Sarandon, who I love as Marmie.
Do you guys like her in this one? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (35:24):
For her to?

Speaker 3 (35:25):
Yeah? And I love Laura Dern, but I do Susan
Sarandon is my Marmie.

Speaker 2 (35:29):
Definitely agree. Laura Dern is so good, but there's something
so flat and distant from her in the twenty nineteen version,
whereas Susan, and again, who knows, maybe because it's like
this was our first Little Women movie, Like maybe it's
also special that way. But Susan is strong, and she's
emotional and she's smart, like she's just giving us everything. Right.

(35:51):
I love going back to Kit when you were talking
about your hair and doing you know, when Joe reveals
she got her hair cut off, which is such a moment,
the way and Sarandon looks at Wenona Ryder is like
it just brought like tears in my eyes. It's so beautiful,
you know, the sacrifice.

Speaker 3 (36:06):
She clocks it, proud of her and just loves Yeah.

Speaker 2 (36:10):
Yeah's but she had just done a movie. I loved
The Client, so she was in like her legal thriller
phase in the nineties. Then moving on to Kirsten dunst Brand,
knew pretty much. She a month before was in interview

(36:30):
with the Vampire star making role right, so she was like, wow,
end of nineteen ninety four, a star was born. She's amazing.
What do you guys think of Kirsten in this movie?

Speaker 1 (36:40):
She's amazing the best.

Speaker 2 (36:43):
Yeah, And going back to how they feel compelled to
donate their Christmas breakfast to that family, I completely feel
for her when she has this beautiful what is it
like an.

Speaker 3 (36:52):
Orange or something in orange?

Speaker 2 (36:53):
Yeah, holding onto it and then like so just with
like you know, her spunky you full you know, needs
on display. It's like, yeah, like I totally feel for her,
you know, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:06):
Yeah, she's my favorite.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
Like I love her, even though I like Samantha Mathis,
you know, and she was sort of a thing at
this time. I think she was even in another Winona
Writerer movie at this time. Older Amy, it is kind
of a bummer when like, oh, we don't get to
see Kirsten anymore, you know.

Speaker 7 (37:23):
Yes, that's yeahs as a child and a little we
were so young, I'm realizing that I felt I felt
a little betrayed, Like it was like it was like
a switch hip been pulled.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
I was like no, Yeah, it's really like sudden.

Speaker 3 (37:38):
Yeah, and then you like don't care about Like the
feels weird, and I'm very like it because I like
how he says, you know that I've always wanted to
be I would I would hate if Beth had a lover.
I would hate it. Yeah, But like I it's still
it feels very weird. She feels like a stranger in

(37:58):
the movie, and she needs I didn't realize how much
she needs to be a heartbeat in the movie until
seeing that twenty nineteen one and being like, oh, well
it actually the sisters loved each other. It feels like
there's still this love there even though she ends up
with Glory, Whereas it just felt like when on a
rider like swallowed it and was like, okay, I'm like
that's your sister.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
Yeah, that's quite a reveal, Like let me introduce you
to my wife. And she's like, oh, she took it well,
she took.

Speaker 3 (38:26):
It so well.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
I didn't want him.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
Yeah, she didn't want him. And by then she was
into Friedrich, right, Daddy writer Friedrich.

Speaker 3 (38:34):
Like the twenty nineteen one they even show that she
go she's so lonely that she even is like maybe
I did mess up. Maybe I was crazy to do
this to Lori and then finding that he's mad, and
she does take it like whoa, you know, like okay, okay,
and then she's like, okay, no, that was for the best.

(38:56):
It's ultimately I made my choice. He made his choice,
and Amy made hers and now they're happy. And so
that's it felt more like she was dealing with it
in that rather than just being like yeah, no, like
I it doesn't make sense that she doesn't want him
at least a little at least yeah a little bit
in the middle of the night, whether you did the
right thing. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:15):
Well, this version, she's so like I mean, and it's
a very obviously feminist movie and like lots of great lines,
but she is like so like feminist that she even
says like why do we even have to be a wife?
Like why does why do we have to get married?
So she's like so opposed to that at all that. Yeah,
she's not truly you know, considering the good uh you

(39:37):
know with Laurie and all that. Right, yeah, oh man,
But yeah, Kirsten is such a scene stealer and yeah,
I think also like Samantha Mathis is directed or maybe
maybe she just could only be this way as older
amy were like, there's not much spunk there at all,
Like she's it's like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, right,

(39:58):
it's weird, yeah, and then it's funny. Then she and
Christian Bale went on to be in American Psycho together
a few years later. She has a role in that.

Speaker 3 (40:06):
So was she an American Psycho?

Speaker 2 (40:07):
Is she the No, she doesn't have a major role.
She's like she's on like hooked on drugs. She's like
one of his coworker's wives, and I think he has
an affair with but he doesn't. She's not like a
victim or anything. She's just sort of like a mess.

Speaker 3 (40:23):
Way better of a role for her than that to
like not saying anything, but just saying like, yeah that
she she didn't shine in this And it could have
been directed.

Speaker 2 (40:34):
And you guys might have seen, you know, talking about
some like casting stuff. Apparently the first choice, if so
the producer Denise de Novi had they decided like it
just doesn't make sense to have one actress play both.
But apparently that was very common in the other films,
like it's the same. But there was something about like
they wanted to really show true to form the progression

(40:56):
of age right in this one. But according to the
director that if they did decide to just have one
actress do both roles, it was actually the first pick
was Reese Witherspoon, which I could totally see.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
Yeah, definitely that would have been good.

Speaker 2 (41:08):
Because she was very young, and then they probably could
have she would have been able to kind of like,
you know, age up, age up and change her ways
a little bit, right, Yeah, And she's definitely starting to
you know, work at this time. So I thought that
was interesting because she blends right in and she is
in American Psycho with some of these other actors, so weird.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
Does oh is she?

Speaker 3 (41:28):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (41:29):
I never saw that movie.

Speaker 2 (41:29):
Actually, she's very funny in it.

Speaker 3 (41:31):
Oh yeah, so she's she's so funny.

Speaker 2 (41:33):
She's kind of like the eighties version of Amy, like
very right in a way.

Speaker 3 (41:38):
Me like what yeah, return some videotapes that she and
seeing it through like new because Ash had I had
only ever seen the twenty nineteen too, so seeing it
through his he was like, you know, he goes, I
will say it puts it into percent it does. It

(41:58):
puts it in to a different perspective to have Amy
look so young when she burns the manuscript versus still
being the same girl who marries Laurie, Because I was
just like, even though FLORENCEQ looks young and she's obviously
playing young, you can't help, but the burning of the
manuscript is such an egregious, like horrific betrayal that like

(42:19):
you can only imagine forgiving a child for that, like
after like a year, Like if your sister was looking
like she was fifteen and did it, that's like a
lot and you're like seventeen, that's not a child.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
You're so right?

Speaker 3 (42:34):
Yeah, and maybe too him.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
Yeah, you know what, it really is unforgivable.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
Oh, I mean, so I.

Speaker 4 (42:43):
Was going to ask this because Melissa, you're the you
have sisters. I was going to ask, like I thought, like,
Joe bounce back quite fast from that. Yeah, I don't
have sisters and never fought with a sister. Is that
normal rebound.

Speaker 1 (42:55):
Time or yeah? I mean I guess yeah, you do
get over things faster with sisters. But I just don't
feel like the crime that like, oh you know, Joe
didn't do anything.

Speaker 2 (43:10):
No, yeah, oh my gods, that it's awful that I did.

Speaker 3 (43:13):
Like in the twenty nineteen one, Joe is being more
of an outward bitch to Amy. During the scene where
she's getting ready, she's like, you vain little kid, Like
all you do is talk to me about vanity and stuff.
You don't even know how to read. Get out of here.
She's like, oh, I don't know how to read.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
I do love how Joe calls Amy an ignoramus. She says,
I will not have my sister be an ignoramus or
something in this version, certain lines that I had never
really caught before. Yeah, yeah, it's so that is interesting that. Yeah,
they kind of give Amy more of a reason in
twenty nineteen to do it. But oh yeah, but I'm
so glad you're bringing that up, kid, that would Ash said,

(43:52):
because yeah, I it was weird seeing Florence Pew do
it where it's like, oh, you're just a fucking bitch.

Speaker 3 (43:57):
Whereas I've seen you in Midsummer a brad student like.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
This, but being a true ten year old, it's like, oh,
I hate you so much, but like you don't know
any better, like this is a big lesson for you
as well, you know, Yeah, yeah, it's awful. I remember,
like I think.

Speaker 1 (44:15):
It's it's just so something sisters can forgive, but as
an audience, I don't think it's forgivable.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
That's interesting. Yes, we always for me. Yeah, yeah, that's
so interesting. So in real life it's something where especially
also at this time where you don't have a ton
of people in your life, right, it's like, okay, you
have to move on.

Speaker 4 (44:33):
I do.

Speaker 2 (44:33):
I've always loved Susan Sarandon's line don't let the sun
go down upon your anger. I think she says, like,
forgive and start over tomorrow with your story, you know.

Speaker 3 (44:42):
But oh god, And then they do the weirdest ad
R line where Chris Kirsten Dunce like sees her and
like turns away. I think they should have She was like,
I'm sorry, Joe. It's like, oh, you should have left
it out because it's actually more heartbreaking that the little
ten year old was coming in to say sorry and
here's her sister say I will never forgive her. Is
just like that's.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
A good partner. Yeah, oh man, Joe. Lets her have
it rightfully. So she says, you are nothing. I hate you.
I mean, like whoa you know, but I.

Speaker 3 (45:12):
Get killed it. She was like thrashing, Oh.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
My god, oh yeah. So yeah, even as a kid
any age, that scene packs a punch.

Speaker 6 (45:24):
What too Christmas wish perhaps you could send the hummels
are bread.

Speaker 1 (45:28):
They have so little and we have so much.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
Then we were moving on from Kirston to to Claire Danes,
who we were mentioning, what a great cryer, what a
great role, not a ton to do, but man, I
mean really kind of the heart of the movie. Right.
She was on My so called Life at the same time,
so she was really starting to blow up about to
do Romeo and Juliet with Leo, so like new, very
in demand talent. I think she ended up getting an

(45:53):
Emmy nom which wouldn't have happened yet for My soul
called Life. That would have been later, I think in
ninety five, so she wasn't like a ward numb yet.
But like I feel like she and Kirsten were definitely
like the new it girls. Like casting was like, we
gotta get them right. And then we have Triny Alvarado,
who didn't end up doing a ton, not nearly as
famous as these other women. But I've always loved her

(46:13):
as Meg. I think she's great. I think she's a
little bit for me, a little bit more memorable than
Emma Watson was in twenty nineteen. What do you guys think?

Speaker 1 (46:22):
Yeah, I liked her as Meg Cool.

Speaker 4 (46:25):
Yeah, I think a picture she looks so of the
time like she is. She's the face I picture when
I picture the little Woman poster. She's who I had
my brain conjures first.

Speaker 3 (46:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
That's interesting.

Speaker 3 (46:39):
Yeah, very period, okay, and it's very nuanced, like it's layered.
I think I think there was necessarily and you know,
not necessarily Ama Watson, the scripture whatever, but there wasn't
necessarily as much like there was layering of Meg in
the new one, but it didn't We don't really see
the courting process as much, and like she kind of

(47:01):
immediately falls in love with this guy and is like
all of her problems come from like very much loving
this one man but also missing the luxury. But we
really see her choosing that and like go and you
see it a little bit with like the proposal and
then when she chooses to kiss him and the little
they fall in love slower, and so you see her
arc a little bit better I think in the ninety

(47:24):
four one.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 4 (47:26):
The kissing I don't know. I was kind of like,
my little woman got through their bodies by these men.

Speaker 2 (47:35):
I know, oh yeah, in the doorway, and you know,
I have to say, your father just got home. Why
don't you just take a second from mister what's his
name Brooke and just you know, hang out with dad
for a minute.

Speaker 4 (47:48):
But no, like keep it in your pants.

Speaker 2 (47:50):
She's like, hi, Dad, welcome home. And then Joe literally
rounds the corner and it's like oh, and like they
are see.

Speaker 3 (47:56):
I have a theory though, because I felt like when
he came home with her dad, I was like, oh,
he can get it now. Proposals. Yes, he brought daddy home. Yes.
She's like, oh my god, thank you. I will do anything.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2 (48:08):
Yeah that's true. Okay, yeah, I see it.

Speaker 3 (48:11):
Must we marry it.

Speaker 1 (48:12):
All kind of things just stays.

Speaker 5 (48:14):
They are.

Speaker 2 (48:15):
The fun fact about Triny Alvarado she lived on my
street when my first apartment on fifty seventh Street, which
I'm pretty sure you all, yeah, you all have been.
She I would see her often. I remember one time
I stopped her. She would always walk with her husband
and their child in a stroller, and I stopped her
and I said, and this was right when Little Children
came out, that movie with Kate Winslet and you know,
really weird movie. She's in that as well, And I said, sorry,

(48:37):
I just want to say, you're so good in Little
Women and Little Children. And because she's not, like, you know,
a busy working actress, she was like, oh my god,
you have such a great memory. I think I weirded
her out. But she's very sweet, very sweet and looked
just like that. She has such a unique kind of
like European look almost or something.

Speaker 6 (48:53):
Fredd my home life to be kissed and what if
I miss you, I promise to kiss you before you die.

Speaker 2 (49:02):
Let's talk about the boys real quick. We none of
us love Friedrick kind of been any version, but yeah,
especially with Gabriel Byrne, And it's so funny he gets
like second billing. I don't really know what he was.
I mean, he was well known. I don't really know
what for at this time. But it goes Winona, Gabriel
and then the rest of her sisters, and I'm like,
it's weird, right, yeah, yeah, well Susan got that and

(49:24):
Susan and no, really, it's like Winona and Susan you know.

Speaker 3 (49:28):
But yeah, if you don't get top billing, you want
the and like yeah with or and you know, and.

Speaker 4 (49:34):
That's just a little bit of info from the biz.

Speaker 2 (49:36):
Yeah that's your little uh industry tip. But yeah, like,
so we have Friedric, we have obviously Laurie, we have
mister Brooke. Those are really the main men in the story.
But what do you would you guys go for Laurie?
Would you guys go for mister Brooke?

Speaker 4 (49:53):
Like?

Speaker 2 (49:53):
How do these boys rank for you? Sarah, I'll throw
it over to you. How do you feel about the guy?

Speaker 4 (49:58):
I mean I love for of course, I don't think
I love the Christian Bale LORI wow, I know, all right,
I'm gonna say it. I yeah, I don't know that
he is the Lory for me. I think there's just
something about Christian Bale. And it's not the size of

(50:22):
his head like I usually talk about. There's something about
his mouth that I just can't I It's it's he
like it's always on the cusp of having a lisp,
and it just I watched that and I'm like that
tongue just wants to just it just you know, just
wants to be lazy. And I watch it and I
can't keep my eyes off of it. I don't think

(50:44):
he's the one for me, but I love the character.

Speaker 2 (50:47):
I see it. I do see it. There's like a
little bit of like a like a like the teeth
are touching the lip a little bit, and yeah, you know.

Speaker 1 (50:54):
It's maybe because he's trying to do his accent.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
Yeah, so that.

Speaker 4 (50:58):
Tongue is is like right, and it's just really I
can't take my eyes off of it in a not
good way.

Speaker 2 (51:09):
Wow, yeah, in a bad way. So yeah, So you
are team Timmy as Laurie or or not necessarily just I.

Speaker 4 (51:18):
Is Tory. I did like him. Yeah, yeah, I love
the character.

Speaker 2 (51:24):
Right right? Absolutely? What about you, mel you are team
Christian Bale? Do you like Eric Stoltz as mister Brooke
as well? Or are you like Laurie all the way?

Speaker 1 (51:35):
I don't think about mister Brooks. No, No, I like,
I probably prefer Christian Bale to Timothy, but I like,
I thought they both did it a good job.

Speaker 2 (51:49):
Yeah, how about you?

Speaker 3 (51:49):
Kid very much that there's not a lot of winners
guys in Little Women, but Laurie is. Yeah. I loved
Laurie as a kid. The older I got the more.
I'm a little bit cool on Laurie a little bit,
but out of all of them in there like a
fuck Mary kill look is fuck Mary all the time,

(52:12):
and then just kill all of those other guys. Mister
March can come home, but I'm not going to marry him. Yeah,
Eric's right too, as mister Brooks oh say against March
is so old.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
In this Yeah, that was confusing.

Speaker 4 (52:26):
That is there's just no way they were having kids
at like sixteen in these dates, that's true, he would
have been in his thirties or forties.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
Point. Yeah, he is definitely older. I don't know how old.
I guess now is in her seventies. I guess she
was early forties. But he's like, I mean, he looks
straight up sixty at the youngest.

Speaker 3 (52:49):
Unless he was like super undesirable to marry when he
was younger because he kept giving all of his food away,
and you know, everyone's like, well I need food. I
can't even vote, so I like, as a wife, I
need you to provide you And Susan Stein was like,
I like to give my food away too. Of women
and children, that's the.

Speaker 2 (53:08):
Story of the prequel. Yeah, when they meet, Yeah, they
bond over not even donating food.

Speaker 3 (53:13):
Right, Yeah, I would want you have to that, I would.

Speaker 2 (53:16):
Want I do. I totallygree with you. Where I don't
even remember who plays mister Brooks in twenty nineteen. He's
Meg's boyfriend. Oh actually I do remember now. Yeah, Meg
is just so he's cute, but like he doesn't even
he doesn't hold as much attention as Eric Stoltz does
in this in this film where he actually has like,
you know, some scenes and everything. But when it comes

(53:39):
to Laurie, I think they're both equal Tommy and Christian,
but yeah, I have to give it to Christian. He's
And also I have to say, it's so nice to
see Christian Bale be so playful and goofy and like,
because we we know then what he ends up, you know,
in his career and he's amazing and all that.

Speaker 3 (53:54):
But we know that whole you know, crazy serious.

Speaker 2 (53:56):
Angry thing he did like a long time ago. But yeah,
he's just so serious and it's like, wow, it's so
nice to see you be romantic, be goofy, like play
with the girls and like show such a It's very
nice to watch, you know. And I do have to
say I like like he feels different to me, as
he should when he's older. With Timothy, I kind of

(54:18):
felt like, well, wait, how old are you now? Like
there wasn't enough change, but just showing maybe a little
bit longer of hair and like the goatee, and it
does seem like his face got a little thinner, Like
I wonder, you know, as he's older. I don't know,
but he feels different to me, which works really well
to show his progression later in life, how he's you know,

(54:38):
not really happy because of what Joe did and now
he's like this playboy. So that all works really well
for me.

Speaker 3 (54:45):
Yeah, that's true. Timothy Scheim. He I mean, I thought
he was incredible as LORI. I loved his acting, But
that's true. You don't see the change as much, whereas
with Florence Pugh. And I think Florence Pugh had a
bigger hurdle to because you have to go from being
like eleven in a room of like eleven year olds.
I love that scene in the twenty nineteen one where

(55:06):
she's like being reprimanded in school and it's like very
obvious she's in the room for children. She's like, God,
I'm like why are you mad at what they're doing
for you their babies.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
You'd be like, you're just like sitting really low, Like
I know.

Speaker 3 (55:20):
That she did such an incredible job just like her
amy grown up, that she doesn't look any different really,
but she holds herself so much more maturely that that
transformation is very you feel the time in her having passed,
but not necessarily. Yeah, and to me totally, I've loved

(55:41):
you since the moment.

Speaker 6 (55:42):
I can advise on you any please don't ask me.

Speaker 1 (55:48):
I would say, I love the proposal scene. I mean,
even though it's heartbreaking, but I think it's I guess
every time I watch it, I still have hope that
it's gonna turn out differently. I just I think it's
so like they are so good together.

Speaker 4 (56:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (56:04):
Also, I love them being romantic.

Speaker 4 (56:06):
No one's ever looked more beautiful, ever, at any moment
in time, ever on the face of this planet, than
Wenona Ryder looks in that scene.

Speaker 2 (56:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (56:15):
I love the way she looks too, I know, like
the wild flowers so feminine. Oh yes, I love the
flowers in her hair. Yeah, I know, and I love it.

Speaker 4 (56:26):
I At the start of the movie, she seemed so
uncomfortable in her hair, like you could see her like
fixing it a lot and stuff, and then she cuts
it all off and now the hair has grown, and
it feels like it was a choice to let it grow,
and I don't know why. I just like I'm like, well,
the hair suits her now, like now yeah, like she Yeah.

(56:47):
I love that scene.

Speaker 3 (56:48):
Yeah too, beautifully said. That's very dramaturgical too, Like that's
a very yeah interpretation.

Speaker 1 (56:57):
But I also feel like it's the last scene before
things like really change in the movie.

Speaker 2 (57:02):
That's true. That's a great So that's kind of that's
my favorite scene, saying goodbye.

Speaker 3 (57:06):
Yeah, that's when I disengaged as a kid and a
little bit.

Speaker 1 (57:10):
Yeah, isn't the time jump after that?

Speaker 3 (57:12):
Yeah? I think it is right.

Speaker 2 (57:14):
I thought it was a time before. Yeah, h it's right.

Speaker 1 (57:18):
Was adult amy at the wedding?

Speaker 4 (57:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (57:20):
Okay, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (57:22):
Yeah, it's funny. I We've all seen this movie a
bunch of times, and I'm part of the fun of
doing this podcast, as you guys all know, is like
rewatching it and being like, oh, that's the order of things.
I completely forgot guys that Claire Danes, like Beth is
alive for much of the story. I thought she died
before the time jump, so I'm like, oh, you know, like.

Speaker 1 (57:43):
It's actually on that note something I don't like. Obviously,
I find it so sad. I hate that Beth dies.
It's so sad. But I always did find it, like,
I don't know, I didn't like how they kind of
almost make her die and then she lives for several
all years after that, and then we have her official
death scene. Like I was genuinely I thought she I guess.

(58:07):
I mean, I know that's the point when Joe thinks
that she's dead and she you know, goes to her
bed and she's empty, Like I also thought she was dead.
I kind of felt like it was a fake out,
Like I didn't like it.

Speaker 2 (58:21):
Yeah, it's such a fake out. Then you're like, oh,
she's never gonna die. She's good now, you know what
I mean?

Speaker 3 (58:27):
Oh yeah, like your child like I used to. It
bugged me too as a kid. I was like, well,
but I was already really sad, and but that was
an adult, especially hearing the voiceover of Winona Rider being
like we didn't know it then, but a shadow had settled,
and I'm like, oh, yeah, because like as a kid,
you're like, oh, but we fixed it, Like yeah, yeah,

(58:47):
but her body is weak from it.

Speaker 1 (58:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (58:52):
Yeah, she went with two eyes because they had her
like in gray makeup, laying on a couch for the cat.
I'm like, does anyone want to check.

Speaker 3 (58:59):
In on her?

Speaker 8 (59:00):
By the way her hands around that nap hole at
the wedding, the girl is literally has a power.

Speaker 1 (59:06):
So she looks so bad.

Speaker 3 (59:08):
Oh my god, Yes, she's fine.

Speaker 8 (59:11):
Let her take the air's a broth, like, hello, let
put her feet up.

Speaker 3 (59:16):
What are we doing here?

Speaker 2 (59:17):
She wrote my notes during the wedding that like, yeah,
everyone's looking stunning, and she's like got this paleness and
even her hair is dull, like all color is just
washed away from poor Beth and she's just hanging on
And yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:32):
That's why I feel like they should have just had
her pass away rather than keep the sickly looking yeah
person around because she doesn't really serve much of a purpose.

Speaker 6 (59:42):
After for sister followed their dreams, Oh, you.

Speaker 2 (59:51):
Have so many extraordinary gifts, How can you expect to
leave an ordinary life?

Speaker 6 (59:56):
You should be I think from from the dips of
your sorow fue their law.

Speaker 2 (01:00:02):
Does dad go back to war, like he comes home,
but we don't really ever see him again.

Speaker 4 (01:00:06):
Right, Yeah, he's.

Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
Injured, so I don't ye, yeah, he's.

Speaker 2 (01:00:10):
Injured, so does anything Okay, Yeah, he just stays home, Okay,
because we never really see him again at least like
nothing that's that memorable. So yeah, so I guess, Yeah,
you're right. So I guess Marmy doesn't necessarily need Beth
to stay home because I was going to say they're
at least each other's companions, but now husband's back, so yeah,
Beth is just sort of there like.

Speaker 3 (01:00:30):
To But I do think and I don't I should
have looked this up beforehand to like make sure my
facts were totally straight. But I do know from Luisa
may Alcott's life that her her dad, I believe, was
still a soldier, but he also like kind of did
on and off abandon the family, like he would go
away for a long time. Ah, and he was like broke,

(01:00:53):
and he was like a transcendentalist, so he would like
give all his money away and be like we can
live on Waldenbon like type things I've also heard. And
this is where I like should not be making suppositions
because we don't know, but I have also heard that
he was probably like fucking like he was. He had
like a group of gay friends that he was fucking like.

(01:01:14):
It was it was possible that her dad was also
having yeah like that in this group of trans and dentalists.
It was also like yeah, and also like we don't
we like having sex with each other, so like we'd
rather be here having a party, like, but there was
I think even if that's not the case, which I
think that that was, but I do know that he

(01:01:35):
left the family for like, for not totally partying reasons,
but like partying, like philosophical partying reasons, like no, I
have to go out in the woods with my guy friends.

Speaker 1 (01:01:46):
He didn't want to grow up.

Speaker 3 (01:01:47):
Yeah, Like, and the the daughters and the wife bore
the brunt of having to be like, well, then we
have to we we're not even allowed to get a
job like you, so we have to like do embroidery
and shit to like get by. But I wondered too,
that's why he takes an ephemeral Yeah, I don't know
what he did. I guess he was fucking off somewhere.

Speaker 2 (01:02:06):
But this is so extensional.

Speaker 1 (01:02:09):
Wow, definitely adds what you know, we're talking about the
author's real life. It really adds color to the story. Like,
definitely see the motivation as to why Meg kind of
goes away when she becomes a mom.

Speaker 3 (01:02:26):
Yeah, that she's like, I don't know what that's about.

Speaker 1 (01:02:28):
That, yeah, exactly. And then the same thing with having
a dad that's around. She doesn't really know what that's about.

Speaker 3 (01:02:34):
So she's like, I don't know. I guess they kept
living their lives and he was there drug Yeah, yeah, totally.

Speaker 2 (01:02:41):
Okay for researching that hopefully.

Speaker 8 (01:02:45):
Actually, I know actually found fan fiction on Reddit and
she's like, read this is like the.

Speaker 1 (01:02:51):
Moment with the Wicked interview where the interviewer is like,
well he backs up, like, I've seen it just like
a couple of Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:03:00):
It's been on the media. I listen right after. She
was like and sevi Areva was like, am I queer media?
Like She's like, let me put her tracks here.

Speaker 1 (01:03:13):
Actually, I just saw it like one or two times.

Speaker 2 (01:03:17):
That's so funny. Yeah, well, hey, I'm going to leave
it in and we're gonna hope for the best. And
I love that kid. That's a really interesting backstory.

Speaker 3 (01:03:26):
I like going and reading it. Yeah, Eden's outcast the
story of Malcott, and.

Speaker 1 (01:03:31):
I just don't know anything about trans a little we
have a biopic of.

Speaker 2 (01:03:35):
Mailco Wow, Sarah, excellent question, excellent, Mite.

Speaker 1 (01:03:39):
I might get one.

Speaker 2 (01:03:40):
Yeah, that'd be so interesting, and it could basically sort
of be another Little Women adaptation in a way what I.

Speaker 3 (01:03:48):
Think like twenty nineteen was was kind of like an
adaptation of it that like really references her life. But
I would like a straight up note this is her life,
none of the flowery stuff that she like made up,
because that was the story she wanted to tell. You know,
this is straight up what happened, you know, right.

Speaker 2 (01:04:04):
I don't know if you guys saw a few years
ago it was actually pretty good. Saving mister Banks is
the story. It was Emma Thompson is pl Travers who
wrote Mary Poppins the book. A movie, it's it's a
fun watch. I'm sure it's on Disney plus Tom Hanks
is Walt Disney. But that could be really interesting where yeah,
it's a biopic about Louise and may alcop but specifically

(01:04:26):
kind of framed as she is writing Little Women maybe
and like getting really popular with that, Like that could
be really interesting with flashbacks that are similar to what
happens in her story. I think that could be really cool.

Speaker 3 (01:04:38):
So, yeah, I can see the way she changes, like
to see the parts where her relationship is strange with
her dad, is strained with her dad, and then seeing
her right against Yeah, I'd like first of all, I
would like to see the gay sex.

Speaker 4 (01:04:56):
I pay extra.

Speaker 2 (01:04:57):
I can picture little Louisa, you know, Kirsten Dunst, like now,
like opening the door, you know in the trailer or
something in there, right, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:05:08):
Guess who's gonna get injured in the Civil War? Am
i bud?

Speaker 6 (01:05:15):
From Girls to Women? Didn't I said I would kiss
you before you die?

Speaker 4 (01:05:21):
I think this version does not play up the comedy
that exists in the book and also in the twenty
nineteen version. And I so like there is very few
and far between the laughs. But Joe crying about her
hair makes me giggles when she's crying and that's like,

(01:05:41):
oh my god, are you upset about father? And she's like,
my hair? Yeah, yeah, what woman? Actually, what person hasn't
had a bad haircut in their life and been like,
oh my god, what have I done?

Speaker 1 (01:05:51):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:05:52):
And I thought it was just so human and so
like Evergreen doesn't matter where we are. Everyone's made a
mistake with their hair at some point in their life.
And it like in a movie that's full of incredibly
like noble and deeply moral messages, to just be like,

(01:06:13):
I'm having a moment of vanity. It's really nice. It's
really really important for that character.

Speaker 2 (01:06:19):
I think totally. I love that too, Yeah, because you
really think it's something else because Beth, like you're saying,
Beth is so moral, Beth doesn't have much of a
sense of humor. Love you, Beth, but you don't rite.
So it's nice. It's nice to, yeah, have that moment
with Joe. I love that thing too. And sorry Sarah
had a step away. Did you bring up the other
hair scene, the meg burning. Oh?

Speaker 3 (01:06:42):
I remember that so distinctly as a kid, I was like,
that can happen?

Speaker 2 (01:06:46):
I know, I just wanted to tack that onto your
hair thing that it happened to me.

Speaker 4 (01:06:51):
Jermaine Brown did that to me. She did my hair
for Carousel.

Speaker 3 (01:06:56):
Which we were all in, Oh my God.

Speaker 4 (01:06:58):
And she burned my hair off and she said to me,
you know you have curly hair, so I thought that
I could hold it on much longer. I literally it
singed my hair off like at yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:07:12):
Oh my god, I don't remember this. Wow.

Speaker 4 (01:07:14):
Yes, And I think that's why that was not on
my top five lice.

Speaker 2 (01:07:17):
Yeah yeah, yeah, that's pretty disturbing thanks to made Yeah,
I remember, like, like what you just said, Kit, Like
I didn't know that could really happen, so it's like,
oh my god. What. And then I think I was
at Shanna Bellen's house one time and we were like
doing spells, and I remember that was the first time
I smelled what burnt hair smells like, because her hair

(01:07:38):
was caught on fire, and I went back to little
women like oh yeah, and they're like, what's that smell?
Like I was like, I guess it has a distinct smell.
And then I smelled it at Shanea's house, So there
you go, that's that strange smell.

Speaker 3 (01:07:54):
You me. Well, I always love in all the versions,
but it's so so playful, and I just I love
their club, the club, the.

Speaker 4 (01:08:05):
Pick It's what is it society?

Speaker 3 (01:08:08):
The Pickwick Society, Yes, oh my god, I love And
then the place that they put on. I love watching
the girls be so dramatic and free with each other,
and I loved the scene in this Burton because I
love that in all the versions. Put the scene in
this one when Laurie comes in and how the monologue
or the bit that Meg has before he comes in,
being like, no, this is the only place that I

(01:08:31):
am free of societal expectations of what a woman is
supposed to be. And she's like, I don't mind, I'll
live in that world. I can do that, but I
need this place to be my safe space. And then
when Laurie comes out and the way in which he
makes it all okay, and it's like, oh, no, no, no,
I see you all as my equals and we are
here to play. I just like and to see her
kind of melt into that. And I love their how

(01:08:53):
interesting they how they do the costumes and stuff. I
just yeah, I love very cute.

Speaker 2 (01:08:59):
I like the or like us theater kids seeing always
seeing those scenes, it's like, oh my god, that is
so me. That is so us, Like what abuse it's
and exactly how you're saying, Like how they're styled, how
they like did their little mustaches, their wigs, it's so cute. Yeah,
I would be if I was her sisters, though I

(01:09:19):
would be a little annoyed that Laurie's been hiding in
the house this whole time.

Speaker 1 (01:09:23):
Definitely, definitely, you know, like okay, you know, no, this
is our thing.

Speaker 2 (01:09:28):
Yeah, and also like don't ask us if actually you've
already made the decision, you know, because what do you
all think.

Speaker 3 (01:09:33):
About this, because it's happened. I was like, this is
revenge born.

Speaker 1 (01:09:38):
It's kind of like how we surprised you with Alburn's earlier.

Speaker 2 (01:09:47):
I shall be loyal and very humble servant of the
ice skating scene where Amy falls in. I mean, first
of all, it's so fun, like you're the chemistry with
Laurie and Joe from the get go at the party, right,
but like, and I do love I love the party scenes.
I love them so much. There's a few of them.

(01:10:08):
Everyone looks so good. This was also nominated for Best
Costume Design from Calling Out with So I mean everyone
looks so good. I mean, don't you just I don't
really want to get dressed up, but like if we
all went to a little women party, yeah, I'll go,
I'll try it, right, right, but especially with this ice
skating thing, like it's showing how and I think mister

(01:10:29):
Brooks even says it, but like it shows Joe loves
being active and she's got this wild energy and she's
found that with Laurie. They're ice skating. It looks beautiful.
There's some kind of immediate tension that's slowly building because
then Amy just burned her manuscript and she really wants
to play with them. I forgot that, Like we see

(01:10:49):
Amy's kind of obsession with Laurie kind of right away.
I had forgotten that because like as a kid, it's
not so obvious, but like she right away has clocked
Laurie and it's like, you know, so she's there, and
then the way you just hear her scream and then
they look and like we're looking and we don't see anything.
And then I'm like, well that another like horror scene,

(01:11:11):
like that is very tense, right yeah, so yeah, and
then of course it brings them back together, which is also.

Speaker 4 (01:11:17):
So it literally breaks the ice literally.

Speaker 2 (01:11:20):
You're right, so true, Amen, you're right. Wow. Did you
guys ever see when this movie first came out on VHS,
which I thought was kind of a bold move, but
also it makes sense because if you know Little Women,
you kind of know the general story. The VHS cover

(01:11:40):
was just a wrap around, like poster like there was
you know, like most DVDs or vhs have like the
summary in the back and like writing, Yeah, there was
none of that. It was just wrap around a poster
of the five of them. It was the four girls
and Susan Sarandon, which I just thought was really pretty
cool and modern at the time. Did you guys ever
see that?

Speaker 3 (01:12:00):
What the story of women?

Speaker 1 (01:12:01):
Don't remember?

Speaker 3 (01:12:02):
Now? Yeah, you're not invited to the party, then just
don't watch it. I guess the only.

Speaker 2 (01:12:08):
Thing was, and I'll post pictures of it. The only
thing was like, because it was wrap around, not everyone
could be on the cover, so it's like little Women,
but only three of the sisters are on the cover
on the back is it was sort of awkward. Is
Claire Danes whispering into Winona's ear? So Wanona's in the cover,
Claire Danes is on the back like this, and then
Susan Sarana so like it's sort of looked a little

(01:12:28):
bit older. Amy Yes on all the marketing at first,
like then there's a really basically it's I'll show it
to you guys because it's a beautiful poster that they
then just expanded for the wrap around VHS. But it's
all Samantha Mathis I think because she was a thing
at the time. She was more. She was in like
a Christian no a River Phoenix movie with Sondra Bullock. God,

(01:12:52):
I can't remember the name of it, but like she
was kind of a thing and Kirsten wasn't a thing yet.
But now the main imagery is winter. This was spring
and it's with Kirsten. So they got it. They fixed themselves.

Speaker 6 (01:13:06):
The story that has lived in our hearts for generations
comes to the screen for the holidays.

Speaker 1 (01:13:18):
I have to hop off after this.

Speaker 2 (01:13:19):
But got to go.

Speaker 1 (01:13:20):
Yeah, I do. Like when Joe and Teddy are at
the party dancing and just really like their chemistry is great,
so cute. First really get kind of like, you know,
a glimpse into what romantic life could be like for them.

(01:13:41):
They just think they'd be such a great couple.

Speaker 4 (01:13:45):
Story again, and so you start writing your fan fiction.

Speaker 2 (01:13:50):
Little women too. Yeah, no, it's very It's a really
great moment for those characters to meet because like neither
of them want to be at this party, right, And
then very quick they bond and they talk about like
college and yeah, it's sweet, and then yeah, Meg of course,
is trying to be like a wet blanket, like, yeah,
won't just let them have fun? Right?

Speaker 1 (01:14:10):
I like it in the newest version as well too.

Speaker 2 (01:14:14):
Yeah, yeah, I remember that worked really well in the
new version.

Speaker 1 (01:14:17):
Yeah yeah, I think it was in the trailer them dancing,
wasn't it.

Speaker 2 (01:14:20):
I think so yep around the house and everything.

Speaker 1 (01:14:22):
Yeah, yes, I guess with that, I'm going to hop off.
But I'll tell my.

Speaker 2 (01:14:28):
Beth now, yeah, as you as you die. Now, the
rest of us have to do our best. Winnowna looking
at you as you as you die in your bed.
Okay ready one, two, three?

Speaker 1 (01:14:44):
Wait, this is an audio If you can't see this.

Speaker 2 (01:14:48):
This is this is a YouTube exclusive in this it's
the look. But I do love it. I appreciate that
Mel closed her eyes to die.

Speaker 1 (01:14:55):
She was like, and then I realized that this this
is something people can listen to.

Speaker 3 (01:15:02):
Yeah, the wind blowing through the window.

Speaker 2 (01:15:06):
The wind is what kills her. I think it's that
when that window opens, there's that last cold blast, and
she's just like, oh.

Speaker 3 (01:15:13):
God, that's what I was like, Oh death came in.
Ye yeah, it is kind of like true, open the
window and comes in.

Speaker 2 (01:15:23):
Beth may have left us, But the episode isn't over yet.
There's still more to chat about, so head to YouTube
right now for part two of this Little Women discussion.
I'll see you there.

Speaker 4 (01:15:34):
The flowers in the bed and on the dolls and stuff?
Was that to hide the smell of death?

Speaker 2 (01:15:39):
Oh? Thank you to my guests, my friends of twenty
five years or more, Melissa Ward, Kitchen and Sarah Menikwal.
The four of us were just reunited in person over
the holidays, So if you haven't already, please follow me
on Instagram at release date. Rewind to see a picture
of us together, plus more footage of this conversation and

(01:15:59):
movie and more. Please leave a rating or review on
the podcast app you're using, or a thumbs up on
YouTube if you liked this episode. Thanks straw Hat Media,
Kyle Motsinger, Greg Clements, and Portland Media Center.

Speaker 1 (01:16:12):
Continued in the following edition, Excellent Sales Drive.