Seven years after David Selznick produced a lavish version of Louisa May Alcott's popular story "Little Women" at RKO, the studio produced a less posh sequel. Gone are Marmee, Aunt March and Jo's sisters, and instead of Katharine Hepburn as the spunky Jo, we have Kay Francis as an overly cheery Jo. Now running a boarding school for "Little Men", Jo and her husband (Charles Esmond) face bankruptcy when they are unintentional swindled by a medicine man (George Bancroft) whose adopted son (Jimmy Lydon) is one of Jo's students. Lydon goes from troublemaker to lifesaver, reformed in a scene where Francis has him strike her on the hand with a switch to show him that "When you hurt others, you hurt yourself even more".
This well-intended tale of early Americana is pleasant to watch, with adequate but not outstanding performances. Francis, fresh from her nasty wife role opposite Cary Grant and Carole Lombard in "In Name Only", is too patient with the trouble-making Lydon while lightly nagging husband Esmond over his ability to manage their finances. A light comic storyline has Borden's Elsie the Cow (as Buttercup) who keeps getting away from her pen to visit the neighbor's bull, and ends up a mother. Lydon's weepy reform is never believable, and he sneers as much as Mickey Rooney did in "Boy's Town" to show his toughness. Bancroft and Jackie Oakie do over amusement as the con-artists who raised Lydon from the time an unseen criminal handed him over to them. Oakie's line about reserving the bridal suite for him and Bancroft in prison is a real eye-opener, even if it had an innocent meaning.
Films like this are always pleasant to watch, even if one dimensional in their views of a perfect "Old America". The set includes a very nice backyard for the school and fine art decoration for Jo's house. The same year as this, RKO produced an equally American (actually Canadian) view of life with "Anne of Windy Poplars", a sequel to another RKO Classic. William Demarest and Clarence Wilson are among the familiar character actors in the film, while young Richard Nichols would be seen the same year as Bette Davis's cute charge in "All This and Heaven Too", and later as Greer Garson's youngest child in "Mrs. Miniver". As Jo would say, "Christopher Columbus!"
This well-intended tale of early Americana is pleasant to watch, with adequate but not outstanding performances. Francis, fresh from her nasty wife role opposite Cary Grant and Carole Lombard in "In Name Only", is too patient with the trouble-making Lydon while lightly nagging husband Esmond over his ability to manage their finances. A light comic storyline has Borden's Elsie the Cow (as Buttercup) who keeps getting away from her pen to visit the neighbor's bull, and ends up a mother. Lydon's weepy reform is never believable, and he sneers as much as Mickey Rooney did in "Boy's Town" to show his toughness. Bancroft and Jackie Oakie do over amusement as the con-artists who raised Lydon from the time an unseen criminal handed him over to them. Oakie's line about reserving the bridal suite for him and Bancroft in prison is a real eye-opener, even if it had an innocent meaning.
Films like this are always pleasant to watch, even if one dimensional in their views of a perfect "Old America". The set includes a very nice backyard for the school and fine art decoration for Jo's house. The same year as this, RKO produced an equally American (actually Canadian) view of life with "Anne of Windy Poplars", a sequel to another RKO Classic. William Demarest and Clarence Wilson are among the familiar character actors in the film, while young Richard Nichols would be seen the same year as Bette Davis's cute charge in "All This and Heaven Too", and later as Greer Garson's youngest child in "Mrs. Miniver". As Jo would say, "Christopher Columbus!"