[6]

This particular adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s book ends on a morally ambiguous note (I don’t think children should ever be lied to), but the film is otherwise passable family entertainment. Jimmy Lydon does a decent job as Dan, the angry young man who comes to live with Jo March (Kay Francis) at her experimental school/farm for boys. The film works best when it focuses on Jo and the children, less so when it jumps to the B-storyline featuring George Bancroft and Jack Oakie as a pair of swindlers. There are some sugar-coated moments that may test your gag reflex, but the scene where Jo punishes Dan by forcing him to lash *her* hands with a switch rings true.