User Reviews

Because of the overwhelming success of his novels, people still read Charles Dickens. If you poled people who like to read classic novels, you would find most people read Dickens, Emily and Charlotte Bronte, and Anthony Trollope most among the "high Victorian" novelists (those from 1830 - 1882). This cuts out a large number of fine novelists, like George Eliot, George Meredith, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Benjamin Disraeli (yes, the Prime Minister), or even William Wilkie Collins, the first great mystery/detective novelist. But the one that is particularly odd is William Makepeace Thackeray.

In his day (he was a prominent novelist from 1839 to 1863 when he died) Thackeray was actually the leading rival of Dickens as the leading novelist. Dickens was capable of a wider variety of social class types in his fiction, and could show wilder humor and greater tragedy in his novels. But Thackeray was more gifted at subtle characterization and clever social satire of the upper class. He was a member of that class, and knew what he was talking about when he wrote about them. George Orwell noted that when Dickens did an aristocrat in like Sir Mulberry Hawk in "Nicholas Nickleby", the resulting character was a type from Victorian melodrama, whereas Thackeray or Trollope made more realistic figures.

He also was willing to experiment in odd ways. Occasionally Dickens did too - he did first person narrative novels like "David Copperfield" and once did one with a female narrator "Bleak House". But in 1846 Thackeray wrote "Vanity Fair, A Novel Without A Hero". The title was a pun. The two leading characters, Rebecca (Becky) Sharp and Amelia Sedley, are women (so it suggests the novel has a "heroine"). But both women are quite faulty. Becky is a fortune hunter who won't let anyone or anything keep her from becoming rich. Amelia is a nice person. In fact, she is too nice. She has to go through an 800 page story before she stops being friendly to her school friend Becky, and only after Becky reveals what a bad person she has been to Amelia.

None of the characters in "Vanity Fair" is flawless. The closest to a hero in the story, William Dobbin, adores Amelia - but won't push himself as a suitor (he wants her to notice his adoration by herself). Becky vamps members of the Crawley family (where she is the family governess), and marries the second son, Rawdon, in expectation of a generous aunt's largesse to support them. But that fails to work out. So she tags along with Rawdon, accompanying him on the Waterloo campaign, and makes a play for George Osbourne (Amelia's selfish husband). Eventually she and Rawdon become social figures, "living well on nothing a year" (by cheating merchants of payments for their food, clothes, etc). She also becomes the mistress of the powerful Marquis of Steyne (pronounced "stain").

How the events of this novel without a hero end I leave to the reader to read the novel (the best way) or to see either this version by Rouben Mamoulian, the recent one with Reese Witherspoon, or a modern dress version from 1932 with Myrna Loy as Becky. Mamoulian's version reduces the story to 90 minutes of film, and so much is thrown out. In particular the antics of Amelia's cowardly, pompous brother Joseph Sedley (Nigel Bruce in Mamoulian's film). Hopkins does very well as Becky - garnering her best film performance. She is supported by Alan Mowbray as Rawdon, who may be raffish in some ways but gains our respect as he sees the woman he loves for what she is. Francis Dee is adequate (if not memorable) as Amelia. Cedric Hardwicke is sinister and powerful as Steyne. Allison Skipworth gives one a taste of the self-centered, pampered aunt of Rawdon, "Miss Crawley".

So what went right and wrong. It is a great novel (my opinion) but I admit this film leaves me cold. So much was cut out the film is just a synopsis of the main plot. But then, Thackeray's greatest strength as a satirist was as a subtle writer. Somehow subtlety on his printed page is not well translated onto the silver screen. On the other hand, Mamoulian did make great strides (in terms of elegant cinematography) with the then new three tone color film system. The best moment is at the scene of the great last ball given to Wellington's staff and men at Brussels in June 1815, which ends as a cannon blast in the distance is heard: the opening shot of Waterloo. The moment that the blast is heard a blast of air causes a red curtain to blow, looking like a wave of blood. Mamoulian was able to squeeze out of the process some idea of what to do with it. For that reason the film is worth seeing. But I urge the interested viewer to take the time to read Thackeray's novel.

A lot of people tend to assume GONE WITH THE WIND or THE WIZARD OF OZ were the first color movies. Firstly, color film had been experimented with since the silent era, with a handful of features being made wholly in the old two-strip Technicolor process during the 1920s. Secondly, GONE WITH THE WIND and THE WIZARD OF OZ were merely early examples of the three-strip Technicolor process, but certainly not the first-- that honor goes to 1935's BECKY SHARP and to be honest, that's about all the honor the movie merits.

BECKY SHARP is an adaptation of the novel VANITY FAIR and while I have never read the book, this appears to be an extremely truncated retelling, jumping from plot point to plot point with little in the way of interesting characters to keep the viewer invested. Becky cons men into giving her money, behaves badly, spends too much, needs more money, cons men into giving her money, behaves badly, ad nauseum. There's little sense of character development there for any of the players involved, making the movie tiresome.

I love Miriam Hopkins, but I am shocked that anyone thinks this is her best performance: compared to her work in Rouben Mamoulian's DR. JEKYLL AND MR HYDE or in the haunting THE STORY OF TEMPLE DRAKE or in anything she did for Lubitsch, this is hammy, hammy work. Not that it isn't without its charms and humor (I love the scene where she turns on the waterworks to soften up her husband's hard-nosed spinster aunt), but Hopkins gets quite shrill at points, making her exhausting to watch.

Really, the saving grace is the Technicolor. The costumes and sets are quite gorgeous, which might explain the constant stagey-ness of the cinematography. Mamoulian's films of the early 1930s tended to be far more cinematic than their counterparts, less afraid of experimenting with camera movement and sound, but here, the blocking of the actors and the placement of the camera are very theatrical and stuffy, likely to show off the color of the sets. That might have been enough to astound an audience in 1935, but color in and of itself is less likely to impress anyone, even a classic film fan, these days.

Classic film nerds like me are really the only ones who will get anything out of BECKY SHARP. It's historically important and not without good moments, but it's hardly of the storytelling stature of the far better three-strip Technicolor movies which would follow it in the years to come.

BECKY SHARP, historically important as the first feature film in full, three-color TECHNICOLOR, has always fascinated me. It's history, however, is frustrating and disappointing. Made by Pioneer Pictures and released through RKO, BECKY SHARP was sold to a poverty row exhibitor (whose name escapes me at the moment)in the 1940's for re-release. The company chose not to pay the high prices that TECHNICOLOR charged for release prints and had new prints of the film struck in inferior two strip CINECOLOR. More damaging to the future of BECKY was that the company never properly stored the original nitrate negatives. BECKY SHARP was sold to TV only in a shortened B&W print or in CINECOLOR reissue prints.

Still, the idea of this elusive "lost" treasure haunted me. It was amongst the very first videocassettes that I ever purchased back in the early days of the VCR when I was but a lad (and YES, I got strange looks.) BECKY SHARP was one of those poor, orphaned films whose copyrights have expired and now live in the public domain. The quality of the video cassette and the color was astonishingly bad, and gave no hint of the pleasures the original TECHNICOLOR photography must have contained.

A sad story to be sure, but fortunately UCLA performed a massive restoration effort on the film in the late 1980's, literally scouring the world for available film elements. Unfortunately, the restored BECKY SHARP has never been commercially released in any format. It was shown during AMC's first Film Preservation Festival back in 1993, however, and luckily I recorded it to cherish for all time (or at least until the tape wears out.) It has never aired since.

The restored BECKY SHARP is a revelation!! The film starts with barely any color at all, then pleasant pastels are introduced, followed eventually by the striking red coats of the British military. Full of color and deliciously over-ripe tints, this was primarily an experiment to see how color plays out in a feature film. The cast and drama takes a back-seat to the real star of the show, glorious TECHNICOLOR. The film itself is somewhat plodding and overplayed, but a lot of fun, to be sure!!

I'm not sure what legal red tape is responsible for there being no commercial release of this beautiful restoration, but none has appeared and this is a shame.

Miriam Hopkins gives a spirited and possibly career performance in the title role of Becky Sharp based on William Makepeace Thackerey's novel Vanity Fair. The film comes by way of Langdon Mitchell's play based on Vanity Fair with the change in title. It ran on Broadway in 1899 for 116 performance.

And what a cast it had back in 1899. Mrs. Mary Madden Fiske was Becky, Maurice Barrymore was her luckless gambling fool of a husband, the part that Alan Mowbray has here and as the aristocratic rake that Hopkins is ready to give all to to square Mowbray's debts is played by Cedric Hardwicke in the film. On Broadway the role originated with Tyrone Power, Sr.

Thackerey's novel was a critique of the class system in Great Britain, but really offers no solutions. It's also a story of how much more difficult it was to be a woman and poor with so many fewer options open to them.

Becky Sharp is such a woman. She's been given a good education, attending school with the rich aristocratic Frances Dee. By education I mean finishing school. How she got there we're not sure, but having been exposed to how the other half lives she wants to be part of it.

Her friend Frances Dee invites her to live with her family and Hopkins starts seizing her opportunities. The rest of the story is about what happens to her and the various schemes she concocts. She's not afraid to use sex to obtain what she wants, riches and respectability.

Besides those I've already mentioned there's a really nice performance by Nigel Bruce as Frances Dee's Colonel Blimp like brother. In the end he proves to be Hopkins's salvation.

As a film Becky Sharp has come down in history to us as the first film using the modern technicolor process. It was a novelty, but as a story it definitely has merit.

And it is so much better than the version with Myrna Loy updated to the Roaring Twenties that came out under the original title of Vanity Fair a few years earlier.

...in a very truncated version of "Vanity Fair". Also the quality of the visuals is poor, the new use of color is not great, and it seems more like a filmed play than a movie. None of the male actors are attractive in their roles, and the entire cast seems to be acting on a very hectic level. The pace is too rushed, as though they know they have far too little time to try to tell this sprawling story.

But I enjoy costume drama, and it is that.

Miriam's Becky is more shrill than charming, making it hard to believe that so many men fell at her feet.

Also the wigs are bad.

Not Rouben Mamoulian's finest hour even if this fully-fledged Technicolour movie is rather sumptous to look at. In deference to its heroine, Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair' has been rechristened "Becky Sharp" and Mamoulian gallops through Thackeray's epic novel in under ninety minutes. So much has been left out, you might think you're watching something else entirely. It's also very badly cast. Alan Mowbray, of all people, is the 'dashing' Rawdon Crawley, Alison Skipworth is his dowager aunt and if Miriam Hopkins is a coquettish Becky she's closer to being a Manhattan hostess than a Napoleonic one. Had it been shot in black and white it would have been long forgotten by now but it's saved to a degree by Mamoulian's use of colour. Unfortunately, the dialogue sounds like it came from a dime-store novel rather than from one of the great works of English literature. If there's an audience for this movie today, I'd be very surprised.

"(...) Director Rouben Mamoulian did a remarkable job with color experimentation. He decided to use color thematically to express character mood, and added more and more color as the film progresses and the plot thickens. Every shot looks color-coordinated. The most famous sequence is the panicky exit of the quests at the Duchess of Richmond's gala in Belgium on the eve of the battle of Waterloo (...) Mamoulian had quests leave according to their color group so only the one in red remained in the ballroom." (Danny Peary in GUIDE FOR THE FILM FANATIC 1986).

I have decided to entail this long quotation at the beginning of my review because I think that it best reflects the multiple significance of the feature film BECKY SHARP which won the color prize at the third Venice Film Festival. While discovering the uniqueness of Rouben Mamoulian, a pure follower of Moscow Art Theatre, a great admirer of Konstantin Stanislavsky (1863-1938) and a follower of the famous Stanislavski's system, I have found out how truthful he was to the emotions in cinema and how much focused on every single detail of images and acting techniques. Who could better introduce cinema to the three strip Technicolor in the 1930s than him? Mamoulian with his unbelievable flair for artistry on screen and sophisticated experimentation with the camera could effectively capture the essence of color.

Here, it is necessary to mention some unforgettable scenes from this movie that, for long, remain in one's memory. Except for the aforementioned ball scene that constitutes a sort of 'special pearl' on its own, the film entails a striking image of Napoleon's shadow over the map of Europe. What impact it has on the vision in a color feature film! What impact it must have had those days! The costumes with a special emphasis on red (which Mamoulian considered the most exciting color, a sort of climax) constitute another merit of the film's visual significance. The interiors appear to be lavish as well.

Yet, BECKY SHARP was quite neglected for years and available on weak copies. Although it was considered an important movie in the history of cinema (being the first feature in three-color Technicolor process - the period which lasted till 1953), it was forgotten for years and in no way considered a must-see. Fortunately, the film has been recently restored and is growing in popularity among classic buffs. Strange phenomenon...yet, it is not the color experimentation that makes it exciting nowadays, it is neither the source novel VANITY FAIR by one of the most respected British novelists William Makepeace Thackeray. It is, unfortunately, not Mamoulian whose name is today associated with totally different titles. I think it is Miriam Hopkins in the lead who still amuses our imagination, rouses our senses and has the power to make the film enjoyable. Having had experience with the director and his special treatment of actors' techniques (part of psychological realism) in DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE a few years earlier, she does an almost flawless job here. Let me broaden this point a little bit.

Ms Hopkins, nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, crafts her role very well with a heartfelt attitude towards her audience. She has quite a difficult role to portray, the role of the foxy young lady who climbs up to the highest ranks of the society using pretty unconventional means, deceitful means. Nevertheless, she catches the glimpse of the 'unreachable' (for many). A bad tempered girl to face the world, a sort of woman no one knows what she is about, a chit-chatting maiden for whom war is amusing, a ruthless Becky who does not give up her plans. Many scenes from the beginning scene when she leaves school through various moments, including her witty role of a governess, her serious role of a wife and a delicious role of a mistress. Miriam Hopkins is unforgettable and stands out from the supporting cast, some very good actors of the period including the distinguished Cedric Hardwicke as Marquis of Steyne.

In all the analysis of the first three strip Technicolor movie, the following adjectives will best describe it after all these decades: innovative, memorable, significant, rousing. INNOVATIVE color experimentation, MEMORABLE production in the history of cinema, SIGNIFICANT direction by Rouben Mamoulian and ROUSING performance by Miriam Hopkins. Worth seeing!

A Star is Born (1937) got me interested in early three strip Technicolor. This movie killed it. I never thought I would abandon a Miriam Hopkins movie. I can't help but chalk this one up to bad direction or a bad script. Since they were all hamming it up I can't help but think it was the former....{later} I only paused it. It turns out the hamming was partially Becky manipulating the swells. It's dialed back for the rest of the movie, not enough to not be noticed but enough to make finishing the movie doable. Becky is a scheming social climber trope. Similar to Lizzie Bennet, Scarlet O'Hara, Lilly Powers, and Stella Dallas. Only they never managed to make her sympathetic like they did Stella Dallas. I guess sometimes the other elements in a movie are so bad that even Miriam Hopkins can't save it.

An original story from the literary Thackeray brought to the screen by Rouben Mamoulian, showing us the story of Becky Sharp (Miriam Hopkins), a low-class young woman who climbs the social pyramid to achieve her wishes.

It is undoubtedly a story and above all a female character empowered for the time, beyond falling into patterns of a typical liar and avaricious woman, Miriam Hopkins gives it a special touch with her vain and fresh interpretation, she reveals a woman who is always in control of the situation and everything looks like a game, this is also her downfall. A performance that earned her first and only Oscar nomination.

The scenes that set the scene with the beautiful costumes and hairstyles of the principal give another view of the film, the colors play very well and more to be one of the first with technicolor of the time.

My problem with the film is that it does not go beyond the greed of the main character, without changes, evolutions or deepening. There comes a point that the dialogues between her men that are predictable and not surprising, even her moment of decline is very overlooked, this is undoubtedly the fault of a fairly basic script that did not take advantage of the great protagonist and the climate that it generated.

You see, it's not so much the stories that count, it's the way they're told. Becky Sharp, the motion picture, came to be by a convoluted route. William Makepeace Thackeray's mid-19th century novel Vanity Fair was used as the basis for Langdon Mitchell's late 19th century stage play, which was in turn adapted for this 1935 movie. What have we lost and what have we gained?

Of course, books, plays and pictures are very different things, and certain changes have had to be made so that each adaptation works for its particular medium. Becky Sharp bears all the hallmarks of a lengthy novel reworked for the stage. A play can't be over a certain length because it has to be seen in a whole evening, and yet individual scenes tend to be fairly long because of the disruption of having to change sets. Becky Sharp, perhaps surprisingly, changes very little of the basic plot, but it condenses the entire (900+ page) tome into a series of dramatic vignettes. Because the novel tends to tell of many important events in a by-the-by fashion, Mitchell was also forced to come up with a lot of his own dialogue. Finally, the play differs from the novel in that every episode is told from Becky's point-of-view, whereas Thackeray's narrative travels with a range of characters.

So far, so disappointing (perhaps). But what was most important here was not that the story survived intact, but that the tone of Thackeray's masterpiece carried through. What is so special about Vanity Fair is the author's cynical, sarcastic tone, which makes a comedy out of these unpleasant goings-on. This is not an easy task in a motion picture, unless you were to resort to voice-over narration with passages from the novel (not especially en vogue in the 30s). But as it happens this motion picture does not do a bad job.

Firstly, we have the right cast. Miriam Hopkins's Oscar nomination has raised a few eyebrows here and there, and it's true her performance is hysterically hammy. But that is Becky Sharp, a cheat and a liar whose entire life was an act. When she breaks down in false tears over her late mother's possessions, the moment seems silly, but it is supposed to be funny. The bulk of the cast are overblown caricatures, but again this is faithful to the novel. Thackeray wasn't subtle. Look at those names – Pitt Crawley, Lord Steyne… even a minor character who didn't make it to this version called Sir Huddleston-Fuddleston. And most of the players are spot-on. Nigel Bruce simply is Jos Sedley, and George Hassell is perfect in his unfortunately brief appearance as Sir Pitt.

Then there is Rouben Mamoulian's direction. His flamboyant visual style could be disastrous in the wrong picture, but here all his extroverted camera moves and trick shots pay off. With the condensed storyline, the overt technique helps to keep the flow. We are brought closer to the spirit of the original text by the fact that we are constantly aware of the director's touch, just as Thackeray constantly addresses his reader with a sly wink. This again highlights the fact that Becky Sharp is more enjoyable if it is taken as a comedy, not as a drama. It's just as well – Mamoulian let loose on a pure drama could be awful.

This was famously the first picture in three-strip Technicolor, and as the use of colour here is especially good I'll devote a few lines to that too. Whereas some early colour pictures used blaring shades, Becky Sharp is filled with subtler tones – for example those rusty browns and greyish blues in the opening scene, much more effective than bold blue and red. And rather than simply colour-coding a character's costume or a set, we here see the tones flowing on and off the screen. To again take that opening scene, we begin with the warmer hues of Amelia and her friends, and then slowly move, via various different shades of dress and the growing amount of the stark wall that can be seen, to the cold blue-grey of Becky. Later in the first scene at the Crawley residence, all the colours are very plain, which gives more impact when Rawdon walks in in his bright red uniform. It's hard to say who is responsible for this smart handling of colour. Production designer Robert Edmond Jones is the celebrated inventor of "simplified realism", whereby sets complement action, but Mamoulian appears to have done a very similar job with the colour on the 1941's Blood and Sand. We'll assume it was a joint effort.

Really, the only major flaw in Becky Sharp (and it is, I'm sorry to say, a very major one), is that the paring down of the narrative to 84 minutes without actually cutting much of the plot makes for somewhat confusing viewing. It's difficult to keep up with time and place, and the novel's legion of characters pop up then disappear before they have made an impression. Personally, I found Becky Sharp fun to watch because I am familiar with the novel and it was nice to see these figures brought to life so accurately. However, I first saw it before I read the book, and recall finding it bizarre and boring, as I suppose would the majority of viewers. For this reason, it fails in itself as a motion picture.

An epically long Novel, Vanity Fair is here somehow truncated into less than an hour and a half. Made in 1935 it was the first film produced in full technicolour and it does look beautifully striking. There are also some first rate cinematic shots such as an overhead view of whirling couples on a ballroom dancefloor or a bugler standing beneath a red lantern, engulfed in its light. Silhouettes play an important part, too, most notably in the looming shadow of the Emperor Napoleon after the battle of Waterloo. To place it in its time, we have cameos from William Faversham as The Duke of Wellington and Olaf Hytten as the Prince Regent. But the leading, fictional characters are the ones that the film preoccupies us with. Miriam Hopkins in the eponymous role gives us a sparky effervescent Becky Sharp with more than a hint of brassiness and it is her 'show' with many of the novels other principal characters not getting much of a look in. Those that do make an impact are Cedric Hardwicke as a cold fish of a lecher, Lord Steyne and particularly, Nigel Bruce who gives a wonderfully amusing and endearing portrait of Joseph Sedley, the boobus Brittanicus type of role he went on to specialise in. The film is wonderful to look at and is intermittently engaging and amusing but sometimes grates on the nerves- subtle it ain't and everything, be it emotion or comedy, is overbaked.

Miriam Hopkins was nominated for an Academy Award in 1935, but not for the right movie. She plays the promiscuous, shocking title role in Becky Sharp, but the best performance of her career came from Barbary Coast. In the former, she lacks all the compassion, sympathy, and emotional tragedy that make the latter a true classic.

But, that's the point of Becky Sharp. She's supposed to be unscrupulous. She's a social climber who uses her powers of seduction to get ahead. No matter if they're married, in love with her best friend, completely repulsive to her; she just wants to reach the pinnacle of high society. It was a bit of a shock in 1935, since the Production Code put a ban on naughty storylines. Myrna Loy had played the part three years earlier in Vanity Fair. And - years later, Reese Witherspoon played in a remake. It's a timeless story, since it's woman's oldest weapon. But it's not my favorite. Miriam Hopkins was quite the little seductress in her heyday, though; check out her famous nude scene in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde!

I just had the pleasure of seeing the restored version of "Becky Sharp", and, like others who had taped this back in the bad old days of nearly monochromatic, public domain copies of this title, the improvement amounts to seeing an entirely different film. The use of color was striking and surprisingly well considered. As a writer, I found the dialogue delightfully rich in the manner of what were admittedly more sophisticated films of the 30's. Make no mistake, other than the admirable use of 3-strip Technicolor on its first feature film outing, this is no masterpiece--Mamoulian's name in the credits notwithstanding. But compared to today, with dialogue now largely dismissed as unnecessary to filmed "entertainment", it was brilliant. I could finally hear 90% of it, whereas in the old Cinecolor print, most of it was unintelligible. What pains me is that audiences seem unable (or unwilling) to enjoy dialogue that was meant to be listened to and appreciated on its own account. I heard nary a chuckle during any the witty ripostes of which Beck Sharp has its(and her) fair share of. A shame.

This gorgeous film, the first full length Technicolor feature, does a fine job of capturing the spirit of Thackeray's "Vanity Fair", but the story is so rushed and condensed that it registers more as a series of incidents, rather than a flowing narrative. The only character that really registers is Becky herself - but what a character she is! Thanks mostly to its production values, the movie is very enjoyable, if not completely satisfying. Hopefully watching it will inspire more people to read the sprawling yet immensely entertaining book.

It's pretty hard to believe that the first color movie came out only eight years after the first talking film! Then again, it seems really weird. It took only four years for every movie to have sound, but it took thirty years for every movie to have color! You can tell that this is the first color movie. I think there are a few transition scenes that look black and white or at least in low quality. It's weird because there isn't much else to say about the movie. I guess the good technically outweighs the bad in this, but I wouldn't quite recommend it.

I think the film's problem is that it's too short. It shows the title character becoming more cynical, but the transition seems too fast. There should have been more time to flesh out her personality. I had no idea that this took place during the Napoleonic era. It was really nice to see how those historical events affected the actual story here. It seems to be a part of history that hasn't been depicted in film that many times before.

Weird, I heard this was in public domain, but I don't see it listed on Wikipedia's list. I guess I can't quite recommend it, as the story isn't that memorable, but it's still wonderful to see the earliest use of full color. There were in fact earlier movies like "The King Of Kings" that had some color sequences, and that is in fact a much better movie. Still a must for really historians of any kind. **1/2 out of ****.

I'll just say that Miriam Hopkins was never one of my fav actresses, but I loved her in this movie. She was terrific as Becky Sharp. The rest of the cast was good, too. The movie had less melodrama than others made in the 1930's, which sometimes tend to go overboard, especially with historical ones. But that doesn't happen with this film. The acting wasn't overacted and the dialogue didn't go over the top and sound phony. And the color was great! A very impressive (as well as entertaining) movie.

This is "Gone With the Wind" for people who don't care too much about quality. Miriam Hopkins is cast in the Scarlett role - selfish, social-climbing, with no compunctions about using people at whim. The difference is that Scarlett eventually learns her lesson and we have hope, at the end of the story, that she'll live according to the knowledge she's acquired. At the end of THIS story - we're positive that Becky's going to eventually end up in hell, and good riddance. Becky's a manipulative brat who rises to the top, comes crashing down and is eager to start the cycle again.

Although it's historically important as the first feature length movie shot in three colors, that's not nearly enough to recommend it. Hopkins, usually an emotional involving actress, comes off overwrought and broad - like she's acting in a silent movie and someone hit the sound switch without telling her.

Miriam Hopkins plays a lower-class young English girl in the mid-19th century, desperately trying to escape her social condition through the manipulation of various people she connects with through a more well-to-do friend she had in school.

Hopkins is very good in this role, but the story is somewhat muddled. It baffles me why a girl of that era who wants to break into higher society gets herself involved with (and, in one case, even married to) a bunch of men who, while they look good on the outside, have few resources of their own. Mind you, it's necessary to establish Becky as a master manipulator. After all, if she simply married money, the story would be pretty much over. But it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

By and large, the movie is what you would expect from the early-mid 1930's. It's not especially well-lit, and it's marred by some of extreme over-acting that I find typical of the era. It's OK for an afternoon if you have nothing else to do, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see it.

I give it 3/10.

Pretty BECKY SHARP, orphaned & penniless, knows exactly what she wants out of life and how to get it.

William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair is brought to vivid, if drastically reduced, life and provides a wonderful showcase for star Miriam Hopkins, who gets the most out of her selfish, petulant, scheming, desperate character. Her Becky is fascinating to watch and dominates nearly every scene in the film, making us forget that the actress is not English and forgive that the character is rather less than virtuous.

Miss Hopkins is aided by a sizable cast of seasoned veterans, mostly British, several of whom only appear in a single scene. Frances Dee has very little to do except look lovely as Becky's school chum. Nigel Bruce comes off rather better as Miss Dee's obese brother who adores Becky. The incomparable Alison Skipworth plays their quarrelsome old aunt who hires Becky for a short while. Alan Mowbray has a fine romantic role as the husband who worships Becky, to his pain.

Marvelous Sir Cedric Hardwicke successfully underplays his role as a powerful nobleman who takes Becky as his mistress. Wonderful Billie Burke appears for a few moments in a serious role as a society lady attending a soirée in Brussels. Doris Lloyd is the hostess.

Three short, sharp portrayals worth watching for are provided by Elspeth Dudgeon as an acidic girls' school proprietress; George Hassell as a rascally old baronet; and Tempe Pigott as a plain-talking charwoman.

BECKY SHARP is important historically in that it was the first film produced in full 3-strip Technicolor. Director Rouben Mamoulian's opulent production was a worthy choice for such a distinguished accolade. Restored in the 1990's, the color is once again most pleasing to the eye.

BECKY SHARP (Pioneer Pictures, released through Radio Pictures, 1935), directed by Rouben Mamoulien, stars Miriam Hopkins in the title role for earned her an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress. Produced at the time where classic literature from famous British novelists as Charles Dickens were brought to life on the motion picture screen, BECKY SHARP, from the famous novel "Vanity Fair" by William Makepeace Thackeray, is most notable mainly for being the first feature film produced entirely in the new and improved Technicolor process. Though Thackeray's Becky Sharp did get produced to the motion picture screen all as "Vanity Fair" in the silent era (1915, 1923), and an early sound modern-dress adaptation for Allied Studios (1932) starring non-other than Myrna Loy of all people, this latest edition may be the best known but one that should have been an another surefire hit to the studio's earlier success of LITTLE WOMEN (1933). At 83 minutes, this screen comedy-drama, centering upon Becky Sharp and her scheming ways of winning affections of wealthy men, does have its good points, especially when Becky lies, cheats and cries convincingly to those listening her sob stories, while all the while she's laughing from inside thinking what a bunch of fools they are. There's a couple of instances where she lets her victims know she's made fools of them and happy about her accomplishment. At one point Becky does make amends to the hurt she's done Amelia, but throughout, Becky retains her ambition as a social climber, no matter what the odds.

Set in 19th Century England, and basic "Virtue is its own reward" theme, the story opens with Amelia Sedley (Frances Dee), a popular student among classmates and teachers, leaving the boarding school of Miss Pinkerton's Academy. Also at that school is her closest friend, Becky Sharp (Miriam Hopkins), a not-so-popular girl boarding there as a charity case. As Miss Pinkerton (Elspeth Dudgeon) offers Amelia a going away gift of "Doctor Johnson's Dictionary" as a token of her affection, Amelia surprises everybody by having Becky come home and remain with her until she able to support herself. During the course of time, Becky flirts with Amelia's buffoonish brother, Joseph (Nigel Bruce). When things begin to look serious in their relationship, his father sends him away to India. As Amelia finds herself with two childhood suitors, Captain William Dobbins (Colin Tapley) and George Osborne (G.P. Huntley Jr.), and decision which one to marry, Becky soon lands a position as governess for Pitt Crawley (William Stack) and his unruly children. She agrees to the position upon meeting Captain Random Crawley (Alan Mowbray) of the British Army, who then offers her a new position caring for his rich aunt, Julia (Alison Skipworth), and later another position as his wife. During a society ball hosted by the snobbish Lady Barreacres (Billie Burke), Becky attracts the attention of the Marquis of Steyne (Cedric Hardwicke) who becomes fascinated by her. The function is interrupted by cannon sounds at a distance, where soldiers, including Random, immediately take off to what's to become Napoleon Bonaparte's battle at Waterloo. After the war, problems arise for Becky as Random meets with 500 pound gambling debt, and her husband's suspicions as to how she acquired the large sum of money to help pay off his debts. Other members of the cast include: William Faversham (Duke of Wellington); Charles Richman (General Tufts); Doris Lloyd (Duchess of Richmond); Leonard Mudie (Lloyd Tarquin), among others.

A public domain title, BECKY SHARP began circulation on video cassette starting in the early 1980s about the same time when broadcast on cable television stations as Arts and Entertainment (A&E). It wasn't until March 1993 that the fully restored Technicolor BECKY SHARP with RKO Radio logo intact aired on American Movie Classics as part of its film preservation festival, and then a decade later on Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: December 2, 2002), and availability onto DVD from various media sources.

BECKY SHARP appears to contain only small passages to famous pieces of both book and play, which explains why such notable performers as Alison Skipworth and Billie Burke appearing ever so briefly. Had the movie followed the book closely, chances are BECKY SHASRP might have been close to two hour mark or further in its storytelling. Though Hopkins handles her characterization well, it's a wonder how a natural born British actress like Elsa Lanchester in a rare starring role might have handled it? Aside from colorful costumes and mostly British cast, there's also shadowy images captured on the wall and strong musical background that leave a lasting impression and "virtue is its own reward" for Miriam Hopkins. (***1/2)

"Becky Sharp" seems to have consistently attracted unfair comments. Whilst it may not be as subtle as many of its contemporary counterparts, the story provides a fun basis for a glorious use of Technicolor. As the first feature length movie to be shot in full colour, the film is a wonderful example of cinema as spectacle. Though admittedly, at times, the viewer may almost be sent cross-eyed by the vibrancy of the colour, its use is interesting in so far as one can see the attempts made at one level to exhibit the colour, whilst also trying in vain not to distract from the narrative. Also, from the beginning of the opening sequence the status of the film as a stage adaptation is clear, and in this way the idea of the now overlooked tradition of cinema as spectacle is further enhanced.

The plot itself is slightly reminiscent of a Gainsborough melodrama (although it precedes them), and yet it is refreshing in many ways that Becky is not the subject of the traditional narrative retribution and resolution. The over-the-top nature of some of the narrative action does provide moments which may cause an audience member to cringe; however, if the film is not taken too seriously, it remains enjoyable.

"Becky Sharp" has too often been overlooked in the history of film. It may not have been widely popular at the time of its release, and it may not be seen within a high cinematic cannon, but it is definitely worth viewing, if only to appreciate the emergence of three colour film as the new advancement in film technology.