Becky Sharp (film)

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Becky Sharp
Becky Sharp (1935 three-sheet poster).jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Rouben Mamoulian
Screenplay by Francis Edward Faragoh
Story by William Makepeace Thackeray
Langdon Mitchell
Based on Vanity Fair
1848 novel
by William Makepeace Thackeray
Produced by Kenneth Macgowan
Rouben Mamoulian
Robert Edmond Jones
Starring Miriam Hopkins
Frances Dee
Cedric Hardwicke
Cinematography Ray Rennahan
Edited by Archie Marshek
Music by Roy Webb William Faversham
Production
company
Distributed by RKO Radio Pictures
Release date
  • June 13, 1935 (1935-06-13)
[1]
Running time
84 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Full film

Becky Sharp is a 1935 American Technicolor historical drama film directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Miriam Hopkins who was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar. Other supporting cast were William Faversham, Frances Dee, Cedric Hardwicke, Billie Burke, Alison Skipworth, Nigel Bruce, and Alan Mowbray.

Contents

The film is based on the 1899 play of the same name by Langdon Mitchell, which in turn was based on William Makepeace Thackeray's 1848 novel Vanity Fair . The play was made famous in the late 1890s by actress Minnie Maddern Fiske. The screenplay was written by Francis Edward Faragoh. The film was considered a landmark in cinema as the first feature film to use the newly developed three-strip Technicolor production throughout, opening the way for a growing number of color films to be made in Britain and the United States in the years leading up to World War II. In 2019, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". [2] [3] [4]

The film recounts the tale of a lower-class girl who insinuates herself into an upper-class family, only to see her life and the lives of those around her destroyed.

Plot

Becky Sharp (Miriam Hopkins), a socially ambitious young lady, manages to survive during the background years of Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. Becky gradually climbs the British social ladder, overcoming poverty and class distinctions, through her best friend Amelia Sedley (Frances Dee), praising any rich man who will listen.

In her efforts to advance herself, she manages to connect with a number of gentlemen: the Marquis of Steyne (Cedric Hardwicke), Joseph Sedley (Nigel Bruce), Rawdon Crawley (Alan Mowbray), and George Osborne (G. P. Huntley Jr), the husband of Amelia.

She rises to the top of British society but becomes the scourge of the social circle, offending influential ladies such as Lady Bareacres (Billie Burke).

Sharp falls into the humiliation of singing for her meals in a beer hall, but she never stays down for long. At the end, she cons her last man and finally lands Amelia's brother, Joseph.

Cast

Production

Rouben Mamoulian, Miriam Hopkins, visitor Michael Balcon, and Kenneth Macgowan on the set of Becky Sharp (1935) Becky Sharp (1935) 8.jpg
Rouben Mamoulian, Miriam Hopkins, visitor Michael Balcon, and Kenneth Macgowan on the set of Becky Sharp (1935)

John Hay "Jock" Whitney and Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney formed Pioneer Pictures specifically to produce color films, and signed a contract to release Pioneer films through RKO Radio Pictures.

After producing La Cucaracha , Becky Sharp, and Dancing Pirate (1936), the Whitneys and David O. Selznick formed Selznick International Pictures. Two Selznick International films, A Star Is Born and Nothing Sacred (both 1937), were produced by Selznick, copyrighted by Pioneer Pictures, and released through United Artists rather than RKO. The film went public domain in 1963 after the copyright lapsed and was not renewed.

Lowell Sherman, the original director, had fallen ill while working on Night Life of the Gods before starting Becky Sharp, but had continued to work on the project; he died of double pneumonia four weeks into production. [5]

Future First Lady Pat Nixon, who was a sometimes movie extra while attending college at USC, had a single spoken line in the film, but it did not make the final edit.

After Sherman's death, Rouben Mamoulian was brought in to finish the film. Mamoulian did not use any of the footage shot by Sherman, deciding instead to reshoot the entire film. [6]

Color development

Becky Sharp was the first feature film to use the three-strip Technicolor process, which created a separate film register for each of the three primary colors, for the entirety of the film. [7]

Earlier live action films to use the new Technicolor process for part of the film include the final musical number in the feature The Cat and the Fiddle released by MGM in February 1934, and in short sequences filmed for other movies made during 1934, including The House of Rothschild (Twentieth Century Pictures/United Artists) with George Arliss and Kid Millions (Samuel Goldwyn/United Artists) with Eddie Cantor. Warner Brothers released two Leon Errol shorts, Service with a Smile (July 28, 1934) and Good Morning, Eve! (September 22, 1934), and RKO Pictures released the short La Cucaracha (August 31, 1934).[ citation needed ]

Reception

Writing for The Spectator , Graham Greene raved that "colour is everything here" and characterizing its use in the film as "a triumph". Although Greene complained that the Technicolor "plays havoc with the women's faces", leveled criticism at Hopkins for her "indecisive acting", and noted that he had found the film's climax in Bath to be "absurd" and "silly", he described these minor complaints as "ungrateful" and his overall impression was that the film gave "delight to the eye". [8]

Awards and honors

Wins

Nominations

Preservation status

For many years, the original three-color Technicolor version of the film was not available for viewing, though a 16 millimeter version was available. This version had been printed (poorly) on two-color Cinecolor stock which did not accurately reproduce the colors of the original film. The smaller film gauge also resulted in a grainier, inferior image.

In the 1980s, the UCLA Film and Television Archive restored the film, under the supervision of archivist Robert Gitt. Rouben Mamoulian appeared at the premiere of the restored print at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences theatre in Beverly Hills.

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Vanity Fair</i> (novel) 1847–1848 novel by William Makepeace Thackeray

Vanity Fair is a novel by the English author William Makepeace Thackeray, which follows the lives of Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley amid their friends and families during and after the Napoleonic Wars. It was first published as a 19-volume monthly serial from 1847 to 1848, carrying the subtitle Pen and Pencil Sketches of English Society, which reflects both its satirisation of early 19th-century British society and the many illustrations drawn by Thackeray to accompany the text. It was published as a single volume in 1848 with the subtitle A Novel without a Hero, reflecting Thackeray's interest in deconstructing his era's conventions regarding literary heroism. It is sometimes considered the "principal founder" of the Victorian domestic novel.

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Vanity Fair is a 2004 historical drama film directed by Mira Nair and adapted from William Makepeace Thackeray's 1848 novel of the same name. The novel has been the subject of numerous television and film adaptations. Nair's version made notable changes in the development of main character Becky Sharp, played by Reese Witherspoon.

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Vanity Fair is a BBC television drama serial adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1848 novel of the same name broadcast in 1967. It was the first drama serial in colour produced by the BBC. Vanity Fair starred Susan Hampshire as Becky Sharp. The serial was also broadcast in 1972 in the US on PBS television as part of Masterpiece Theatre, and Hampshire received an Emmy Award for her portrayal in 1973.

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References

  1. Brown, Gene (1995). Movie Time: A Chronology of Hollywood and the Movie Industry from Its Beginnings to the Present. New York: Macmillan. p.  124. ISBN   0-02-860429-6. In New York, the film premiered at Radio City Music Hall.
  2. Chow, Andrew R. (December 11, 2019). "See the 25 New Additions to the National Film Registry, From Purple Rain to Clerks". Time. New York, NY. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
  3. "Women Rule 2019 National Film Registry". Library of Congress. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
  4. "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
  5. "Lowell Sherman's Last". Variety. January 1, 1935. p. 2.
  6. "Becky Sharp: Detail View". American Film Institute. Archived from the original on April 3, 2014. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
  7. Technicolor's earlier processes did not include a blue register, just green and red.
  8. Greene, Graham (July 19, 1935). "Becky Sharp/Public Hero No. 1/Barcarole". The Spectator . (reprinted in: Taylor, John Russell, ed. (1980). The Pleasure Dome. p.  8. ISBN   0192812866.)
  9. "Cinema: Rewards in Venice". Time. September 16, 1935. Retrieved March 29, 2022. Cup for the best color film: RKO's Becky Sharp