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Becky Sharp (film)

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This article is about the film. For the character from Vanity Fair, see Becky Sharp.

Becky Sharp
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRouben Mamoulian
Screenplay byFrancis Edward Faragoh
Story byWilliam Makepeace Thackeray
Langdon Mitchell
Based onVanity Fair
1848 novel
by William Makepeace Thackeray
Produced byKenneth Macgowan
Rouben Mamoulian
Robert Edmond Jones
StarringMiriam Hopkins
Frances Dee
Cedric Hardwicke
CinematographyRay Rennahan
Edited byArchie Marshek
Music byRoy Webb William Faversham
Production
company
Distributed byRKO 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 plays the eponymous protagonist. She 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.[2]

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.[3] 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.[4][5] 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. Becky Sharp was in effect a “demonstration” picture which served to showcase and validate this advanced technology in color.[6][7]

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".[8][9][10]

Plot

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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.[11][12]

Cast

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Production

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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.[13]

Original director Lowell Sherman began filming on December 3, 1934. The early Technicolor systems required massive lighting, which generated high temperatures on the set. Moving between the hot interior and cool winter temperatures outdoors, Sherman contracted pneumonia and died in late December. Rouben Mamoulian was immediately enlisted to take over as director.[14][15] Sherman’s footage was retained, and Mamoulian shaped his subsequent Technicolor scenes based the original script.[16][17][18]

Color development

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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.[19][20][21]

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).[22][23]

Reception

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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".[24]

Retrospective appraisal

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“Mamoulian was fascinated by color…He saw in the color process another opportunity for innovations that would set a standard for the new technology...His interest lay in choosing color for psychological effect rather than mere realistic reproduction or decorative dividends. With the advent of color processing, particularly Technicolor processing—with its non-realistic, supersaturated color—Mamoulian could approach the film medium like a painter with a palette.” — Film historian Marc Spergel in Reinventing Reality: The Art and Life of Rouben Mamoulian (1993)[25]

Film historian Tom Milne on the new technology in a feature film:

Becky Sharp is still a strikingly beautiful film, using color as delicately as Wedgwood china; and it may also lay a reasonable claim to being the first film to have used color throughout to dramatic rather than decorative ends.[26][27]

The opening Waterloo “grand ball” sequence

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This “celebrated” and “famed “ sequence occurs at the estate of the Duchess of Richmond near the tiny Belgian village of Waterloo as French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte approaches at the head of his army.[28] The Duchess is presiding over a grand ball, the guests members of the European ruling elite. The Duke of Wellington arrives and warns the complacent company that a military engagement with Napoleon is imminent. An ominous rumbling is heard in the distance. The guests hesitate, then continue to dance. A second rumble occurs, closer, then suddenly the windows burst open, and flashes of gunfire and cannon are seen. The color of the film changes from white, to green, to yellow, to red, then is drenched in scarlett as one of the bloodiest and socially significant battles in European history begins to unfold.[29][30]

Director Rouben Mamoulian wrote in Picturegoer shortly after the film’s release: “Colour, as you know, is symbolic,” adding “It is a sequence in which dialogue is of no moment…the lighting as well as the costumes contrives to accentuate the mounting drama of the scene” culminating in “red all over the action.”[31][32]

Milne adds: “The Waterloo sequence is the dramatic highlight of the film...elsewhere, color is used less ostentatiously but equally theatrically.”[33][34]

Awards and honors

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Wins

Nominations

  • Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, Miriam Hopkins, 1935
  • Venice Film Festival: Mussolini Cup, Rouben Mamoulian, 1935

Preservation status

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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.

UCLA Film and Television Archive Restoration

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

Stage 1 was completed in 1984. For stage 2 (around 1988), Italian print elements, which allowed the picture on the last reel to be upgraded, while the somewhat splicey English soundtrack, were edited to fit the Italian print material. For stage 3, completed in 2002, a print was obtained from the Netherlands that allowed improvement in both picture and sound quality.[36]

See also

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Notes

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  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. ^ Milne, 1969 p. 165-166: Filmography
  3. ^ Jensen, 2024 p. 115
  4. ^ Spergel, 1993 p. 57: Character sketch of Becky Sharp here.
  5. ^ Jensen, 2024 p. 114: “Conniving, social-climbing Becky Sharp is one of the most famous characters in English literature…”
  6. ^ Jensen, 2024 p. 115
  7. ^ Milne, 1969 p. 91: “...the first feature in the new three-color Technicolor process…it had been used for some time by Walt Disney cartoons.”
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ "Women Rule 2019 National Film Registry". Library of Congress. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
  10. ^ "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
  11. ^ Spergel, 1993 p. 157: See here for how the Becky Sharp character is portrayed in the film.
  12. ^ Milne, 1969 pp. 91-100: Diffuse plot description.
  13. ^ Milne, 1969 p. 91, p. 165-166: Filmography
  14. ^ Jensen 2024 p. 114-115
  15. ^ Milne, 1969 p. 165-166: Filmography. Lowell died on December 28, 1934
  16. ^ Jensen, 2024 p. 116-117
  17. ^ "Lowell Sherman's Last". Variety. January 1, 1935. p. 2.
  18. ^ "Becky Sharp: Detail View". American Film Institute. Archived from the original on April 3, 2014. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
  19. ^ Technicolor's earlier processes did not include a blue register, just green and red.
  20. ^ Danks, 2007: “...the first three-strip Technicolor feature, Becky Sharp…”
  21. ^ Milne, 1969 p. 91: “...the first feature in the new three-color Technicolor process.”
  22. ^ Milne, 1969 p. 91: “Pioneer pictures…had made a very successful start in July 1934 with a short film, La Cucaracha, designed by Robert Edmund Jones and directed by Lloyd Corrigan.”
  23. ^ Spergel, 1993 p. 156
  24. ^ Greene, Graham (July 19, 1935). "Becky Sharp/Public Hero No. 1/Barcarole". The Spectator. (reprinted in: Taylor, John Russell, ed. (1980). The Pleasure Dome. Oxford University Press. p. 8. ISBN 0192812866.)
  25. ^ Spergel, 1993 p. 155
  26. ^ Milne, 1969 p. 91
  27. ^ Spergel, 1993 p. 157: See here for same Milne, quoted by Spergel.
  28. ^ Jensen, 2024 p. 116-117
  29. ^ Milne, 1969 p. 91-92, p. 93
  30. ^ Spergel, 1993 p. 157: See here, Spergel quotes from Milne.
  31. ^ Milne, 1969 p. 93
  32. ^ Callahan, 2007: “...the editing of the exciting Waterloo ball sequence in Becky Sharp (1935) has a logic and build that is musical.”
  33. ^ Milne, 1969 p. 93: “Theatrical, in fact, is the key word for Becky Sharp.”
  34. ^ Spergel, 1993 p. 155: Mamoulian “achieved spectacular effect with color in Becky Sharp…”
  35. ^ "Cinema: Rewards in Venice". Time. September 16, 1935. Retrieved March 29, 2022. Cup for the best color film: RKO's Becky Sharp
  36. ^ Becky Sharp Restoration at the UCLA Film & Television Archive website

References

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