Becky Sharp

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.

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.

Cut-down story of Becky Sharp is not based on Thackeray's mammoth novel but on a play by Langdon Mitchell which starred Minnie Maddern Fiske in three productions between 1899 and 1911.

This 1935 film is famous as being the first feature film shot in Technicolor. Current version has been restored a few times and boasts brilliant colors that sometimes vary between scenes but are mostly pleasing.

Miriam Hopkins won her only Oscar nomination as Becky Sharp and dominates the film in nearly every scene. She brings her fiery southern charm to the screen as Becky, a woman who charms and cheats and cajoles her way into early 19th century British society. The Napoleonic Wars serve as a mere background.

Film opens with Becky graduating from a girls' school where she has served as a teacher. She has befriended Amelia Smedley (Frances Dee) and their lives intertwine as the years pass. Becky starts out as a governess but quickly snags a son of the house (Alan Mowbray) as a husband. Trouble is they both like to live the high life and are always in debt.

Becky turns to charm and teases a series of men into giving her money. She is a scandal among the posh set but never looks back. After her husband dies in a faraway war, she turns to performing on the stage but is a failure. She is saved once again by an old suitor and plans to run away with him to India, where they can live well on a little money.

Lowell Sherman had started directing the film but died about a month into production. Rouben Mamoulian took over the production and started from scratch.

Hopkins is a house afire and deserved her Oscar nomination (losing to Bette Davis). Others in the cast include Billie Burke as a snotty hostess, Cedric Hardwicke as an old lecher, Alison Skipworth as Miss Crawley, Nigel Bruce as Joseph Crawley, and Tempe Pigott as the charwoman.

Historically important film, but don't overlook the great performance by Miriam Hopkins.

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.

Miriam Hopkins delivers a great performance as a nonchalant woman who cheats her way through society before finding out that what goes around comes around, and of course she must find a way to redeem herself. The color in this film looks a lot better than most people of the day describes it as. And I think the guy who said the color looked like "boiled salmon dipped in mayonese" has had a little too much mayonese. Altogether, I highly recommend this film for anyone who can't seem to find a good movie to watch, because this is the one!