NFR Project: 'Becky Sharp' (1935)

 

NFR Project: ‘Becky Sharp’

Dir: Rouben Mamoulian

Scr: Francis Edward Faragoh

Pho: Ray Rennahan

Ed: Archie Marshek

Premiere: June 13, 1935

84 min.

Becky Sharp is in the Registry due to its being the first three-strip Technicolor feature. However, it is also a classic example of a mid-century “prestige” film.

The color technique had been experimented with for decades, with a crude two-strip (red and green) color process that only approximated real color. With three-strip, the full palette of colors could be conveyed.

Unfortunately, the film’s first director, Lowell Sherman, contracted pneumonia and died during filming. Brought in to replace him was Rouben Mamoulian, known for his innovations and his strong artistic sense. He had already made important films such as Applause and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

It’s a period film, a costume drama based on the 1848 William Makepeace Thackery novel Vanity Fair. Set in England during the time of Napoleon, it’s the somewhat seamy saga of Becky Sharp, an ambitious young nobody who canoodles and intrigues to rise in society and gain wealth and comfort. Thackery was very discouraged about the human condition, and his estimation of human character is pretty low; this film adaptation brightens things up a bit.

Mamoulian makes incredible use of color, from the red uniforms of the dashing officers to bright blue and yellow gowns, flashes of fire, and sumptuously designed interiors. The art direction is superb – no expense was spared. The visuals are compelling and beautifully staged.

Miriam Hopkins, the blonde ingenue, plays Becky with a sassy wit and indomitable spirit. Her devil-may-care approach to life stands in sharp contrast to the more staid people around her. Her rapid rise pleases few, but seems to be irresistible. She falls from grace, but unlike in the novel, in which she pays dearly for her sins, in the film she simply moves offstage with her latest male conquest.

Another notable aspect of the film is the fine acting work by three English actors who would be cast in film after film in Hollywood – Nigel Bruce, famous later for playing Dr. Watson, as the buffoonish Joseph Sedley, Alan Mowbray as her true love, Rawdon Crowley, and Cedric Hardwicke as the lustful Marquis of Steyne.

Adaptations of “great novels,” often severely altered from the original, continued to be a Hollywood staple.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: The Informer.