Becky Sharp (film)

Becky Sharp, 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, 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, Joseph Sedley, Rawdon Crawley, and George Osborne, 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.

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]

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 on the original script.^[16][17][18] Production on the film concluded on March 20, 1935.

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]

The film opened at Radio City Music Hall in New York on June 13, 1935.^[24] It also opened the same week at the Palace Theatre in Chicago.^[25] After its New York opening, it opened at other large key city situations within a week.^[24] The release was accompanied by augmented advertising campaigns.^[24]

Based on 133 reviews in leading newspapers in the United States, none voiced opposition to the use of color. 117 predicted that color would be the next step in motion picture development.^[24]

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".^[26]

Becky Sharp grossed $121,000 in its first week in Chicago and New York.^[25] Its grosses in key cities in the United States were consistently higher than average.^[24]

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.^[28][29]

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.^[30] 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.^[31][32]

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.”^[33][34]

Milne adds: “The Waterloo sequence is the dramatic highlight of the film...elsewhere, color is used less ostentatiously but equally theatrically.”^[35][36]

Wins

• Venice Film Festival: Best Color Film, Rouben Mamoulian, 1935^[37]

Nominations

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

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.

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.^[38]

• List of early color feature films
• List of films in the public domain in the United States