Becky Sharp is a 1935 film directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Miriam Hopkins. Other supporting cast were Frances Dee, Cedric Hardwicke, Billie Burke, Alison Skipworth, Nigel Bruce, and Alan Mowbray. It is based on the play of the same name by Langdon Mitchell, which in turn is based on William Makepeace Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair. The screenplay was written by Francis Edward Faragoh.
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. The ruthless, self-willed and beautiful Becky is one of the most famous characters in English literature.
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. Earlier live action films to use the new Technicolor process 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 (20th 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 (28 July 1934) and Good Morning, Eve! (5 August 1934), and RKO Pictures released the short La Cucaracha (31 August 1934).
Becky Sharp is now in the public domain.
Miriam Hopkins was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.
Read more about Becky Sharp: Plot, Cast, Production, Preservation, Awards, Trivia
Famous quotes containing the words Becky Sharp:
“Material advancement has its share in moral and intellectual progress. Becky Sharp’s acute remark that it is not difficult to be virtuous on ten thousand a year has its applications to nations; and it is futile to expect a hungry and squalid population to be anything but violent and gross.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)