The Worst Film Ever

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Rouben Mamoulian (birthday today 4.12) was always ahead of his time. This was the first full color feature (1935!) based on William Thackeray's "Vanity Fair", one of the greatest novels of the 19th century, full of literary splendor, transported on the screen not without success. Mamoulian's last film was "Silk Stockings" (1957) with Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse, but he also started on "Porgy and Bess" (completed by Otto Preminger) and "Cleopatra" (1962, completed by Joe Mankiewicz). - With its striking gallery of great actors, like Allan Mowbray, Nigel Bruce ("Dr Watson"), Cedric Hardwicke, Billie Burke and Miriam Hopkins among others, it is great theater all the way in Mamoulian's characteristic lushness and splendor of vivacity and imagery in very innovative direction - the feature is above all a feast to the eyes and an amazing film in spite of its almost 80 years - and impressing as the first full length color film.

Miriam Hopkins gives a spirited and possibly career performance in the title role of Becky Sharp based on William Makepeace Thackerey's novel Vanity Fair. The film comes by way of Langdon Mitchell's play based on Vanity Fair with the change in title. It ran on Broadway in 1899 for 116 performance.And what a cast it had back in 1899. Mrs. Mary Madden Fiske was Becky, Maurice Barrymore was her luckless gambling fool of a husband, the part that Alan Mowbray has here and as the aristocratic rake that Hopkins is ready to give all to to square Mowbray's debts is played by Cedric Hardwicke in the film. On Broadway the role originated with Tyrone Power, Sr.Thackerey's novel was a critique of the class system in Great Britain, but really offers no solutions. It's also a story of how much more difficult it was to be a woman and poor with so many fewer options open to them.Becky Sharp is such a woman. She's been given a good education, attending school with the rich aristocratic Frances Dee. By education I mean finishing school. How she got there we're not sure, but having been exposed to how the other half lives she wants to be part of it.Her friend Frances Dee invites her to live with her family and Hopkins starts seizing her opportunities. The rest of the story is about what happens to her and the various schemes she concocts. She's not afraid to use sex to obtain what she wants, riches and respectability.Besides those I've already mentioned there's a really nice performance by Nigel Bruce as Frances Dee's Colonel Blimp like brother. In the end he proves to be Hopkins's salvation.As a film Becky Sharp has come down in history to us as the first film using the modern technicolor process. It was a novelty, but as a story it definitely has merit.And it is so much better than the version with Myrna Loy updated to the Roaring Twenties that came out under the original title of Vanity Fair a few years earlier.

My memories of this film are a little jaded because its been years since i saw it and its never been released in the UK.However what i do remember of it is how good Miriam Hopkins is in the lead role. Although the direction is a little staged and awkward, the experienced cast do help to keep this film watchable. This was the first full length three strip technicolor feature film so kudos to the studio for taking the gamble with making it. It is no great surprise it is studio bound because of the amount of lighting that was needed on early technicolor. Also the technicolor cameras were bulky too making the directors job pretty difficult too. The Art department must shoulder some of the blame for the mixed results though. I seem to remember their colour scheme was really uninspired. They could have used nice bright primary colours to show off the system but they erred on a colour set up that made you feel was lacking in courage. However on a critical note, Becky Sharpe was a decently made costume drama that was fairly average with good performances. However its is interesting to note how quickly technicolor improved after 1935. Check out 'Wings of The Morning' from 1937 to see a film that may have had a bad script but made excellent use of external location filming and the colours were a lot more naturalistic.

This is "Gone With the Wind" for people who don't care too much about quality. Miriam Hopkins is cast in the Scarlett role - selfish, social-climbing, with no compunctions about using people at whim. The difference is that Scarlett eventually learns her lesson and we have hope, at the end of the story, that she'll live according to the knowledge she's acquired. At the end of THIS story - we're positive that Becky's going to eventually end up in hell, and good riddance. Becky's a manipulative brat who rises to the top, comes crashing down and is eager to start the cycle again.Although it's historically important as the first feature length movie shot in three colors, that's not nearly enough to recommend it. Hopkins, usually an emotional involving actress, comes off overwrought and broad - like she's acting in a silent movie and someone hit the sound switch without telling her.