Technicolor!
Becky Sharp is a 1935 film directed by Rouben Mamoulian.
It was an adaptation of an 1899 play, which was itself an adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's famous novel Vanity Fair. Miriam Hopkins is Becky Sharp, who, at the beginning of the film, is graduating from Miss Pinkerton's finishing school for young women. Becky is the impoverished daughter of a young French aristocrat turned fallen woman. She was admitted to the school as a charity case, but really because she would be obligated to perform unpaid labor in teaching the other students French.
Becky burns with resentment towards the wealthy uppercrust of early 19th century Britain, even as she yearns to join them. She manipulates her rich classmate Amelia into inviting her home when they both graduate from Miss Pinkerton's, but she fails to get Amelia's dimwitted older brother Joseph (Nigel Bruce) to come through with a marriage proposal. So instead Becky gets a job as governess to the younger children of Sir Pitt Crawley, but this time she succeeds in wrangling a marriage proposal, from Sir Pitt's younger son Rawdon, an officer in the army.
Famous as the very first feature film made with the three-strip Technicolor process. (A more primitive two-strip process had been in use in the silent era, and the three-strip process had been used for some short films and cartoons, like Walt Disney's "Flowers and Trees".)
Tropes:
- Ask a Stupid Question...: Rawdon's aunt Julia is screaming "BECKY! BECKY SHARP!" at the top of her lungs. When the maid comes in and says "Are you perhaps calling Miss Sharp, ma'am?", aunt Julia scornfully replies "No, I'm calling on heaven to preserve me calm!"
- Book Ends: In the opening scene, Becky scornfully throws the dictionary back at priggish snob Miss Pinkerton, as she leaves for the Sedley household. In the end she throws priggish, hypocritical Pitt's book of sermons back at him, after she's gotten engaged to Joseph.
- Chekhov's Gun: George's love letter to Becky, written after he married Amelia. Becky offers to sell it to Dobbin so he can break George and Amelia up and win her for himself. At the end, when Amelia says she can never be with Dobbin because she owes loyalty to her dead husband, Becky shows her the letter, so she and Dobbin can get together.
- Childish Pillow Fight: Sir Pitt's younger children are doing this when Becky arrives. It's less to show that they're cute than to show that they are bratty little monsters (they're also screaming at the top of their lungs the whole time).
- Cruel to Be Kind: Becky shows Amelia the long-ago love letter, to Becky, written by Amelia's late husband George. This is to get Amelia to stop worshipping her dead husband and instead accept Dobbin's love.
- Dances and Balls: A big dramatic set piece in the film has Becky attending a fancy formal dress ball, where everybody is dancing the night away—until the cannon that signal the opening of the battle of Waterloo are heard.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Becky has lost Rawdon forever, she's just been fired from her crappy job singing in a tavern, and she's about to be evicted from her shabby room for being late on her rent. So she breaks out a bottle.Becky: Well you can forget about it, if you drink enough brandy.
- Establishing Character Moment: In the opening scene Becky responds to Miss Pinkerton's hypocritical pieties with sarcasm and scorn. Then she takes the dictionary that Miss Pinkerton grudgingly gave her as a graduation present, and throws it right back at Miss Pinkerton on her way out the door.
- Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: The final scene in the movie has Becky, who had risen to the ranks of high society, singing for her supper to rude, drunken patrons at a tavern in Bath.
- Fixing the Game: Becky wins £100 by gambling with loaded dice. Later, she's caught.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Sir Pitt Crawley's older son Pitt is well-mannered and morally righteous (although he's also a priggish hypocrite). Younger son Rawdon Crawley is dashing and high-spirited, and a habitual gambler, who joined the army.
- Gorgeous Period Dress: This film demonstrated how Technicolor could be used to show off Gorgeous Period Dress. Becky and the other actresses in the film wear a series of fancy, elaborate dresses, and there are also a lot of British army officers in bright scarlet coats.
- Historical Domain Character
- The Duke of Wellington attends the same ball as Becky does, right before the battle of Waterloo.
- Becky is introduced to the Prince Regent, the future King George IV.
- Hollywood Costuming: Becky's costumes have been incorporated with 1930s styles like frills, polka dots, and lamé, with a generous amount of golden pin curls from the leading lady, in order to lavishly showcase the wonders of Technicolor.
- Home-Early Surprise: An inversion. Becky has gotten the £500 she needs to pay off hers and Rawdon's debts, at the cost of a night of sex with the Marquis of Steyne. She sends Rawdon off to the club, the Marquis shows up, the Marquis is grabbing at a reluctant Becky—and Rawdon returns early. It's Becky that's the surprised one, as Rawdon had a hunch that something fishy was going on and came back early. He leaves her forever.
- It Will Never Catch On: Aristocrats and army officers are attending a ball in Belgium in June of 1815, as Napoleon's army is on the march. When one society lady asks about the possibility that Napoleon will attack, an officer says "There'll be no fighting until the Prussians join us." Another says that Napoleon is "leagues away". Soon the boom of cannon is heard, because the ballroom where everyone is dancing is apparently only a few miles away from the village of Waterloo.
- Maiden Aunt: Aunt Julia Crowley actually uses these words to describe herself. Her nephew Rawdon gets Becky a position as companion to the fussy old lady, so Rawdon has an excuse to see Becky.
- Match Cut: From the Marquis of Steyne handing out the £500 Becky needs to pay off her husband's debts, to Becky counting out that same money after he's gone.
- No Doubt the Years Have Changed Me: Joseph, having returned after some years in India, sees Becky at the ball. He says "Don't you know me? Have I changed so much these few years?" The joke here is that Joseph the idiot hasn't changed at all, and Becky was really just trying to ignore him.
- Sarcasm Mode:
- When Miss Pinkerton the condescending snob says that Becky should feel gratitude for being allowed to stay at the school as a charity case, Becky smiles a mirthless smile and says "What other feeling is possible? Not one of hatred, surely?". She then follows that up by saying that it must have been charity that led Miss Pinkerton to take her on, and it couldn't possibly have been that she could make Becky teach the other girls French for free.
- Joseph flinches at the prospect of marrying Becky the commoner, because he'd get disinherited. Moments after he gets news that he's getting a government job in India. In response Becky sneers, "The government needs men of courage, men of decision, men of brave...bah!"
- Say My Name: A despairing Becky screams "RAWDON!" as he leaves her, for good.
- Social Climber: Becky is ruthlessly determined to climb the social ladder. It's a bumpy up-and-down trip but she apparently gets there at last as Joseph's wife.
