Daily Archives: July 18, 2013

Becky Sharp
Directed by Rouben Mamoulian
1935/USA
Pioneer Pictures Corporation
First viewing

 

 

[box] “The moral world has no particular objection to vice, but an insuperable repugnance to hearing vice called by its proper name. A polite public will no more bear to read an authentic description of vice than a truly-refined English or American female will permit the word ‘breeches’ to be pronounced in her chaste hearing. And yet, madam, both are walking the world before our faces every day without much shocking us. If you were to blush every time they went by, what complexions you would have!” ― William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair[/box]

Rouben Mamoulian’s adaptation of Thackeray’s Vanity Fair is chiefly notable for being the first feature film shot in the three-strip Technicolor process.  Unfortunately, the print available to me was too degraded for appreciation of the new technology and the film itself is pretty dire.

Orphan Becky Sharp (Miriam Hopkins) leaves school with only her cunning to provide for her.  She marries true love Rawdon Crawley (Alan Mowbray) but uses her feminine wiles to bilk men and others into allowing them to live for “nothing a year.”  Will she get her comeuppance?  With Frances Dee as Amelia Sedley, Nigel Bruce as Jos Sedley, and Cedric Hardwicke as the Marquis of Steyne.

Anyone who was watching this movie in a vacuum might think Rouben Mamoulian, Miriam Hopkins, and William Thackeray were a bunch of talentless hacks.  I cannot imagine what happened to Mamoulian, who previously used such fluid and interesting camera work.  I can only imagine that the big Technicolor camera got in his way and caused this film to be so static and stagey.  Miriam Hopkins is just way over the top, winking at the audience, shrieking and mugging constantly.  Finally, the dark satire of the novel has been lost and replaced by a soap opera.  I understand that UCLA has restored the print and, if it ever becomes available, the movie might be interesting as a historical time capsule.  Until then, we seem to be stuck with a muddy public domain print filled with pops and crackles in the sound.

Trailer

Before and after restoration – unfortunately, I saw the “before”

 

1936 Olympic Games long jump medal ceremony – on the podium from left to right are Naoto Tajima (Japan – bronze), Jesse Owens (USA – gold), and Luz Lang (Germany – silver)

1936 was another wonderful year for movies.  Screwball comedies were getting into gear with some timeless classics like My Man Godfrey.  Fred and Ginger were offering up some of their best work in Swing Time and Follow the Fleet and Yasujiro Ozu and Charlie Chaplin made their first sound films, The Only Son and Modern Times.

Producer Irving Thalberg died at age 37 and Deanna Durbin made her her first feature film at age 14.  The Trail of the Lonesome Pine  was the first three-strip Technicolor feature shot entirely on location.  Beggar’s Wedding (Italy) (aka Nozze Vagabonde) was the first 3-D talkie film to encourage the use of 3D polarizing glasses by its viewing audience.  Sir Arthur Bliss’s score to Things to Come became the first official soundtrack to be issued on LP records to the public. The British Broadcasting Corporation launched the world’s first regular television service, broadcasting 2 hours a day, 6 days a week.

In the USA, Franklin Roosevelt was reelected by a landslide.  A record heat wave struck North America, already suffering from the Dust Bowl, killing thousands and destroying crops.  The average price for a movie ticket was 25 cents and a gallon of gasoline cost around 20 cents.  There was no universal federal minimum wage legislation and the unemployment rate was about 17%.

Astaire and Rogers dancing to “Pick Yourself Up” in Swing Time

 

Edward the VIII  was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and Emperor of India from January 20 to December 11, when he abdicated and was succeeded by his younger brother Albert who chose the regal name George VI.

Nazi troops enter the Rhineland

Elsewhere, the world appeared inexorably headed toward calamity.  Pro-democratic militarist Keisuke Okada stepped down as Prime Minister of Japan and was replaced by radical militarist Koki Hirota.  War continued between Japanese and Chinese forces in Manchuria.  The Rome-Berlin axis was formed.  Italy annexed Ethiopia. In violation of the Treaty of Versailles, German troops marched into the Rhineland.  The Spanish Civil War began.  The first of the Moscow show trials was held as part of Joseph Stalin’s Great Purge.

The films I hope to get to for 1936 can be found here:  http://www.imdb.com/list/eBl1zIKZCOA/

Jesse Owens at 1936 Olympic Games to “Time” by Hans Zimmer