Lovely Miriam Hopkins as featured in “Becky Sharp” (1935), the first full length feature produced entirely in three-strip Technicolor. The film received it’s world premiere on this day, June 13 in 1935. It is based on the 1899 play of the same name by Langdon Mitchell, which in turn was based on William Makepeace Thackeray's 1848 novel “Vanity Fair”. 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 film was considered a landmark in cinema as the first feature to use the newly developed three-strip Technicolor production throughout, paving the way for a growing number of color films to be made in Britain and the United States in the years leading up to World War II. It received mixed reviews, mostly positive in regards to the special use of color, lavish costumes and set design. Writing for The Spectator, Graham Greene raved that "color is everything here" and characterizing its use in the film as "a triumph". For many years, the original three-color Technicolor version of the film was not available for viewing, though a 16 mm version was available in poor cinecolor. In the 1980s, the UCLA Film and Television Archive restored the film, under the supervision of archivist Robert Gitt. Further digital restoration over the years finally yielded the ultimate blu-ray edition of this historic title and can be viewed in all its vivid glory as originally intended.
Color enhanced image by Hollywood Pinups from the b&w original.
