FULL LENGTH COLOUR FILM

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 22 April 1935, Page 9

FULL LENGTH COLOUR FILM

From Our Own Correspondent. (By Air Mail). LONDON, March 30

The first full-length colour film has been finished in Hollywood and is due shortly to> he shown in England. It is.“ Becky Sharp” from Thackeray’s ‘‘Vanity Fair,” with Miss Miriam Hopkins iii the title role, and a large English supporting east, including Sir Cedric Hardwicke as “Lord Steyne.”

On the reception of “Becky Sharp” depends the fate of the black and white film we have known for over 30 years. If it enjoys the success gained by the first talking pictures, then “black and white” is doomed. The firm concerned lias almost unlimited capital behind it. and means to spend at least £1,400,000 on nine colour pictures. .* One of the most interesting problems of colour is the effect it will have on the popularity of “stars.’’ Like the coining of the talkies; it will probably make some and break others. Mr Goldwyn, who is now in London, mentioned Miss Miriam Hopkins, a radiant blonde, as a girl who should he a great success when her natural colouring is seen. Miss Greta Garbo is one of the others, whose natural colouring excites admiration, and ivlio should have a greater following than ever. Despite Mr Goldwyu’s dictum that colour photography is kind to all, others who have hair,, eyes or skin, that the camera will reveal as uninteresting and drab can hardly fail to lose ground. Those whose colouring is natural will fare best. The undyed will see poetic justice" in the fact that dyed hair is apt to have a metallic sheen on the screen.