A Mew Miracle in lotion Pictures

Manawatu Times, Volume 60, Issue 232, 2 October 1935, Page 11

A Mew Miracle in lotion Pictures

“BECKY SHARP” ON SCREEN IN LIVING COLOUR

'Siatc: Screening Saturday.)

Coming as an epochal event in the history of film entertainment, is RKO-Radio’s much heralded full colour feature, “Becky Sharp” The picture elicits cheers and expressions of admiring wonder. Gorgeously beautiful, stunningly lifelike, the picture is all that has been claimed for it and more.

. “Becky Sharp,” moreover, is far beyond being a mere pageant of gorgeous colour. It is a gem of screen entertainment, sparkling with humour, replete with romance, and rich with drama. Perfectly enacted, expertly directed by the gifted Rouben Alanioulian, and lavishly produced, it is a masterful dramatization of William Makepeace Thackeray's immortal fiction classic, “Vanity Fair.” Miram Hopkins, starring in the title role, rises to heights in her eharactrization of the lovely, vivacious, and successful coquette. She has invested her role with life and understanding, .to make tho beautiful, wayward Becky a character to linger long in the memory. Alan Mowbray, as II aw don Crawley; Frances Dee, as Amelia Sedley; and Sir Cedric Hardwicke, as tho Marquis of Steyne; are splendid in their roles. Other outstanding performances are given by Nigel Bruce, G. P. Huntley, Jr., Billie Burke, Alison Skip worth, Colin Tapley and William Faversham. “Becky Sharp,” as most lovers of literature know, is the story of a wilful and clever beauty, who uses her loveliness to advance her social position and make a sweeping conquest of the hearts of men. True to Thackeray's story, tho picture deals with the elite of the London society of the early nineteenth century. Generous use of superlatives in describing the settings, costumes and atmosphere of the production is fully justiled. “Becky Sharp,” however, is a picturo that defies adequate description within limited space. It must be seen to bo appreciated, and no lover of beauty and fine picture can afford to miss it.

How do you like your rainbows? Do you prefer them. in dull shades of whites, grays and blacks, or do you think them more beautiful in the full complement of their nature-given colours? Tho public has had a tasto of what pictures made in colour can be, in RKO's introductory two-reeler, “La Cucaracha,” and now is going to be served to a full helping with “Becky Sharp,” the samo producing company's first full length, fullcol'our feature. From the black and white film t<> the full-colour film is tho greatest stride that the motion picture industry has taken since sound disrupted tho sereno calm of the silent days. It was said then that sound was only a fad, that it couldn’t possibly survive. But survive it did, and how it improved the quality and range of screen en-