Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Actress 1935

The Contenders:

Katharine Hepburn: Alice Adams
Miriam Hopkins: Becky Sharp
Bette Davis: Dangerous (winner)
Merle Oberon: The Dark Angel
Elisabeth Bergner: Escape Me Never
Claudette Colbert: Private Worlds

Technicolor Yawn

Film: Becky Sharp
Format: DVD from NetFlix on rockin’ flatscreen.

Somebody had to be first. Becky Sharp was the first feature film made with the three-strip Technicolor process. When we look at film firsts and film history, this is the one that gets remembered for pioneering this particular process. Why am I going on and on about this? Because that fact represents the only noteworthy thing about Becky Sharp, a film that runs a touch over 80 minutes and feels like double that length.

Where to start? We begin in the early 19th century with Becky (Miriam Hopkins, whose nomination is the reason I watched this) who is graduating from school. Her classmate Amelia Sedley (Frances Dee) is graduating as well, and a great deal is made over this. Amelia, you see, is from money and nobility. Becky, on the other hand, is poor and an orphan and was more or less a charity case for the school. This leads to a great deal of hurt feelings on Becky’s part, who is intensely jealous of the wealth and privilege of everyone around her and simultaneously bitter and sarcastic.