Becky Sharp (1935)

Whilst Napoleon is conquering Europe, "Becky" (Miriam Hopkins) is doing a bit of that for herself. Determined to improve on her lot as the daughter of a family of travelling performers, she uses each gullible man she meets as a stepping stone to the next. She doesn't care about any of the collateral baggage she leaves behind - including her soldier husband "Crawley" (Alan Mowbray) but maybe she finally meets her match in the wealthy "Marquis of Steyn" (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) who has seen her game playing before, and - well he's just a lot better at it than she. It's also, just as she sees the epitome of her aspirations within her grasp, that maybe, just maybe, she realises that she does have some room for affection in her life - but is it all too late for that? The film is usually only noted for it's feats of colour photography but I think that's a little unfair on both Hopkins and Sir Cedric. The former plays the ambitious and venal creature quite compellingly - indeed, she creates quite a thoroughly detestable character whilst the latter plays the shrewd and dastardly peer with some skill that also gets under your fingernails, too. The plot itself is well trammelled and the story isn't new either, but a solid ensemble of the likes of Nigel Bruce, Frances Dee and Billy Burke keep it moving noisily along for eighty minutes.