Vanity Fair (1932)
by Chester M. Franklin
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Actor: Anthony Bushell, Barbara Kent, Conway Tearle, Myrna Loy, Walter ByronDirector: Chester M. Franklin
Writer: William Thackeray
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-12-26
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Alpha Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of Vanity Fair (1932)
DVD Review: (2. 5 STARS) Myrna Loy Is Becky Sharp in This Modernised Version (Made in 1932): Just an Ordinary Melodrama
Summary: 2 Stars
Myrna Loy plays Becky Sharp in this first talkie version of `Vanity Fair' made in 1932. I don't know anything about its company Allied Pictures, one of the numerous obscure studios seen in the early days of in Hollywood, but obviously the adaptation was not made as social satire as William Makepeace Thackeray's source material. The film is a modernized version of this classic Victorian novel, of which long story about social climber Becky Sharp is heavily condensed to make a 74-minute melodrama.
Myrna Loy, who is later to be known as Nora Charles in "The Thin Man" two years after this film, is acceptable as Becky Sharp, unabashed adventuress who uses her beauty to allure the eligible bachelors around her who have money. Loy's Becky is, however, less cunning and shameless than the original book's, and the changed ending (in which primitive special makes-up is used) tries to show the inner, corrupt side of her nature, which is a bit too somber and downbeat.
Surely the filmmakers knew Myrna Loy was the greatest merit of the low-budget film, and it seems they were using her as much as they could. Look how Becky is often seen in her room wearing nightdress. Interestingly Myrna Loy's Becky is so tall that the contrast with Barbara Kent' Amelia is often conspicuous. Even some of the male leads are barely taller than her, but I am not sure this is intentional or not.
Unlike the recent adaptation starring Reese Witherspoon, you don't hear the sound of war, and consequently in this modern-day adaptation one of the characters (who gets killed in the original book) dies in a different way, which is abrupt and jaw-dropping. No episode about her throwing away Samuel Johnson dictionary, and that's OK, but the film could have been more entertaining with the defter handling of some more episodes like Sir Pitt Crawley and his marriage proposal.
Anyway you know this is no Victorian novel; this is a quickly made talkie in the early Hollywood. There are a few nice camera works, but the film is all in all a mediocre melodrama.
(My DVD is from Alpha Video, and the sound and visual quality is not clear and crisp probably due to the damages of the master tape. Sometimes you will notice several frames of film missing.)
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Description of Vanity Fair (1932)
Studio: Gotham (dba Alpha) Release Date: 04/06/2010Bestsellers in DVD
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