AllMovie

Filmmaker Hugo Ballin) pulled out all the stops on this adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel of the Napoleonic era. He surrounded his wife, Mabel Ballin, who plays Becky Sharp, with sumptuous period sets and a fine cast. Ballin stays close to the novel, detailing the scheming Becky's tumultuous rise to the top of society circles and back down again. Her ambitions begin with Joseph Sedley (Willard Louis), the brother of her wealthy school friend, Amelia (Eleanor Boardman). When he doesn't respond to her overtures, she becomes governess for the children of Sir Pitt Crawley (Robert Mack) and secretly weds Captain Rawdon Crawley (George Walsh). Amelia meanwhile, has married her childhood sweetheart, George Osborne (Harrison Ford). Since her own marriage has not been a financial success, Becky decides to go for Amelia's husband. Osborne dies in battle and Becky turns her attentions to the rich Marquis of Steyne (Hobart Bosworth). Her husband catcher her with the Marquis and leaves her. After helping bring Amelia together with Captain Dobbin (Earle Foxe), Becky winds up alone, spending her life doing good works. Actually, some of the casting here was too good -- although this was only Eleanor Boardman's fourth film, she got rave notices as Amelia, and the New York Times asserted that she should have played Becky instead of Mabel Ballin.