kidboots
I don't know who the clothing designer was but Anna May Wong looked simply fabulous as the sinuous Oriental dancer, Shosho. It was ironic that Anna had to travel to England to be given a flesh and blood role that allowed her to give an in-depth characterization. Of course after this it was back to America where, apart from the title role in "Daughter of the Dragon", it was back to stereo typical Oriental temptress roles - and she even had to compete with Myrna Loy for a time. She was literally given the role of a lifetime in this superb film. Art direction by Alfred Junge has a very decadent 20s Art Nouveau look and the photography by Werner Brandes captures the high society of London's West End ("This Year of Grace" is playing) to the seedy cabaret life of "my Piccadilly" as Valentine says. Director E.A. Dupont can point to this as a career highlight in a mostly unsatisfactory career. Eventually ending up in Hollywood, the director of the magnificent "Varietie" and "Atlantic" was given directorial assignments of the calibre of "Ladies Must Love" and even "Hell's Kitchen" featuring the Dead End Kids. Initially going to Hollywood in 1927 after his triumph with "Varietie", he left in disappointment after being given a sentimental melodrama to direct. He went to England and set up his own distribution company - World Wide Pictures - "Photoplays Made Where the Story's Laid" and the first movie made was "Moulin Rouge". Even though it was filmed mostly at Elstree, it was a great success and for his next movie Dupont turned to an actual locale in London with Piccadilly. The film was based on a novel by Arnold Bennett and the author also supplied his own scenario.Vic and Mabel (Cyril Richard and Gilda Gray), the top dance act, are the talk of the town - so say the patrons of the Piccadilly Club. And what a club, with an inhouse orchestra of the DeBroy Somers Band (they were one of Britain's premier dance bands of the 20s, it was a pity some of their music couldn't have been incorporated into the soundtrack instead of the rather cheesy score). With a curved balcony and arched staircase overlooking a magnificent ballroom, the setting is super. Valentine Wilmot (Jameson Thomas) is the jaded manager (is there any other kind)??? - as one diner says he started the club and he made it!!!An incident involving a dirty plate (Charles Laughton has a cameo as a disgruntled customer) leads Valentine to the scullery where he discovers Shosho (Wong). Her tantalizing dancing on the tabletop distracts the dishwashers from their work so when Victor departs for America, hoping to leave the club in the lurch, Valentine brings in Shosho as his new dancing star. Mabel (who has a secret yen for Valentine) is horrified - "She can't dance, they'll laugh at her - and you!!" Of course Shosho is a sensation, her shimmering dance leaves the audience spellbound and Mabel distraught as she knows she will no longer be the toast of London!!!Valentine now begins an affair with Shosho - her "intended", Jim, is unhappy, he accidentally sees the mascot he gave her, a tiny Buddha, in Valentine's office - she said she lost it, but someone else is not quite pleased about it either!!! The sensational ending is soon yesterday's news as an excited tipster in more concerned with his race winnings than the sordid headlines and as the new variety show says "Life Goes On"!!!Jameson Thomas was dissatisfied with his career in British movies so went to Hollywood where he was continually cast as a villain or lounge lizard ("Extravagance", "It Happened One Night"). Gilda Gray had a patchy career - her private life was far more exciting but all her movies gave her a chance to dance the shimmy - the dance she made famous!!!
Terrell-4
There are three reasons to watch Piccadilly, a 1929 British silent backstage melodrama. The performance of Anna May Wong is primary. She's a knockout as Shosho, a Chinese dishwasher in a posh London nightclub who gets a chance to show how she can dance, and then becomes a star. Wong is so charismatic, so fine a performer and so confident an actress, that you might wonder whatever happened to her. But there's more to Piccadilly than Wong. Perhaps not too much, but enough to enjoy the passing parade of dated movie choreography and the moody atmosphere of transplanted German expressionism. The downside is the story...one of those behind-the-scenes melodramas of entertainers and impresarios, stilted and dated, filled with tremulous glances, suspicious glares, clutched hankies and faces turned away. Valentine Wilmot (Jameson Thomas) owns the Piccadilly Club, the poshest of the posh, where the sophisticates of London crème de la crème, dressed to the nines, come to dance and dine, and to watch Mabel & Vic, "London's Greatest Dance Attraction." Wilmot is a tough, smooth, perfectionist. He made the Piccadilly what it is. He discovered Mabel Greenfield (Gilda Gray) and made stars out of her and her dance partner, Vic Smiles (Cyril Ritchard). While he appreciates Mabel's talents, his nightclub comes first. Mabel really loves the guy and Vic really loves Mabel. ("My dear, I'm simply mad about you!") One night a diner is given a dirty plate. He makes a scene; Wilmot is furious and storms into the kitchen and scullery. There he sees Shosho, dancing on a table for the other workers when she should have been washing dishes. He fires her. Then he has second thoughts. Shosho has something that the impresario in Wilmot tells him might make a star attraction...exotic, sensuous, unusual. It's not long before Shosho is a smash. By this time Vic has left, Shosho finds it no trouble at all to delightfully snare Wilmot (in probably the best scene in the movie) and Mabel is jealous. Into this hot stew of fervid emotions, a shot rings out, scandal ensues, a trial is held...justice, both criminal and moral, is served up. And in that great tradition of melodramatic showbiz...life goes on with a million more stories undoubtedly waiting to be told. The storyline is a slog. Still, the big dance number with Mabel & Vic at the start of the movie is a delight of dated style. Mabel and Vic each come prancing down the two grand staircases that bracket the Piccadilly's elegant dance floor, he in tails, she in a swirling gown, and off they go. It's one of those tricky, ricky-ticky fast numbers where elbows and feet fly about, complete with winking glances of mischievous fun. It goes on and on, with Vic and Mabel each having a chance to shine. Mabel flirts and shows her legs. Vic with slicked back hair seductively grins with the silent nasal charm of Jack Buchanan or Noël Coward. It's the kind of well-meaning, "classy" dance that Fred Astaire drove a stake through four years later in Flying Down to Rio. However, watch this number with affection. It does no harm and at one time held the paying movie customers in thrall. The look of the film is all moody atmosphere. This isn't enough to salvage the movie by itself, but it gives Piccadilly a lot of visual class. And then there's Anna May Wong, an actress of talent, style and screen presence. She's featured in the billing but she dominates the movie. She comes straight through the camera to us, sexy and innocent, calculating and surprised, whose dancing captures us and whose acting tells us here is a woman to pay attention to. As an actress of Chinese descent, she hadn't a chance in Hollywood except as a stereotype. In the Twenties she finally left for Europe and had a few star roles in Germany and England, but then returned to Hollywood with a contract that seemed to assure her of star Hollywood roles. The contract didn't say major star roles with star male leads. She lost the leads in The Good Earth and Dragon Seed because producers said she looked too Chinese. She had to watch as Luise Rainer and Katherine Hepburn starred, both gussied up in some of the oddest "Chinese" eyelids and makeup Hollywood ever devised. Anna May Wong wound up playing characters with names like Su Lin, Lin Ying, Lan Ying and, in an explosion of Hollywood creativity, Lan Ying Lin. (I'm not kidding: Impact, Bombs Over Burma, Dangerous to Know and Daughter of Shanghai.) Then there was Ling Moy, Kim Ling, A-hsing, Lois Ling and, of course, Chinese Woman. (Daughter of the Dragon, Island of Lost Men, The Barbara Stanwyck Show, Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery and Producers' Showcase) So put Piccadilly in the DVD player, probably with your finger on the fast-forward button, to watch Mabel & Vic in their big number and, most of all, to watch a woman who could have been a great star if it hadn't been for Hollywood. The DVD restoration looks much better than one might expect. However, you'll probably best enjoy the screen music, written for the restoration, if you also enjoy the incessant chatter of those golf announcers who can't keep their mouths shut. The music never stops. This is one DVD where it pays to watch the extras before you watch the movie. The audio is not good on "Dangerous to Know: The Life and Legacy of Anna May Wong," but the feature is informative.
caprior
As a way of telling a story, Piccadilly is an eye-opener. E.A. Dupont's camera, lighting, and tracking shots seem brand new for their time. Every scene thoughtfully composed, using foreground furniture or beaded curtains or half-shadow light to discreetly dramatize the "naughtiness" of its theme. The film is silent (with a haunting, jazzy score) made in 1929, 2 years after the birth of sound, but the restoration of this film is beautifully and carefully rendered. The acting, by "silent" standards, is subtly displayed and truthfully acted. Anna Mae Wong is certainly sexy. There is a kissing scene which occurs underneath a newspaper that leaves much to the imagination.For me it was a wonderful discovery (on TCM).
