Piccadilly

PICCADILLY (1929) is considered to be one of the pinnacles of British silent cinema and stars Anna May Wong in the role of a former scullery maid whose unexpected rise to stardom in a fashionable London nightclub has fatal consequences.

London at the tail end of the 1920s is – then as now - a metropolis full of contrasts with abject poverty in areas like the East End and serious wealth in the West End. It’s in the buzzing and neon-lit stretch of Piccadilly where the story begins, or to be more precise in a swank nightclub (modelled on the famous Café de Paris) where lavish shows are part of the nightly spectacle. Current stars Victor Smiles (Cyrill Ritchard) and Mabel Greenfield (Ziegfeld Follies star Gilda Gray) might be successful dancing partners but privately Mabel is romantically involved with the club’s suave owner Valentine Wilmot (Jameson Thomas). Night after night punters flock to the club to enjoy a slice of jazz age London and to delight in Mabel and Vic’s extravagant dancing routines until one day a disgruntled diner (Charles Laughton in an early appearance) rudely interrupts Mabel’s solo performance by loudly complaining about a dirty plate. When club owner Wilmot steps in he is informed by the waiter that the restaurant is the restaurant and the kitchen is the kitchen, thus the dirty plate has nothing to do with him. When Wilmot then enters the kitchen he is informed by the cook that the kitchen is the kitchen and the scullery is the scullery and thus the dirty plate has nothing to do with him either. Finally, upon entering the scullery, Wilmot spots Chinese scullery maid Shosho (Anna May Wong) dancing on the table and distracting the other dishwashers from their duty – as a result Wilmot fires the girl on the spot.

Meanwhile, Vic approaches Mabel in her dressing room with a proposition: he plans to go to Hollywood and make it big there and he would like Mabel to come along with him – not just as his professional dancing partner but as the new leading lady in his life. Although flattered, Mabel politely declines due to her romantic involvement with Wilmot. When he summons Vic to come and see him in his office he quits before Wilmot can fire him. Unfortunately for the club, business begins to decline soon after when it emerges that punters had come to see Vic rather than Mabel… Desperate for a solution, Wilmot remembers Shosho’s table dance routine back in the scullery and orders a member of staff to fetch the girl and reinstall her, only this time round as the club’s latest and ‘exotic sensation’. Shosho accepts, much to the chagrin of her Chinese wannabe boyfriend Jim (King Ho Chang) and of course Mabel who feels immeditaley threatened by her new ‘rival’. And she has every reason to be for Shosho – sporting an elaborate and costly Chinese costume – becomes indeed the toast of the town. What’s more, Shosho and Wilmot begin a passionate romance. When, after a late performance, he drives her back to her ramshackle abode in Limehouse (then primarily London’s Chinese quarter) she gives him her key… marking the first of several intimate and secret meetings between them. Due to her increasing jealousy, Mabel decides to follow them one night and enters the building after Wilmot has left. During a confrontation between the two women Mabel remarks that Wilmot is too old for someone like Shosho who in turns shoots back that it is in fact Mabel who is too old for Wilmot and that she has no intention of breaking up the romance. Bitter and angry, Mabel then opens her handbag which contains a revolver… The following day, Shosho’s murder makes headline news all over London and naturally all fingers initially point towards Wilmot. During the trial, however, the Judge concludes that some of the statements just don’t add up. For example, Jim insists that Wilmot was Shosho’s only visitor that fateful night while Mabel claims that she can remember nothing after first fainting in Shosho’s room before walking along the nightly streets of Limehouse in a haze… And although the murder weapon belongs indeed to Wilmot the Judge is pretty certain that the devastated club owner cannot be the murderer…

This gripping and sumptuous melodrama melds showbiz extravaganza with sexual and racial tension and by so doing offers a slice of London during its golden jazz age – portraying the good, the decadent as well as the ugly side of the capital.
Under the skilful direction of German émigré E. A. Dupont and German cinematographer Werner Brandes (who had already worked with Dupont on the 1928 music hall drama MOULIN ROUGE) the film not only evokes a long lost London but brought out highly impressive performances from all the leading players, most notably of course Anna May Wong.

Newly restored, tinted and available on Blu-ray, PICCADILLY features Neil Brand’s jazz-influenced score and various bonus material including a 5-mins prologue to the film, the newly recorded video essay ‘Return to Piccadilly’ by the BFI’s very own silent film expert Bryony Dixon, the insightful 53 mins video biography ‘Talk of the Town’ by Jasper Sharp, the 10 mins archive short ‘Cosmopolitan London’ from 1924 and more.