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A film noir before the term was in use, Piccadilly (d. E.A. Dupont, 1929) is
one of the true greats of British silent films, on a par with the best work of
Anthony Asquith or Alfred Hitchcock in the period.
In essence a simple tale of ambition, desire and jealousy, what marks
Piccadilly out is the astonishing confidence of its direction. Dupont was a
recent arrival from Germany, who had made just one previous film in Britain, the
elegant Moulin Rouge (1928), and Piccadilly is notable for qualities not
typically associated with British silent films: opulence, passion and a
surprisingly direct approach to issues of race - one remarkable scene has a
white woman expelled from a bar for dancing with a black man, mirroring the
social taboo of the film's central relationship. Dupont was subsequently
associated with the shortlived vogue for multi-language films, and Piccadilly
has a similarly international bent - its lead actresses are Chinese-American and
Polish-American; its leading men are British and Chinese; its cinematographer and designer are, like its director, German.
For all its style and grace, the film's strongest suit is Chinese-American
actress Anna May Wong. Wong appeared in four other British films, and is best
known today as support to Marlene Dietrich in Shanghai Express (US, d. Josef von
Sternberg, 1932), but she was arguably never better used than here.
As Shosho, the scullery maid who becomes a dance sensation and an object of
desire for impresario Valentine (Jameson Thomas), she displays the cold ambition
and manipulative sexuality of the classic femme fatale, while revealing - just
occasionally - the vulnerability of a young girl. Shosho's exoticism gives her
an alarming sexual power over the men who watch her dance - "I danced once
before in Limehouse but there was trouble, men, knives...", she tells the
transfixed Valentine, in a title which prefigures the narrative's tragic end. To
Wong's frustration, Shosho and Valentine's kiss was cut to appease the US
censor.
With her slight, boyish figure, Wong is a modernist icon in the mode of
Louise Brooks, whose hairstyle she emulates. Naturally, Piccadilly's publicity
made much of Wong's exotic beauty: one contemporary poster - for the film's
Austrian release - carries an illustration of the star dancing topless. It would
have been unthinkable to portray a white actress in this way and, needless to
say, no such image appears in the film.
Mark Duguid *This film is available on BFI DVD.
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1. Mabel and Shosho (4:30)
