Comments on Movietone News: Piccadilly (1929): Pabst out-Pabsted... and a new ...

Yes do - it really is exceptional.

2009-08-29T17:07:21.911+01:00

Yes do - it really is exceptional.

The more I hear (and see!) of this film, the more ...

2009-08-28T16:34:13.038+01:00

The more I hear (and see!) of this film, the more I must get it. Gorgeous.

Jen from Silent Stanzas ^_^

Great post! Entertaining as usual. Funny, I found ...

2009-08-05T22:28:43.025+01:00

Great post! Entertaining as usual.
Funny, I found this post of your while googling on information and photos of Anna May Wong! I just published a post on her, check it out! And to answer your thought about Anna May not being as celebrated as Brooks' Lulu, I guess the answer lies in the contemporary time. Anna May Wong wasn't Caucasian, something that stood in the way of her career all through her life. But she WAS celebrated for her performance (read the Variety comment: "From the moment Miss Wong dances in the kitchen's rear, she steals 'Piccadilly' from Miss Gray."), but she seemed more forgotten by the later public that Lulu was. Let's change that.

...or should we say that Michey Rooney looks like ...

2009-07-29T13:57:17.548+01:00

...or should we say that Michey Rooney looks like King Hou Chang? ;D

It's fascinating to compare their very similar features, one serving a perpetual, nearly plastic Broadway smile, the other a permanently settled" harumph": it speaks tons of Jim's situation as a foreigner, much as does Shosho's ambition.

This makes all the more extraordinary the scene you mention: Jim, for once, smiles dreamily, and for this very bit one wishes he wouldn't end like he does in the movie.

Absolutely. Brilliant opening titles, and great en...

2009-07-28T18:45:32.089+01:00

Absolutely. Brilliant opening titles, and great ending too, with the guy buying the paper, seeing the headline, and then saying he's won money on a horse and the men go by with the 'Life Goes On' adverts.
I guess Charles has what is called a 'featured cameo'. Although the part is small it is important, as you say, and also very prominently billed in the opening credits.
It just shows what an amazing actor the man was: for as long as he's on he steals the film, yet all he's doing is complaining about a plate... even this he does in absolutely his own way, imaginative acting and absolutely 'real' in its effect.

That guy does look like Mickey Rooney!
But again as you say, another really good performance. Very good also when she's reading her first review and he comes in with her breakfast on a tray, and she puts the newspaper over his head.

This film makes me think on how foreign contributi...

2009-07-28T16:03:51.745+01:00

This film makes me think on how foreign contributions are vital to any "national" cinematography. In the case of British movies, there are names intimately associated with them which are from foreign origins, take for instance, the Kordas, Emeric Pressburger or Anton Walbrook.

And indeed E.A. Dupondt. I got the DVD (for reasons you'll easily guess) and was awed: as you say, Anna May Wong seduces the viewer from the moment we see her dancing, with broken stockings, in the club's scullery. You're right that she should be better known, there's screen power there to equal Brooks, Garbo or Dietrich.

My favourite character in the film, though, is Wong's chinese friend: he looks like a scowling, eastern version of Mickey Rooney. The moment when he sourly poses with Wong's stage dress is priceless.

I also liked the imaginative way the film's credits are presented, the mobile, dancing camera (and I really mean "dancing", not histerically shaky as in modern films).

Of course, I love Laughton's Groszian (Callow dixit) cameo, and you can nearly hear his French accent. Incidentally, although short, his role is relevant to the film, as his complaint is the one that leads the club's propietor (and teh public, to discover the marvels hidden in the scullery.

As an anecdote, Ray Milland was among the mass of tailcoat-donning patrons of the club (not that I noticed him, but he mentions the fact in his autobiography, so I'll believe him)