One of the last British silent films casts Gilda Gray and Anna May Wong as rivals for Jameson Thomas owner of the fabled Piccadilly nightclub located, where else but on Piccadilly Circus in London. Piccadilly is set in the heart of Jazz Age London which had everything the American Roaring Twenties had without the inconvenience of Prohibition.
They were a little more daring across the pond in depicting an interracial romance. Thomas as owner of the nightclub fires half of his club attraction of the dancing team of Mabel and Vic. Vic is played by Cyril Ritchard and he's got a roving eye which distresses Mabel who is Gilda Gray. It distresses Thomas even more who likes Gilda, sort of.
But when Gray as a solo act doesn't bring in the customers, Thomas looks for a replacement and finds it in the slinky, sexy, sultry Anna May Wong. Wong had previously worked in the scullery at the club and got fired when she did a little impromptu dance entertainment for the staff and a customer complained about a dirty plate. But Thomas and his hormones remembered Wong and they begin an association professional and later personal.
This interracial triangle ends real bad with one of them dead and the other on trial for murder.
Two prominent people who had great careers in film had small parts. You have to look quick to spot Ray Milland as one of the tuxedoed bits during the nightclub scene. But it's impossible to forget Charles Laughton in his screen debut. He's the diner who complains about the dirty plate he was given, spoiling Ritchard and Gray's dance and leading to Thomas's discovery of Wong. Even without Laughton's magnificent speaking voice to aid him, watch how he milks that simple scene for all its worth. No doubt this man was going to have a great career.
There is one other prominent role of significance, that of King Hou Chang as Wong's original boy friend who carries a torch bigger than the one Jameson Thomas has. His performance is quite poignant, I'd love to know what happened to him as Piccadilly is only one of two film credits he has.
There are some nice shots of London in the Stanley Baldwin-Ramsay MacDonald era incorporated into the film. Piccadilly holds up reasonably well with a plot quite a bit more mature than the era normally would countenance.
They were a little more daring across the pond in depicting an interracial romance. Thomas as owner of the nightclub fires half of his club attraction of the dancing team of Mabel and Vic. Vic is played by Cyril Ritchard and he's got a roving eye which distresses Mabel who is Gilda Gray. It distresses Thomas even more who likes Gilda, sort of.
But when Gray as a solo act doesn't bring in the customers, Thomas looks for a replacement and finds it in the slinky, sexy, sultry Anna May Wong. Wong had previously worked in the scullery at the club and got fired when she did a little impromptu dance entertainment for the staff and a customer complained about a dirty plate. But Thomas and his hormones remembered Wong and they begin an association professional and later personal.
This interracial triangle ends real bad with one of them dead and the other on trial for murder.
Two prominent people who had great careers in film had small parts. You have to look quick to spot Ray Milland as one of the tuxedoed bits during the nightclub scene. But it's impossible to forget Charles Laughton in his screen debut. He's the diner who complains about the dirty plate he was given, spoiling Ritchard and Gray's dance and leading to Thomas's discovery of Wong. Even without Laughton's magnificent speaking voice to aid him, watch how he milks that simple scene for all its worth. No doubt this man was going to have a great career.
There is one other prominent role of significance, that of King Hou Chang as Wong's original boy friend who carries a torch bigger than the one Jameson Thomas has. His performance is quite poignant, I'd love to know what happened to him as Piccadilly is only one of two film credits he has.
There are some nice shots of London in the Stanley Baldwin-Ramsay MacDonald era incorporated into the film. Piccadilly holds up reasonably well with a plot quite a bit more mature than the era normally would countenance.