Piccadilly is one of the finest silent films ever made, and easily the best British one! The fact that it's not even listed in Silent Era's website top 100 films is a travesty, when instead it is filled with so much outmoded junk! It's far superior and sophisticated than say Hitchcock's 'The Lodger', which is ranked as Britain's top silent film. The Lodger is in fact a pretty juvenile fare, much like a Lon Chaney film, complete with cartoon characters, and an overused clichéd lynch mob chase! It would be some time before Hitchcock would mature into the master he would eventually become. In the meantime It's very hard for me to explain why Piccadilly is such pure film. First off, the The acting is first class and very modern, with perhaps Gilda Gray being the weakest link. Cyril Ritchard (who would eventually play Peter Pan's Captain Hook on stage and TV), Jameson Thomas, and King Hou Chang as Jim are all superbly cool! As for Anna May Wong, this is probably her finest hour! Her portrayal as a devilishly, devious minx again is first class, but she's so compelling and visually stunning in this film that's she's iconic! It's also a very cosmopolitan film, but more importantly it's a film about London. Here we get a dual glimpse of a modern jazz age night club, and an alter ego antediluvian world of Limehouse. I could witter on for hours about the merits and greatness of this film, but suffice to say I'll just stop here and say that vision, modernity and transcendence are the key to the success of this film, and leave you with the words of Sam Spade from the Maltese Falcon, that this film is indeed 'the stuff that dreams are made of'.
Review of Piccadilly
