Classic Film Club: Picadilly (1929)

Initially released in February, 1929, the film was not a big hit, chiefly because the public had suddenly become obsessed with the talkies. A soundtrack and a talking prologue was added, and Picadilly was re-released to better reviews. It has since become a cult classic.

Shot largely on location in London, Picadilly had an original screenplay by the prolific British author, Arnold Bennet and demonstrates the international nature of the silent film industry: it was directed by a German, E.A. Dupont, and starring Polish-born Gilda Gray, Asian-American Anna May Wong, and British actor Jameson Thomas.

But the film is perhaps most famous for featuring Anna May Wong, who had been the first Asian to star in a major Hollywood movie at the age of only 17 back in 1922 (The Toll of the Sea ). 

Despite this success, US law blocked Asians from entering America and marriage between Asians and Caucasians was illegal in America. Anna May Wong may have been in a successful movie, but studios remained content to cast Caucasians in yellow-face rather than employ Asian actors. 

Soon sick of being given only minor, stereotypical roles, Anna May Wong, aged only 23, moved to Europe and appeared in this film noir (before the term had been coined). Picadilly has been ranked with the best work of Anthony Asquith and Alfred Hitchcock. And  perhaps because it has a still “surprisingly direct approach to issues of race”,  the BFI lists it as “one of the true greats of British silent films.”