Piccadilly

Jon Mirsalis on Piano Piccadilly, another of German director Dupont's British films (see Moulin Rouge, September 12), is a swift, old!shy;fashioned murder mystery with some clever twists enhanced by Dupont's very modern turns. In a studio-built London Chinatown, Anna May Wong subtly seethes as a woman caught 'twixt East and West in a murder plot. Also in the cast are Charles Laughton and Cyril Ritchard. The film was apparently appreciated from the start for what it was-a remarkable work of visual art. A 1929 Kinematograph review held that "it is first and last a cameraman's production. Werner Brandes has given us arresting camerawork which has never been equalled in a British feature. His cabaret scenes, his interiors and exteriors are often almost stereoscopic in effect, while the technical qualities, camera angles and devices are outstanding....He makes rather too much of the moving camera and traveling shots, but no one can deny his cleverness..."

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