Complete credited cast: | |||
Gilda Gray | ... | Mabel Greenfield | |
Anna May Wong | ... | Shosho | |
Jameson Thomas | ... | Valentine Wilmot | |
Cyril Ritchard | ... | Victor Smiles (as Cyrill Ritchard) | |
King Hou Chang | ... | Jim (as King Ho Chang) | |
Hannah Jones | ... | Bessie | |
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Gordon Begg | ... | Coroner |
Harry Terry | ... | Publican | |
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Debroy Somers and His Band | ... | Band at the Piccadilly Club |
The star attraction of the Piccadilly Club is the dancing team of Mabel and Vic. Victor is infatuated with Mabel, but she rejects his advances, since she is in love with Valentine Wilmot, the club's owner. One night, as Mabel and Vic perform their act, there is a disruption caused by a customer who is unhappy about a dirty plate. When Wilmot goes back to the kitchen to investigate, he finds several employees in the scullery watching Shosho, one of the dishwashers, dancing on a table. That night, Wilmot fires both Shosho and Victor. But the club's sagging fortunes soon lead him to re-evaluate Shosho's talent. Written by Snow Leopard
PICCADILLY (1929), a fun-to-watch account of a sexual triangle which unfolds, to fatal effect, in a London nightclub - all pencil thin moustaches, louche owners and jazz dancing. As directed by Dupont it is a film which showcases its lurid (if ultimately unconvincing) storyline very well and entertainingly enough, even if one can imagine a Von Sternberg version using the same elements, which included orientalism in the form of Anna May Wong as an exotic temptress, much more effectively. Dupont's career went off the boil at the end of the silent era, previously however he had notable successes with this sort of thriller-esquire showbiz material as VARIETE. PICCADILLY also features a notable cameo from Charles Laughton as a drunk man with a dirty plate.