“That she is an exceptionally clever actress one cannot
doubt. She may merely wander through a corner of the picture, but she’ll
register a hit every time.”
H.C. “A Chinese Puzzle”, Pictures and Picturegoer,
February, 19241
Two films made over a gap of eleven years which show how
our hero did indeed reinvent herself to keep working. Season curator Xin Peng
pointed out in her introduction for the second film that whilst featuring as a
teen in films staring Colleen Moore, Priscilla Dean and Alla Nazimova, she
enjoyed a longer career than any of them, transitioning into the talkies not
just in English but German, French, Chinese and “The King’s English” required
for her roles in British films especially when American became briefly
unpopular. Priscilla’s last film was Klondike in 1932 at the grand old
age of 36 and Colleen’s last was The Scarlet Letter (1934) when she was
35 and certainly in a position to do what ever she wanted, be it building a
dolls house or investing her money wisely.
Wong did not have the luxury of being able to retire
early and she was only just picking up steam in the early thirties when she
found fame and some fortune outside of the USA, breaking barriers in the UK and
Germany, learning stage craft and putting on shows in China and Australia. She
was willing to learn, not just languages but also the dancing always expected
of her and the diction required to conquer the microphone. And, what guts did
it take to step on stage in 1929, alongside Laurence Olivier to perform The
Circle of Chalk at the New Theatre in London?
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| Anna May Wong in Drifting |
Drifting (1923) with John Sweeney
As Yiman Wang points out2 Anna (AMW)
was only ever a freelancer with no substantial contracts in the manner of these
other stars and, of course, even at the time in Hollywood it was remarked upon
by the industry observers how she was never given star roles, the most she could
hope for was a secondary role she could and often did make her own. So it is
with Drifting directed by her “mentor” and sometime partner3,
Todd Browning, who was 43 to her 18… He had previously worked with her on
Outside the Law (1921) when she was underage and he married yet infatuated by
the “exotic” and – for him – “unusual” girl4.
In addition to being “the most murdered actress in
Hollywood”, Anna May Wong is arguably the greatest scene-stealer even when
given stereotypical roles and predictable narratives. This film followed on
from her first substantial role in The Toll of the Sea (1922) and was
intended as a vehicle for Universal’s “queen of the lot”, Priscilla Dean who
dominates the screen time but to limited effect in comparison with AMW, who,
looking even younger than her age, shifts through her dramatic progressions
with some force whilst Dean just looks angry most of the time which, given the
confusions of the script, is not surprising.
 |
| Matt Moore and Priscilla Dean |
The new white man is very guarded in his language – I don’t
know, maybe he is not the mine chief he claims to be…
The story? Well… there’s something about a government
agent Capt. Arthur Jarvis (Matt Moore) posing as an entrepreneur trying to
re-open a mine which is somehow cover for his attempts to shut down the opium
trade around Hang Chow, a village near the poppy fields run by the Jhanzi
outlaws. In Shanghai, opium dealer Cassie Cook (Priscilla Dean) isn’t making
much money out of the profession and as her best pal lies dope sick, she is
forced to team up with the rascally Jules Repin (Wallace Beery wearing a
devious beard) who persuades her they can get rich on the pickings in Hang Chow.
Here they team up with the scheming Dr Li (William V.
Mong in horrific yellow face) who whilst being no relation to Dr Fu Manchu, is
supposed to be the father of the fragrant Rose Li (Anna May Wong) no matter how
unlikely this is based on appearance. Meanwhile Rose has fallen for the noble
Captain Jarvis and spends hours watching him standing outside the mine talking
to his reliably Irish assistant, Murphy (Yale graduate J. Farrell MacDonald who
probably got his Gaelic nose busted playing college football…) about opening
the mine and how the two of them will defeat the massed ranks of the Jhanzi.
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| As with Mary Pickford, Anna May Wong could cry on cue... |
Cassie and Repin collude with Dr Li and the former goes
undercover as a novelist aiming to find out more about Jarvis’ two-man army
only to fall in love with him. This complicates things greatly as tensions
mount and the Jhanzi attack bringing out the best and worst of everyone: will
Cassie choose the money or the man and can Rose put love and life before her
duty to her evil father?
Her performances appropriate and splinter the
stereotypes, upending their objecthood with a critical and sardonic twist…5
It’s an enjoyably odd film not just because of Browning’s
uneven style but also a story that is, as The New York Tribune observed, “incoherent”
with a “disagreeable” lead character6 that made them root for
AMW’s Rose and they’re not the only ones. Anna May and J. Farrell are the most
sympathetic watch as well as the token lovable kid, Billy the son of civilising
missionaries, played by child actor Bruce Guerin who, when he grew up, became a
professional pianist accompanying Bob Hope and many others.
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| John Loder and Anna May Wong clinch... |
Java Head (1934)
AMW was 28 when she made this film and she first worked
with producer Basil Dean on the theatrical version of The Circle of Chalk
(1929) after he had been impressed with her performance in Piccadilly.
The play had mixed reviews with her appearance praised and her “Hollywood accent”
roundly condemned by such as the Bystander: “… it comes as a shock… to
listen to the harsh nasal twang emitted from a figure of ancient China…” and
the Graphic quipping “With Anna May Wong talking so American that Anna May Twang
might be an apter name” 7.
As she did tie and again, Anna treated this setback as a
learning experience and by the time of Dean’s Java Head she had learned the
King’s English with the same alacrity as she did German and other languages.
The result if her near perfect diction and characterful pronunciation that was
usually more associated with the Orient at this time. Directed by J. Walter
Ruben, with uncredited assistance from Thorold Dickinson and young Carol Reed, Java
Head tells a story that would not have been legally possible in the USA
with Anna May not only headlining but seen to kiss her Caucasian co-star John
Loder. This ground-breaking moment was acceptable in Great Britain as the
characters were married but even this is not especially evidence that, as Cole
Porter was to report in the same year, “anything goes…” as the film gives mixed
messages on racial tolerance and cultural-romantic compatibility.
The family meet...
The film is based in Bristol and the fortunes of two
merchant shipping families, the thrusting Ammidons and the failing Dunsacks led
by two former friends who had fallen out over twenty years earlier following a
tragedy at sea. Lovable Edmund Gwenn plays
Jeremy Ammidon who even nearing the age of retirement is still passionate about
his business and sailing ships whilst his land-lubber son, William (the great
Ralph Richards), feels they need to innovate with steam and the fast clipper
ships as well as the types of cargo they carry. Youngest son, the dashing
Captain Gerrit Ammidon (John Loder) is eager for adventure and has the familial
sea legs.
Gerrit sparks the old feud by falling for the Nettie
Vollar (Elizabeth Allan), the granddaughter of old man Barzil Dunsack (Herbert
Lomas) who in addition to hating the Ammidons, loves God a lot and in addition
has yet to forgive Nettie for being born out of wedlock, one of a number of
sins unmentioned but implied in a story partly based on implied opium trading
and addiction. Barzil’s faulty logic drives Gerrit to sea and he leaves to make
his fortune trading around the World.
A year later he returns and he has brought his new wife with him, Taou Yuen (Anna May Wong) much to the distress of his family, and of course lonely Nettie. She may well be a princess but this cuts no rice with the locals for whom she is “a heathen Chinese! From China!” who causes outrage when she attends church among all but the priest who hopes to discuss the teachings of Confucius with her. She also gets a warm welcome from Barzil’s son and Nettie’s uncle, Edward Dunsack (George Curzon) who is seemingly as addicted to China as he is to opium although again this is implied with Gerrit having brought a mysterious chest from Shanghai for him.
 |
| AMW generates MCE at the church |
As the family gradually accepts Taou Yuen she forms a
bond with Laurel, the youngest Ammidon child (an uncredited but spirited performer)
who dresses up in Chinese clothes and make-up entering the room just as Edward
is harassing her aunt and in his opium-addled state capable of anything. This
narrative is also capable of anything and pulls a 360 or two over the closing
sequences as Gerrit falls back in love with Nettie and starts to question his
marriage. So too does Taou Yuen in ways that I can’t really explain here… themes
very much of their time.
In the after-screening Q&A, season curator Xin Peng
pointed out that AMW was very keen to make the film and so the mixed outcome is
a surprise but perhaps balanced by the more positive aspects of the film and
the actor’s skill in presenting more than the script demands in terms of
authentic character and feeling. Once again she rises above and subverts the
surface narrative in ways we see more clearly now than most would in 1934.
The film was made in between AMW’s theatrical tours of Britain
which demonstrate her relentless ability to conquer new territories and
theatrical routes as she carved out an unique path across countries and cultural
boundaries. A truly remarkable woman.
1. As
quoted by Yiman Wang in “To Be an Actress: Labour and Performance in Anna
May Wong’s Cross-Media World”, University of California Press 2024
2. Also,
in “To Be an Actress…”
3. According
to David J. Skal and Elias Savada in The Secret World of Tod Browning,
Hollywood’s Master of the Macabre, Doubleday, 1995 as quoted in the BFI’s
screening notes.
4. Katie
Gee Salisbury in Anna May Wong: Not Your China Doll, Faber 2024. When
Browning’s wife discovered the liaison she left him.
5. In
“To Be an Actress…”
6. David
J. Skal and Elias Savada again.
7. Katie
Gee Salisbury in Anna May Wong
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