Anna May Wong

silentscreen · Post by **silentscreen** » Sat Jul 18, 2009 4:59 pm

I'm becoming more interested in this intriguing star, especially because I've only seen her in The Thief of Bagdad and Toll of the Sea. She was very lovely and very courageous, intelligent, and a woman well ahead of her time. I've not had the opportunity to see the documentary Frosted Yellow Willows, but I've read a lot of excellent reviews. Does any one have any idea when this documentary will be put out on DVD? Bruce maybe? I know Picadilly is available for purchase, but which of her films survive and are readily available?

misspickford9 · Post by **misspickford9** » Sat Jul 18, 2009 6:04 pm

The sad thing with Anna May Wong is even her biggest parts are marginalized...like some would say "Thief of Bagdad" with Douglas Fairbanks but shes in it for all of 10 minutes (playing the evil chinee as usual). However she is wonderful, its just something that breaks my heart ya know?

Here's some of her DVDs...I havent seen a ton of them but I can give a little background:

*Lady From Chunking: One of her War movies, she was very anti Japanese as the Japanese were basically warring with the Chinese during WW2. Oddly she always had to play 'evil chinese' roles where she was the Asian plotting against our good American culture...when in fact she was a 3rd generation American who supported all our causes (that didnt make Asians second rate citizens...sadly a lot of them were. Read about it: http://www.forgetthetalkies.com/2008/12 ... wface.html)

*Bombs over Burma: another propaganda movie, this was towards the end of her film career

*Chu Chin Chow: One of her European early talkies

*A Study in Scarlet: Another European talkie this one based on I believe Sherlock Holmes. Its on the Internet Archive for free so I believe it (and some of these other talkies) are public domain

*Shanghai Express: With Marlene Dietrich. Anna was one of the highest billed stars but made less than every other leading role in this film...very sad

*The Thief of Bagdad: Her 10 mins with Doug. A beautiful film though and Anna is stunning in it!

**********

So those are the ones all on DVD or so Amazon tells me. I didnt know "Toll of the Sea" wasnt out. That was her first starring role in I believe 1922 playing a take on Madame Butterfly. It was the first shot in 2 strip color and miraculously still survives. The Silent Movie Theatre will be showing it in August.

What happened was during the 1920s her star was supposed to keep rising and it didnt because of the racist rules. So she went to Europe in the very late 20s I believe and stayed there until the early 30s when Hollywood begged her to come back...and then stuck in her more racist roles (she was in a Fu Manchu film too...cant remember the name but it had Sessue Hayakawa in their only onscreen pairing which makes no sense).

I want to say she went back to Europe but I dont think she made many films there. She came back here and lost out the role in "The Good Earth" to some white actress in yellowface. She refused to do any more films after that but did do a string of b roles where she had a little more freedom in the roles. One of her mid 1930s movies she actually got to kiss her white husband (for the first and only time) though sadly cant remember the name. She always said her epitaph would say "She died a 1,000 deaths" because in every film she played the wrong interracially mixing woman who had to die for her sins in the end.

I heard Frosted Yellow Willows is quite good and I know the creator spent 10 years researching it. Sadly its not out on DVD yet but she has been touring it all over the world. I think TCM showed it awhile ago. AVOID THE BIOGRAPHIES that are now out. I think there are 2-3 and I have not read them all, so anyone can set me straight. But the one by Graham Russel Hodges is almost like Hollywood Babylon without the malicious intent. Wrong facts, boring prose, and just plain wrong (several typos to boot and no it wasnt from McFarland!!!)

I hear a new biography is in the works...lets hope its a good one![/url]

silentscreen · Post by **silentscreen** » Sat Jul 18, 2009 9:34 pm

Thank you Hala! I looked her up on youtube, and there are a couple of very complimentary things about her on there. She couldn't seem to win for losing. She went back to China later on in her career, and they didn't like her there because of her "westernized ways." Her father tried to marry her off to another laundryman when she was young and she had already broken into movies. Of course that wouldn't suit. She liked older Caucasian men who couldn't marry her because of the prejudice at the time, though she did have an affair with an older British gentleman who wrote a song about her. Like with Clara, my heart did break for her, but she was always so dignified. Uh oh though, this is by the very man that we should steer clear of . Still it's interesting though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7famM6ABrg

Jim Reid · Post by **Jim Reid** » Sat Jul 18, 2009 9:42 pm

silentscreen wrote:I've not had the opportunity to see the documentary Frosted Yellow Willows, but I've read a lot of excellent reviews. Does any one have any idea when this documentary will be put out on DVD?

You might ask the woman that produced it. She just introduced herself in that part of the forum.

Post by **Mike Gebert** » Sat Jul 18, 2009 9:54 pm

I didnt know "Toll of the Sea" wasnt out

It's in Treasures From American Film Archives (the first one).

rollot24 · Post by **rollot24** » Sat Jul 18, 2009 10:00 pm

I can't say I was impressed with PICADILLY as a whole. It's very well shot and all of that, but the plot didn't do it for me. (It could have been the score I heard with it)
Having said that, Anna Mae Wong is fantastic in it and it's a big role for her, so it is worth checking out.

Lzcutter · Post by **Lzcutter** » Sat Jul 18, 2009 11:51 pm

I heard Frosted Yellow Willows is quite good and I know the creator spent 10 years researching it. Sadly its not out on DVD yet but she has been touring it all over the world. I think TCM showed it awhile ago.>>

TCM showed it last June (2008) as part of their "Race and Hollywood: Asian Images in Film" series.

Arndt · Post by **Arndt** » Sun Jul 19, 2009 1:58 am

Let's not forget that Anna also played Tiger Lily in Herbert Brenon's readily available PETER PAN.

silentscreen · Post by **silentscreen** » Sun Jul 19, 2009 4:48 am

Arndt wrote:Let's not forget that Anna also played Tiger Lily in Herbert Brenon's readily available PETER PAN.

Ah, I forgot about that one. I have that one too.

R Michael Pyle · Post by **R Michael Pyle** » Sun Jul 19, 2009 11:00 am

A large number of her films are available in pretty decent prints from Grace at Vintage Film Buff - that's

www.vintagefilmbuff.com

Titles include "King of Chinatown", "Daughter of the Dragon", "Daughter of Shanghai", "Limehouse Blues" (with George Raft), "Island of Lost Men", and "Dangerous to Know". I've got all these titles and I've been pleased watching what nobody else seems to want to front these days. I think it's a pity. The company also has the set as a six film box. By the way, she's uncredited but in "Outside the Law" (1920 with Lon Chaney) as a Chinese girl and that's pretty easy to find. She also appeared with him in "Mr. Wu". She's in the new Warner Brothers release of the 1927 film "Old San Francisco", too.

FrankFay · Post by **FrankFay** » Sun Jul 19, 2009 12:02 pm

rollot24 wrote:I can't say I was impressed with PICADILLY as a whole. It's very well shot and all of that, but the plot didn't do it for me. (It could have been the score I heard with it)
Having said that, Anna Mae Wong is fantastic in it and it's a big role for her, so it is worth checking out.

The score ruined it for me. Neil Brand has done some great stuff and he improvised a fine piano score to the film at Cinefest, but the one on the disc is just plain wrong. Worse yet it points up that while the film is great on a visual level it's sluggishly paced.

rollot24 · Post by **rollot24** » Sun Jul 19, 2009 12:53 pm

I saw it in a small theater with recorded music so I don't know if I heard the score on the disc or not. The music sounded like semi random recordings just played over and over. Very rarely did it match, or even come close, to what was on the screen.

Elaine Mae Woo · Post by **Elaine Mae Woo** » Sun Jul 19, 2009 2:19 pm

Anna May Wong on Film
ACMI

One of the great British films of the silent era, Piccadilly will be presented in a magnificently restored 35mm print with an original live score performed by The Disappointments, an instinctively cinematic 8-piece ensemble featuring Kiernan Box and Matthew Habben (Augie March, Blackeyed Susans).

Thursday 27 August - Sunday 30 August 2009

http://www.acmi.net.au/anna_may_wong_on_film.aspx

Derwiddian · Post by **Derwiddian** » Sun Jul 19, 2009 6:58 pm

She's also in OLD SAN FRANCISCO (1927), just out on DVD from Warner Archives. Small but unmistakable supporting role, and yes, she's evil.

Anna May Wong

Anna May Wong

Re: Anna May Wong