Anna May Wong: Java Head/Tiger Bay Review

• 22nd Jun 2011

Anna May Wong (1905–1961) was an American-Chinese actress who appeared in many pictures on both sides of the pond. She often played very exotic roles such as opposite Douglas Fairbanks Sr in The Thief of Baghdad (1924) before appearing in a late classic British silent feature Piccadilly (1929). She went on to star in many British and Hollywood films including Shanghai Express (1932) alongside Marlene Dietrich, before being reduced to playing villainesses in a bunch of B movies when she went into semi-retirement in the early 1940s.

In perhaps the better known film of the two, Java Head, she plays the Chinese wife of an English sailor who’s returned home to Bristol after being at sea for many years in the early 1800s. Back at home she’s caught up in the feud between her husband’s brother, the brother’s fiancée and their parents. The shock of marrying a Chinese woman allows the rest of the cast to vent their racist spleen – including her husband who considers her praying to a Buddhist idol as “absolute savagery”. This is actually the best aspect of the film, hearing what was racially acceptable to a 30s audience.

In the other film, Tiger Bay (not to be confused with the 1959 film starring Hayley Mills), Michael is an Englishman abroad in South America who’s fascinated by the exotic sounding name of Tiger Bay, a port that’s home to an assortment of prostitutes, pimps, embezzlers, drunks and bars. Michael finds himself in a bar run by a Chinese woman, Liu Cheng (Wong) who both owns it and dances there. When a protection racketeer walks in he’s attracted to the English foster sister of Cheng leading to a fight breaking out. In the ensuing fight Michael steps in to protect the English gal and is stabbed in the struggle. Of course he ends up falling in love with her while recuperating and then finds himself in the midst of a turf war.

Both films are what were known as ‘quota quickie’ British features that were churned out in great numbers in the 30s. Tiger Bay is set in a different location to that originally intended. The original film was to be set in Limehouse in East London but wouldn’t have been passed by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification), so the location was moved to South America with its curious mix of races and nationalities: Chinese, Swedish sailors, German doctors, French police, Afro-Carribeans, Hispanics and Eastenders. Worth particular mention is Margaret Yarde as the bar manager who seems more like an East-end landlady (or Nursey from the BBC comedy ‘Blackadder 2’). Also shocking to a modern audience are the black singers lamenting the song ‘I’m Just an Old Old Nigger’!

In both films Wong carries herself with dignity and both are filled with some unintentionally hilarious British stereotypes adding to the entertainment. Released by Optimum they’re probably for a limited audience but they do follow on the back of a recent ‘quota quickies’ season at the NFT. But for a better appreciation of Wong, the films mentioned at the beginning of this review are better examples.

Chris Hick