Java Head

This is a fairly ordinary tale of a romantic triangle, elevated to an A picture by the presence of Anna May Wong, a gifted and tragic American-Chinese actress of the 1930s.

The plot involves rivalry between seafaring trader families and internal squabbles between brothers, one who wants to "modernise" the firm with steamships and opium smuggling, and another who is decent, in love with a local girl yet marries a Manchu princess ... yup, Anna May.

I kind of get the impression that the script for this film was re-jigged somewhat when the producers knew they had Ms Wong. Consequently, she seems to have wandered in from another film. The brief flash of pre-code nudity seems strangely out of place, but it's interesting how much more liberal the movies of the early 1930s can be.

In this picture, AMW's regal bearing and striking looks dominate the screen whenever she's on. Though it's not her best picture by a country mile (I reserve that for DANGEROUS TO KNOW), any Ms Wong is well worth a look.

The mid thirties was a period when dramas based on nineteenth Can try novels were very popular.

Basil Dean was head of production at Ealing Studios,and very much favoured this type of drama. Java Head in itself is rather a routine drama. What makes it memorable is the presence of the marvellous Anna May Wong.

In America due to the abominable racism then prevalent in America she would not have been able to take this role as the American code forbade interracial sex N There's a goOd cast including Ralph Richardson,that perennial favourite Edmund Gwenn,and wooden as ever,John Loder. So well worth watching.

Not at all cinematic, and rather stiffly dramatic, but a fascinating look at times past and changing mores. There's plenty of ripe, humorous seafaring dialogue, some hilarious comic cutaways about sea life and hypocritical moralism, and plenty of unverbalized, precode references to opium addiction and other vices. Anna May Wong has one of her finest roles, showing more dignity in her character than the hypocritical churchgoers, and Elizabeth Allan is a romantic ideal as always.

Anna Mae Wong gets one of the final roles worthy of her in this adaptation of Joseph Hergesheimer's novel which manages to sail the high seas without ever leaving Ealing and constitutes the fifth and final of five films she made in Britain.

Although Miss Mae Wong as "a heathen Chinese" married to an Englishman introduced to a horrified Nineteenth century Britain doesn't even appear until nearly halfway through the film she gets top billing, making an unlikely team with English rose Elizabeth Allan, their names appear before Edmond Gwenn and John Loder who come in at third and fourth with Ralph Richardson coming up at the rear at fifth in the cast list.

This film is made great by the presence of Anna May Wong and some B actors of the period. She holds up this film from beginning to end with a bravado performance (certainly one worthy of a nomination). But the 1930s was a different world. Chinese actresses didnt get nominations for great performances; they didnt even get roles custom-made for Chinese actresses, like the lead in The Good Earth, which would have been even better with Wong in the lead. Even though Louise Rainer won the Oscar that year, and turned in a wonderful performance, Wong would have been perfect for the role of a lifetime. This film is your usual triangle, but with a few twists. Wong must face all the prejudices of Western society that considered her a savage, when it was actually the other way around. The film is also a tragedy, as well as a soap, but I will not reveal why. A top Wong performance.