Piccadilly

After hit performances with Sunrise, It, and Battleship Potemkin, the Coolidge Corner Theatre is proud to welcome back the Berklee College of Music Professor Sheldon Mirowitz and his students from the Department of Film Scoring for a special presentation of their original new score for the stunningly restored 1929 silent film classic Piccadilly.

A tale of rivalry, betrayal, and murder, director E.A. Dupont’s Piccadilly has been called “a film noir before the term was in use” and “one of the true greats of British silent film.”  When Valentine Wilmot (Jameson Thomas), the suave manager of posh London nightclub Piccadilly Circus fires his star dancer, the business falls into decline.  After seeing club scullery maid Shosho (Chinese-American screen goddess Anna May Wong), entertaining her fellow kitchen workers with a sensuous dance, Wilmot, in desperation, hires her to perform.  She becomes an instant sensation, her rise to celebrity bringing her admirers and enemies.  When Shosho becomes the object of Wilmot’s erotic obsession, both her boyfriend, Jim (King Hou Chang), and Wilmot’s former lover and dancer, Mabel (Ziegfeld Follies star Gilda Gray), become bitterly jealous, culminating in tragedy.

A stylish evocation of sultry jazz-age London, Piccadilly features dazzling cinematography by Werner Brandes and a revelatory performance by the gorgeous Wong. Charles Laughton, in his first feature film, has a cameo as a greedy nightclub diner, and Ray Milland appears as a nightclub extra.

Don't miss this one-night-only opportunity to experience this silent-film gem on our giant silver screen accompanied by a live orchestral performance conducted by Berklee’s talented composers.