
Spotlight: Anna May WongFilm 9 of 13
Großstadtschmetterling
Richard Eichberg, Eichberg-Film / BIP, 1929, Wong’s second German-British picture. She is Mah, billed as Princess Butterfly, framed in a Paris stunt-show death and taken in by a Russian painter, Kusmin. Alexander Granach is Coco, who keeps turning up. Shot Neubabelsberg plus Nice, Menton, Monte Carlo. Hans Kyser sued to have his name taken off Lantz’s adaptation. The German ending and the British cut disagree; Kinematograph Weekly (12 December 1929) said the English print had been chopped. In the German version she says she does not belong with them. Ninety-six minutes.
Paris, a stunt-show death, a Russian painter, and the Riviera. The German and British cuts disagree about the ending, and the German one lets her say she does not belong with them. Watch the dances. She knew exactly what the camera did to a body and used it.