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.
10 Reviews
"Any News of the Nautilus?"
richardchatten9 February 2023
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.
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.
Anna May Wing shines
malcolmgsw27 March 2023
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.
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.
Never the Twain Shall Meet
JamesHitchcock17 January 2024
Warning: Spoilers
I once came across a set of old cigarette cards from the 1930s featuring "Famous Movie Stars". Every one of the stars featured on these cards was white, with one exception- Anna May Wong. She was the only major Chinese-American, and indeed the only major non-Caucasian, star in Hollywood at this time, and even she often found that her career in America was being held back by racist attitudes. The Production Code of 1934 notoriously forbade depictions of "miscegenation", but even during the pre-Code era storylines about mixed-race relationships were not popular. It is therefore unsurprising that Anna May chose to spend parts of her career in Britain, where attitudes on this point tended to be more liberal.
"Java Head" is one of her British films which could not have been made in America. It is a rare example of a British film which is based upon a novel by an American writer- in this case Joseph Hergesheimer- but transfers the action to Britain. The film-makers kept , however, his original character names, which explains why some of them do not sound typically British. An earlier silent version was made in 1923
Despite the title, the action takes place not in Java but in Bristol during the 1840s. "Java Head" is the name of the home of the wealthy Ammidon family. Their wealth derives from their ownership of a shipping line founded by the patriarch of the family, Captain Jeremy, and now managed by his elder son William. His younger son, Gerrit, is the captain of one of the company's ships. Gerrit is in love with a local girl, Nettie Vollar, but their romance is doomed by a long-standing feud between their two families.
Gerrit returns from a long voyage with a beautiful Chinese bride, Taou Yuen, something which shocks both his family and the local townspeople who regard the Chinese as "heathens". The marriage is not an altogether happy one, and Gerrit's old feelings for Nettie begin to revive. Another theme is the rivalry between Gerrit and William; Gerrit despises his brother as a landlubber who has never been to sea, whereas William feels that Gerrit does not understand business affairs. Matters come to a head when William wants to replace the firm's ageing sailing ships with modern clippers and steamships and the it is revealed that he has been using company ships to import opium illegally into China.
The film was doubtless intended to have an anti-racist theme, but it has been described as sending out mixed messages. It is Anna May as Taou Yuen who dominates the film, and for most of the action she impresses us with her dignity in the face of prejudice from the people of Bristol, including some of her husband's family, and with her attempts to fit into the foreign culture in which she finds herself. Towards the end of the film, however, as Gerrit's love for Nettie reasserts itself, she tends to slip into the racist caricature of the Oriental woman as aggressive, domineering "dragon lady". Her attempts to fit in with English culture are shown to have failed, and the ending implies a message of "East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet".
An interesting figure is Nettie's uncle, Edward Dunsack, who has spent a lot of time in the Far East and who has adopted an ideology of what George Orwell would later called "transferred nationalism". He is an uncritical admirer of China, whose culture he sees as greatly superior to that of the West. Edward's sinophilia, however, does not impress anyone- not even Taou Yuen, who sees it as based upon a simplistic misunderstanding of her country's culture and suspects him of having adopted it simply to impress her. (Edward is clearly sexually attracted to Taou Yuen and makes little attempt to hide his attraction).
It is now ninety years since the film was made- the same period of time separating the 1930s from the events depicted- and from a twenty-first century viewpoint it looks like a curiosity from a long-vanished era. Yet it is still of interest for the modern viewer, partly because it gives us a chance to see one of Hollywood's most charismatic stars in action and partly because it gives us an insight in how the British cinema dealt with racial issues all those years ago. 6/10.
"Java Head" is one of her British films which could not have been made in America. It is a rare example of a British film which is based upon a novel by an American writer- in this case Joseph Hergesheimer- but transfers the action to Britain. The film-makers kept , however, his original character names, which explains why some of them do not sound typically British. An earlier silent version was made in 1923
Despite the title, the action takes place not in Java but in Bristol during the 1840s. "Java Head" is the name of the home of the wealthy Ammidon family. Their wealth derives from their ownership of a shipping line founded by the patriarch of the family, Captain Jeremy, and now managed by his elder son William. His younger son, Gerrit, is the captain of one of the company's ships. Gerrit is in love with a local girl, Nettie Vollar, but their romance is doomed by a long-standing feud between their two families.
Gerrit returns from a long voyage with a beautiful Chinese bride, Taou Yuen, something which shocks both his family and the local townspeople who regard the Chinese as "heathens". The marriage is not an altogether happy one, and Gerrit's old feelings for Nettie begin to revive. Another theme is the rivalry between Gerrit and William; Gerrit despises his brother as a landlubber who has never been to sea, whereas William feels that Gerrit does not understand business affairs. Matters come to a head when William wants to replace the firm's ageing sailing ships with modern clippers and steamships and the it is revealed that he has been using company ships to import opium illegally into China.
The film was doubtless intended to have an anti-racist theme, but it has been described as sending out mixed messages. It is Anna May as Taou Yuen who dominates the film, and for most of the action she impresses us with her dignity in the face of prejudice from the people of Bristol, including some of her husband's family, and with her attempts to fit into the foreign culture in which she finds herself. Towards the end of the film, however, as Gerrit's love for Nettie reasserts itself, she tends to slip into the racist caricature of the Oriental woman as aggressive, domineering "dragon lady". Her attempts to fit in with English culture are shown to have failed, and the ending implies a message of "East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet".
An interesting figure is Nettie's uncle, Edward Dunsack, who has spent a lot of time in the Far East and who has adopted an ideology of what George Orwell would later called "transferred nationalism". He is an uncritical admirer of China, whose culture he sees as greatly superior to that of the West. Edward's sinophilia, however, does not impress anyone- not even Taou Yuen, who sees it as based upon a simplistic misunderstanding of her country's culture and suspects him of having adopted it simply to impress her. (Edward is clearly sexually attracted to Taou Yuen and makes little attempt to hide his attraction).
It is now ninety years since the film was made- the same period of time separating the 1930s from the events depicted- and from a twenty-first century viewpoint it looks like a curiosity from a long-vanished era. Yet it is still of interest for the modern viewer, partly because it gives us a chance to see one of Hollywood's most charismatic stars in action and partly because it gives us an insight in how the British cinema dealt with racial issues all those years ago. 6/10.
Always wonderful, Anna May Wong excels
Matti-Man4 February 2012
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 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.
Java Head
Prismark1011 February 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Java Head is ahead of its time. A British movie from 1934 that tackles interracial marriage in the 1800s.
Jeremy Ammidon (Edmund Gwenn) runs a Bristol shipping company and times are changing. His younger son William Ammidon (Ralph Richardson) wants to modernise by moving into steamships. He also wants to trade in contraband as it is more profitable. Williams is also a landlubber who is also keeping things from his father.
Older son Gerritt Ammidon loves adventure and travels to the far east in a clipper called Nautilus for trade.
After his latest voyage he returns with a Chinese wife, an exotic princess named Taou Yuen (Anna May Wong.) This arouses suspicion, gossip and racism from the locals.
Taou Yuen has difficulties getting accepted. Over time and after the death of his father. Gerritt wants to get back together with his ex, Nettie (Elizabeth Allan) a woman he was attracted to but her religious father disliked him and his family.
Jave Head is an interesting melodrama but it has a cop out ending which in itself is racist.
Gerritt is weary of his wife and her Confucius ways. It indicates that he only wanted a bit if exotica and has tired of a Taou Yuen who has given up everything for him.
The ending with Gerritt and Nettie happy together after Taou Yuen has committed suicide. It is not only problematic but it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.
Still it is a chance to see a younger Ralph Richardson and gives a starring role to a Chinese American actress.
Jeremy Ammidon (Edmund Gwenn) runs a Bristol shipping company and times are changing. His younger son William Ammidon (Ralph Richardson) wants to modernise by moving into steamships. He also wants to trade in contraband as it is more profitable. Williams is also a landlubber who is also keeping things from his father.
Older son Gerritt Ammidon loves adventure and travels to the far east in a clipper called Nautilus for trade.
After his latest voyage he returns with a Chinese wife, an exotic princess named Taou Yuen (Anna May Wong.) This arouses suspicion, gossip and racism from the locals.
Taou Yuen has difficulties getting accepted. Over time and after the death of his father. Gerritt wants to get back together with his ex, Nettie (Elizabeth Allan) a woman he was attracted to but her religious father disliked him and his family.
Jave Head is an interesting melodrama but it has a cop out ending which in itself is racist.
Gerritt is weary of his wife and her Confucius ways. It indicates that he only wanted a bit if exotica and has tired of a Taou Yuen who has given up everything for him.
The ending with Gerritt and Nettie happy together after Taou Yuen has committed suicide. It is not only problematic but it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.
Still it is a chance to see a younger Ralph Richardson and gives a starring role to a Chinese American actress.
Practically perfect, but I wanted so much more.
mark.waltz30 May 2019
Warning: Spoilers
More detail, more character development, more social exploration of prejudice and the scandal of interracial romance. This is a saga of two feuding families who were once friends, the two elders (Cecil Kellaway and Herbert Lomas), their children who have falling in love (John Loder and Elizabeth Allen), and Lomas's refusal to allow them to marry. motor goes off to be captain of one of his father's ships while brother Ralph Richardson takes over the business, making deals that lead to tragedy. Lauder returns married to an Asian wife (Anna May Wong), causing tongue to flare up with hatred towards a culture they don't understand. Wong acts with her eyes as she walks into a Christian church for the first time, realizing that she is being studied like an animal in a zoo. Quen loaders two women encounter each other, the understanding is made, and only one can come out with Loder"s love attached.
Wong is directed to play the stereotypical fragile Chinese flower, Noble and loyal to her husband in every way, and even willing to share him, but only to an extent. Allen's lasvicious vicious uncle (George Curzon), obsessed with everything Asian, becomes obsessed with Wong and arranges for her to believe that Loder and Allen are still very much in love. This leads to a very strange finale that plants a twist on one of the major characters that seems rather out of step with the remainder of the film. In spite of that, I was mesmerized from beginning till end.
it is difficult not to be like the spectators at the church who look on Anna May Wong both as a barbaric creature whom they don't understand and an object of fascination. Her beauty it's riveting, and it is easy to see why she would be cast either as a fragile flower in the traditional Madame Butterfly sense or as a dragon lady. With her exotic headdresses and outfits and extremely long pinky nail, Wang certainly has the dragon lady look, but she is no Gale Sondergaard, silently plotting revenge in "The Letter". I don't think she's playing a very realistic character, but her performance makes the entire film, although Callaway is equally excellent as the proud patriarch, both ruthless and lovable. It is beautifully filmed in every way, and deserves to be among the list of the best of 1934.
Wong is directed to play the stereotypical fragile Chinese flower, Noble and loyal to her husband in every way, and even willing to share him, but only to an extent. Allen's lasvicious vicious uncle (George Curzon), obsessed with everything Asian, becomes obsessed with Wong and arranges for her to believe that Loder and Allen are still very much in love. This leads to a very strange finale that plants a twist on one of the major characters that seems rather out of step with the remainder of the film. In spite of that, I was mesmerized from beginning till end.
it is difficult not to be like the spectators at the church who look on Anna May Wong both as a barbaric creature whom they don't understand and an object of fascination. Her beauty it's riveting, and it is easy to see why she would be cast either as a fragile flower in the traditional Madame Butterfly sense or as a dragon lady. With her exotic headdresses and outfits and extremely long pinky nail, Wang certainly has the dragon lady look, but she is no Gale Sondergaard, silently plotting revenge in "The Letter". I don't think she's playing a very realistic character, but her performance makes the entire film, although Callaway is equally excellent as the proud patriarch, both ruthless and lovable. It is beautifully filmed in every way, and deserves to be among the list of the best of 1934.
Top of the Line Soap - Java Head
arthur_tafero9 January 2022
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.
Old movie about international marriage
tara3419 September 2009
Warning: Spoilers
It is sad that Anna May Wong always has to die at the end of the movie but I loved the film. Very modern for 1934. Even though It had racist elements we all know that John Loder is her husband in the film.I did not like that it tells that us that international marriages are tragic. So this must mean that it can never work.If you are a Anna May Wong fan you will love the movie.I cried for Anna at the end.Her films do not get shown enough.Her aura is so regal.Interacial or international marriages are not new or a fad.I wish she had gotten the part of the wife in The Good Earth.I think it discouraged her from pressing on. I hope she knows that she has a lot of fans out here.I saw her in Shanghai Express as a child and I have never lost the feeling of wow who is she?
A Frustratingly Slow Start, and then, ...Wong arrives
shoenertom6 February 2024
Warning: Spoilers
There are frustrations watching this movie. It is interminably slow to start.
Then "Princess" Taou Yuen (Wong) arrives, the new wife of dashing, handsome, prosperous, ... and callow sea captain, Gerrit Ammidon.
The movie doesn't adequately explain why she would stoop to such a marriage. Marrying a barbarian and moving away to a distant, strange land. For Taou Yuen is no frail butterfly. She is an intelligent, moral almost to a fault, and tolerant of the difficulties she knows she will face in this strange land. In this movie, Bristol, England, in the book and original movie, the City of Witches, Salem, Massachusetts. That locale was not by accident.
The plot is "Madama Butterfly" turned upside down, then shaken. "Lieutenant Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton" is true to his promise-he brings his "Cho Cho San" to his home.
What happens next?
The story has only true strong, well developed characters: Wong's brilliant performance as Taou Yuen, and George Curzon as her nemesis, the failed China trader, Edward Dunsack, half-mad with opium, and suffering a fixation that today might be called "yellow fever". He is as relentless as Othello's Iago to Wong's Desdemona. It's brilliant. John Loder is wooden as the newlywed captain.
There are some cringe-worthy moments; the moment after the climactic scene worst.
Wong's descent into something like madness is a wonder to behold. The climax is astonishing; incomprehensible in some ways, but perfectly logical in others. There are strikingly modern elements in the story-sexual obsession, drug use, religious fanaticism, semi-nudity. And Anna May gets to kiss the romantic lead. For once.
In this movie, only one character loves, adores Princess Taou Yuen just as she is. Laurel, a young girl in the Ammidon clan.
There is some humor. Some broad and some effective.
The last 20 minutes is a runaway carriage, figuratively and literally.
An inanimate object, a smuggled chest of raw opium, decides the fates of all the characters.
Along with the beautiful, serene, tolerant, intelligent Taou Yuen,
A sea chest of opium wreaks upon the English port city the havoc that the Opium Wars wreaked upon China.
It is Karma.
A great, flawed movie. Stop the movie as soon as Anna May's face dissolves on the screen at the end. Don't ruin it.
Then "Princess" Taou Yuen (Wong) arrives, the new wife of dashing, handsome, prosperous, ... and callow sea captain, Gerrit Ammidon.
The movie doesn't adequately explain why she would stoop to such a marriage. Marrying a barbarian and moving away to a distant, strange land. For Taou Yuen is no frail butterfly. She is an intelligent, moral almost to a fault, and tolerant of the difficulties she knows she will face in this strange land. In this movie, Bristol, England, in the book and original movie, the City of Witches, Salem, Massachusetts. That locale was not by accident.
The plot is "Madama Butterfly" turned upside down, then shaken. "Lieutenant Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton" is true to his promise-he brings his "Cho Cho San" to his home.
What happens next?
The story has only true strong, well developed characters: Wong's brilliant performance as Taou Yuen, and George Curzon as her nemesis, the failed China trader, Edward Dunsack, half-mad with opium, and suffering a fixation that today might be called "yellow fever". He is as relentless as Othello's Iago to Wong's Desdemona. It's brilliant. John Loder is wooden as the newlywed captain.
There are some cringe-worthy moments; the moment after the climactic scene worst.
Wong's descent into something like madness is a wonder to behold. The climax is astonishing; incomprehensible in some ways, but perfectly logical in others. There are strikingly modern elements in the story-sexual obsession, drug use, religious fanaticism, semi-nudity. And Anna May gets to kiss the romantic lead. For once.
In this movie, only one character loves, adores Princess Taou Yuen just as she is. Laurel, a young girl in the Ammidon clan.
There is some humor. Some broad and some effective.
The last 20 minutes is a runaway carriage, figuratively and literally.
An inanimate object, a smuggled chest of raw opium, decides the fates of all the characters.
Along with the beautiful, serene, tolerant, intelligent Taou Yuen,
A sea chest of opium wreaks upon the English port city the havoc that the Opium Wars wreaked upon China.
It is Karma.
A great, flawed movie. Stop the movie as soon as Anna May's face dissolves on the screen at the end. Don't ruin it.
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