Anna May Wong returns

Who would have thought that Gilda Gray the shimmy queen, Anna May Wong, Charles Laughton and musical comedy star Cyril Ritchard actually appeared in the same movie?

Well, they did in the 1929 British silent “Piccadilly,” which has been restored and which will open the UCLA Film and Television Archive’s Rediscovering Anna May Wong series on Friday. No camp item despite its unlikely cast, it is actually quite a dazzling film, directed by Germany’s E.A. Dupont, remembered for the classic “Variety.”

Written by Arnold Bennett, “Piccadilly” -- like “Variety” -- deals with a backstage triangle. Gray is a nightclub dancer in love with her ruthless employer (Jameson Thomas, a dapper, dominating Warner Baxter type), who casts her aside for Wong when the former’s popularity wanes with the dismissal of her dance partner (Ritchard). The complaint of a dirty plate by a blustering, outraged patron (Laughton, in a cameo) sends Thomas to his scullery, where Wong has been dancing instead of washing dishes.

Dupont transforms the stuff of melodrama into a compelling tragedy of passion with a theme of racial injustice and exploitation so indelibly implied that some hypocritical last-reel plot machinations serve only to strengthen rather than subvert its impact.

With its roots in German Expressionism, the film is a triumph of silent cinema at its most eloquent that has a richness of texture and atmosphere of Josef von Sternberg’s films with Marlene Dietrich.

Eastwood directs

It was clear from the start that Clint Eastwood had what its takes behind the camera as well as in front of it, yet it took a while for his directorial career to be taken seriously. Even so, it’s hard to understand why a classic western like “The Outlaw Josey Wales” (1976) was not immediately widely recognized as such. It launches the American Cinematheque’s eight-film High Plains Redemption: Clint Eastwood as Director series on Friday.

In the title role, Eastwood plays a farmer living along the Kansas-Missouri border during the Civil War. He is plowing his fields when his home is burned and his wife and son are killed by a band of Northern guerrillas. Inescapably (but not lingeringly) bloody and violent, this handsome film develops masterfully into a full-scale saga of great impact.

Eastwood may be playing essentially the invincible, monosyllabic gunfighter he created in Sergio Leone’s westerns, yet here he becomes the full-dimensioned hero of an epic, a man who tries hard to be a loner and to focus on revenge, but who keeps encountering people who need him. Behind its noisy gunfire, “The Outlaw Josey Wales” is a timeless parable on human nature. It will be followed by “High Plains Drifter” (1973), in which he pays tribute to the Leone westerns that made him a star.

Eastwood has never made another movie as blissfully sweet as “Bronco Billy” (1980), which follows the Saturday screening of his wicked take on John Huston, “White Hunter, Black Heart” (1990). As Billy, he’s a sharpshooting, trick-riding star of a tiny, struggling Wild West show. The film appeals to the dreamer in all of us, suggesting that we’d all be better off being whatever and whoever we want to be.

In his first film as a director -- “Play Misty for Me” (1971), screening Sunday -- Eastwood casts himself as a Monterey Peninsula deejay who finds himself easily snagged by one of his fans, a pretty brunet (Jessica Walter). Besides suspense, Eastwood offers a not-always-flattering characterization of a randy, irresponsible stud who finds himself in trouble just as he’s on the verge of settling down. Director Don Siegel, a key Eastwood mentor, is on hand playing the deejay’s bartender buddy.

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Screenings

UCLA Film and Television Archive

Rediscovering Anna May Wong series: “Piccadilly,” Friday, 7:30 p.m., followed by “Song.” Series continues through Jan. 25.

Where: James Bridges Theater, Melnitz Hall, UCLA campus, Westwood

Info: (310) 206-FILM

American Cinematheque

Clint Eastwood as Director series: “The Outlaw Josey Wales,” Friday, 7:30 p.m., followed by “High Plains Drifter.” “Unforgiven,” Saturday, 5 p.m. “White Hunter, Black Heart,” Saturday, 8:15 p.m., followed by “Bronco Billy.” “Play Misty for Me,” Sunday, 5 p.m. “Mystic River,” Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood

Info: (323) 466-FILM