Pavement Butterfly

Anna May Wong's second collaboration with German director Richard Eichberg is a circus-set melodrama that gave her one of her most substantial European roles. Wong plays Princess Butterfly, an acrobat in a traveling show who becomes entangled in a web of jealousy and betrayal. The European productions of this period allowed Wong a freedom and complexity that Hollywood consistently denied her — here she is the emotional center of the story, not a supporting player or exotic decoration. Eichberg photographs her with the star treatment she deserved, and Wong responds with a performance that combines physical grace with genuine dramatic power. An important film in understanding Wong's career trajectory and the artistic possibilities she found by leaving America behind.