Speaking of Hop Yat Church - as I just recently mentioned the Kowloon version
here - here is a grab from
The World of Suzie Wong which depicts William Holden as Lomax just arriving at the
Nam Kok Hotel and going out on the roof to admire the (admittedly very impressive at a time before highrises obscured it all) vista.
The image below shows Holden in a studio set with a projected background view of the mid-levels (when they were still low-rise!), but it's worth showing because the filmmakers captured the Hop Yat Church (a.k.a Church of Christ in China) on Caine Road in their back-projected film.
5 comments:
There is some new information. This may not be a studio set at all.
Mr. WONG Chi Wah, author and historian of Cantonese pop songs, unearthed an article on the 25thJan. 1960 issue of Wah Kiu Yat Po. The report is about the newspaper renting out its roof for the crew of 'The World of Suzie Wong' to build a set of a squatter area to act as the home of Suzie. From the date, it seems that France Nuyen was still acting as Suzie.
https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10155682296749405&id=634884404
Hi C, there was definitely a roof used at some point because some scenes were shot there with Holden painting Nancy Kwan. However, the above grab is most definitely a studio shot with a back projection. It's quite obvious from the fuzziness around Holden's outline. Of course, the view is real and must have been shot somewhere as well in order to have been turned into a back projection. Nguyen filmed for 6 weeks in total but all of her footage was binned when she was sacked and Holden had to return to HK and reshoot every scene with Nancy Kwan. I don't think it was a hardship for him though - I had read that the return trip was in addition to the 80 trips he had already made there!
Cheers, Phil
Of course, it also depends on whether or not they went back and used the same rooftop for the Kwan version...
Herostratus identified the roof used in the final version on this aerial photo: https://gwulo.com/atom/25857
Hi Phil, thanks for your replies. I did not know the mystery was solved 1.5 years ago. It is amazing that Herostratus pinpointed the exact building! That building was only a few doors away from the Wah Kiu Yat Po Building on Hollywood Road.
Sorry, I should not have disputed the back projection part without a clear image of the scene in my mind. I just thought that if William Holden was there at the rooftop, the filming would have been done without the need for back projection.
Eighty trips to Hong Kong is quite extreme!
yes, Herostratus was also able to identify the domed building glimpsed down the hill in a couple of the scenes. It was a bit of a head scratcher but turned out to be the Central Theatre.
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