Monday, June 12, 2017

Red Dragon - Stewart Granger (1965) - Zoological and Botanical Gardens, Central

In the 1960's, Stewart Granger made a bunch of movies in Europe, quite a few of them for German companies. One of that batch was a spy thriller called Das Geheimnis der drei Dschunken (The Secret of the 3 Junks) or Red Dragon as it was known for its English release. Sadly, there doesn't appear to be that many prints of it around and the version I obtained looks to be a straight transfer from VHS with the screen being cut off at either side of the screen. This is a big shame because even though the film is a fairly average potboiler, it has some decent locations on screen and we don't really get to see them in their full glory. Horst Frank returns as another baddy (we've seen him recently in this blog in
Heisser Hafen Hongkong and Weiße Fracht für Hongkong.

One of the earlier scenes shows an American spy (as we find out later) walking through the Botanical Gardens in Central to meet his girlfriend, only to discover she has been shot dead. The scene starts on the famous steps before moving to another part of the park with what looks to be the Catholic Cathedral in the background.


Sadly the detail isn't clear because of the nature of this print and it's perhaps too obscure a film for anyone to make any effort in a restoration. Never mind. Is that the Catholic Cathedral spire at the back left? I haven't been to the gardens for a while but I think the front part of it is quite dense with tree growth so I am not sure you get anything like this open view anymore (tall buildings aside).

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