Wednesday, March 16, 2022

Bruce Lee: True Story - Ho Chung Tao (1976) - Palm Villa, Tai Tam

Our old friend Bill Lake pops up in the Enter the Dragon scene. He plays Bob Wall's character for a brief moment as the pair walk across the tennis court. In terms of the location, yes, it's the same place where Enter the Dragon was filmed and although this tennis court wasn't the main one used in that film, it was briefly seen in that movie. It's the upper tennis court that is being used (for reference, please see my old post here) and in a couple of the shots below you can see the steps that lead up to the single remaining doorway that led into the old garden area (now an American Club games court). For your information, it was on the other side of that doorway that the club had erected its metal plaque. You can also see the same tennis court in the top left of this screen grab.

Anyway, as you can see, even just 3 short years after Enter the Dragon the place had become quite overgrown.

Bill Lake as O'hara
The steps on the right lead up to the still-standing garden area
The wooden gazebo can be seen in the screen capture I linked to above


Addendum: A couple of years ago Bill Lake sent me a proof of one of the chapters of his book that described this scene as being shot at the former Eucliffe mansion in Repulse Bay. I did tell him that the time that it was, in fact, Palm Villa, but the passage was kept in for the final release of the book. Sadly, Bill passed away a few weeks ago and so this is something that will not be corrected but I thought I should set the record straight for anyone who happens on his book and finds the memories of this film conflicting with what I have posted here.

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