Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Hong Kong Confidential - Gene Barry (1958) - Connaught Road, Sheung Wan

Next up is another one of those 50s era movies that had a story set in Hong Kong, but the low budget nature of the movie meant the close ups were shot in unconvincing (to a modern eye at least) studio sets and authentic footage of the place, for establishing shots, was just taken from stock footage. I still find these films interesting because aside from the movie plot, they still offer a bit of a glimpse to past times, even if it was only library footage. It's possible that, like with Target Hong Kong, the only stock footage available at the time was pre-war because I'm not convinced these are 1950s era images - but perhaps more knowledgable readers can comment below. 

Gene Barry stars as a secret US agent who has been tasked with tracking down and rescuing an Arab prince (i.e. Californian white kid in brown face) from the nefarious clutches of the Chinese commies who are using him as leverage over the prince's father to get him to sign some sort of economic treaty.
This is about the most authentic bit of the film because everyone knows that the current version of the Govt still partakes in a bit of coersive "retention", shall we say, when it feels the need.

Anyway, first up is a view of Connaught Road West. The taller building in the image was actually a hotel called the Tung Shan Hotel which means we are looking at the bit of road between Morrison Street and Des Voeux Road West. Talon Tower now stands in that location.

The second image below shows a much wider view from further out in the harbour. The two buildings sticking above the others coincide with what I believe to be the aforementioned Tung Shan Hotel on the right, and the taller, more prominent Sun Kwong Hotel on the left. The Sun Kwong Hotel was located on the other side of Morrison Street to Western Market. I could be completely off with the second image, so please feel free to correct if you know anything.


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