Smuggler's Island - Jeff Chandler (1951) - Aberdeen Harbour

I got quite excited when I found out that there may have been a Macau location film that preceded Robert Mitchum's Macao, however, a quick search turned up a copy of this 1951 pot boiler (Youtube) and it soon became quite clear that this is another 50's era movie that used stock footage for its establishing shots and most of the action was shot off the California coast with some matte painted plates positioned in front of the camera for some of the wider angle shots of "Macau". Nevertheless, I still like to include these movies if only to dispel any belief that they feature any real on-location scenes.

The story follows Steve Kent (Jeff Chandler) who works as a diver in Macau and is contracted by Vivian (Evelyn Keyes) to retrieve a suitcase full of anti-biotics from a plane crash site off the coast of Macau. The "medicine" turns out to be gold bullion and the rest of the film deals with all the skullduggery and double-crossing one would expect as the pair try and get it to Hong Kong to sell on the black market.

The interesting footage only occurs at the beginning as the establishing shots of  "Macau" are shown. In fact, all these shots appear to be library footage of Aberdeen harbour. This isn't the first time film makers have tried to pass Aberdeen off as Macau (see That Man Bolt) or some other place entirely (see Lord Jim).