A Cause to Kill - Ivy Ling Po (1969) - Glenthorne, Customs Pass

Hsin Li lives with her husband in a rather nice art-deco style mansion up in Customs Pass. This area appears to have been a popular filming location for Shaws productions in the 60s and 70s because we were here a few weeks ago for The Generation Gap.

In this film we carry on up the hill a bit further to a house called "Glenthorne" which, rather surprisingly for Hong Kong, still exists. I take my hat off to the owners for not selling up to a developer because the house is very stylish (and I have no doubt jinxed it by featuring it here). The interwebs tells me this house was built in 1958 and is one of only a couple originals.

On the way up we are treated to some views of Fei Ngo Shan Road as the car drives passed the previously linked to "Cairnmount". We also get brief glimpses of some of the neighbouring properties, but they are, sadly, only fleeting.

"Cairnmount" on the left

Glenthorne

A view of the neighbouring property "Devonia" (since demolished)

A Cause to Kill - Ivy Ling Po (1969) - Clearwater Bay Road, Pak Shek Wo

Up next is another from the Celestial Shaw channel on Youtube called A Cause to Kill. It's about a retired actress (Ivy Ling Po) who plots to kill her husband (Played by Kwan Shan - Rosumand Kwan's father) because he had a secret affair with one of their friends (Chiao Chiao). Apparently it's a Shaw version of Dial M for Murder but because I haven't seen (or read) it in about 40 years then I can't possibly comment, but suffice to say it's a great plot and the film showcases some nice spots in Hong Kong from the late sixties, some of which have changed beyond recognition and some that haven't.

The opening scene shows Hsin Li (Ivy) driving her car along Clearwater Bay Road through the section that goes through Pak Shek Wo (i.e. not far from Pik Uk prison). She's supposed to be driving home, but as you'll see in the next post, she is actually driving in the opposite direction.

It's hard to reconcile the images below with the modern day road which is a dual carriageway, but this is how it used to look.

A sign for Wah Lok Yuen (華樂園), a local eatery

This last image has some writing on the slope on the left. It says "Lot 1098 Pak Shek Wo". This relates to the current 1098 Clearwater Bay Road which helped me narrow down the location. Sadly, we don't see the property on film.