Showing posts with label 1967. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1967. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 26, 2026

Cornwall Street - Now and Then

After recently covering The Angel Strikes Again, I thought a modern day comparison for the Cornwall Street shots might be interesting. It's a good way of showing just how cluttered Hong Kong is these days compared to back in the 1960s before mass redevelopment took hold (and never let go).

This initial shot shows the view looking towards Waterloo Road and Baptist Hospital from just near to the Cornwall Street Children's Playground. The building in the background is the original block of Baptist Hospital that was demolished just recently (at the end of 2025). The multi-port hydrant was part of the emergency infrastructure for Kai Tak airport in case of a crash in the vicinity. The hill on the left hand side is where the original Baptist College and sports ground were located, and just visible in the background, barely discernable, is the further hill where Broadcast Drive is located. Let's just say there have been some changes.



In my lower image above (taken on 7th May 2026), you can see the sole remaining item from the original film capture is the multi-port fire hydrant. As mentioned, the original block (later renamed Block A) of the Baptist Hospital has now gone. The slope contained the Baptist College is now taken up by more buildings belonging to what is now called Baptist University. Notice that the hydrant is still at the edge of the pavement, however, there is now a second kerb further to the left and the space inbetween is filled with planters and trees. This is the same along this whole stretch of road. Perhaps the biggest change though is the flyover above Waterloo Road which allows traffic to skip the lights at the intersections with Cornwall Street and Junction Road.

Here's the view looking the other way. The current development here is more obvious because there is now a row of mid-rise apartment buildings along the opposite side of the road in the distance. A comparison shot is underneath. You can just make out the old property located at #2 Cornwall Street that was replaced by the rather unsubtle Mormon Church building. I do like the fact that the current view has a lot of trees though. You can see in the lower image where the extended section of the pavement, filled withtaxis in the film capture, now has trees and other plants.

Sunday, April 26, 2026

The Champions - Stuart Damon (1967) - Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter

The end of Stirling's memories shows us a view of Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter, and with it the end of the Hong Kong locations for this singular episode. Unsurprisingly, this footage also features in another ITC production, Jason King (follow the link to the post and you can see the same image at the bottom).

Saturday, April 25, 2026

The Champions - Stuart Damon (1967) - Yee Wo Street, Causeway Bay

After Stirling gets in his rickshaw, we are treated to some passenger point of view shots of the rickshaw journey. The first image shows the rickshaw travelling up Yee Wo Street from the east, close to the junction with Pennington Street.


The next sequence from the rickshaw ride shows us being pulled around the end of Yee Wo Street close to the Causeway Bay tram terminus. You can just see the yellow walls of the old St. Paul's Convent School down Tung Lo Wan Road on the far right in the lower image.

Friday, April 24, 2026

The Champions - Stuart Damon (1967) - Star Ferry Pier, Central

In his reminiscences, Stirling recalls catching a rickshaw to Wanchai. The image we see is a rickshaw rank outside the old Star Ferry terminal in Central. The building in the background is Star House over in Tsim Sha Tsui. So at least we know the stock footage was contemporary for the show (Star House was completed in 1966).

Thursday, April 23, 2026

The Champions - Stuart Damon (1967) - Bonham Strand East, Sheung Wan

More general shots of Hong Kong with this interesting image below showing what I believe to be the famous pharmacy owned and run by 唐拾義 Dr Tong Sap-yi (Tang Shi-yi) - a famous Western-educated Chinese doctor who introduced several medicines onto the Hong Kong market. My understanding is that this building was located on Bonham Strand East at the junction with Hillier Street. This image from Gwulo (it shows the two words of the good doctor's name on the right hand side) seems to confirm it was located where the Hillier Commercial Building now stands at #65-67. Funnily enough, Google Maps still has the pharmacy marked although the current business on the ground floor is a gold dealer. I would need to check in person but it could be the company still has offices there.

Wednesday, April 22, 2026

The Champions - Stuart Damon (1967) - Hennessy Road, Wanchai

Next up in our montage of Hong Kong establishing scenes is a view along Hennessy Road. This particular street corner is the junction with Marsh Road and you can see the same curved building in this earlier photo over on Gwulo.com. I'm still not sure when this library footage was shot but you can see that the adverts on the corner of the building were in place during the late 50s. Those with a bit of HK knowledge might be able to discern the old Tung Tak pawnshop building that was this side of the Marsh Road junction. You can see its old vertical blue sign on the left in both images below.

Tuesday, April 21, 2026

The Champions - Stuart Damon (1967) - Victoria Harbour

Next up is an episode of the 1967 British TV series, The Champions. It stars Stuart Damon, William Gaunt and Alexandra Bastedo as three secret agents bestowed with supernatural powers by mysterious ancient Tibetan tribe following a plane crash in the Tibetan mountains. They work for a secret service called Nemesis and undertake dangerous missions all around Elstree Studios...sorry, I mean the world.

In one episode, The Interrogation, originally broadcast in 1969, Craig Stirling (Stuart Damon) has been sent to Hong Kong for a mission but, following its successful conclusion, he is kidnapped and drugged and undergoes interrogation to find out the details of his mission. The Hong Kong footage, much like Jason King, utilises stock/library footage for the Hong Kong scenes as Stirling recalls what happened.

The opening Hong Kong shot is one of the harbour as seen from Kowloon-side. For your viewing pleasure I have also stitched the panning shot together using the very excellent Matt Brown coded, Autostitch. Click to zoom in.

Tuesday, March 10, 2026

Summons to Death - Tang Ching (1967) - Basalt Island, Port Shelter

The film finishes off where it started, in Port Shelter. The sea cave that the pair go through in order to reach the treasure is located on the south east side of Basalt island - one of Port Shelter's easternmost islands. GoogleEarth has a single image that shows the cave here from the same angle that can be seen in the lower image.


Monday, March 9, 2026

Summons to Death - Tang Ching (1967) - Hotel Merlin, Middle Road

A fourth pirate brother, Cheung Biu (Huang Tsung-hsun), is responsible for killing all of his fellow pirates for the treasure map and, in a bit of pre-Mission Impossible face swapping, Tang Lui creates a mask of him so he can access his hotel room in town. The hotel in question was the Hotel Merlin located on the corner of Hankow and Middle Roads. This is where the Kowloon Hotel now stands although the Kowloon Hotel takes up the space once occupied by both the Hotel Merlin and the Peninsula Court Hotel. The hotel has appeared briefly on the blog before, although in name only, see the bottom images on this post.

I do remember Chaplin Chang telling me many years ago that Hotel Merlin was where the production offices were based for the filming of Lord Jim whilst the crew were in town for the HK-based scenes.


Sunday, March 8, 2026

Summons to Death - Tang Ching (1967) - Lobster Bay, Sai Kung

Mei-Li and Tang Lui agree to meet Poon at Lobster Bay to formulate a plan to get back at Ma Loong. This is a section of Lobster Bay that is now fairly difficult to reach due to general growth of foliage and the construction of the riding stables. I did some coasteering here about ten years ago, but sadly my only pictures of this section are looking in rather than looking out (see lower image). In my more 'recent' image (actually snapped in July 2015) the area we see the actors arriving in the top image is the foliage covered area behind the beach.


Saturday, March 7, 2026

Summons to Death - Tang Ching (1967) - Long Ke Wan, Sai Kung

In an attemtped execution - in line with the best of Bond (i.e. anything other than just shooting someone dead) - Tung Lui and Mei-Li are knocked unconscious and wake up inside a sealed wooden box that has been left for the high tide to drown them. They must act quickly to survive and end up rolling the box with the incoming waves. This was all filmed on the (still) beautiful beach of Long Ke Wan. It's a traipse to get to even now, despite more modern transport links, so I imagine in 1967 this involved a boat ride from Port Shelter. Funnily enough, we've seen this location before on the blog when it stood in for the Italian riviera in The Million Eyes of Sumuru.

Friday, March 6, 2026

Summons to Death - Tang Ching (1967) - Hillside Villa, 11 Fei Ngo Shan Road

We were here not so long ago in the other Tang Ching film: Inter-Pol. I won't repeat myself here but in this movie the property is owned by pirate brother Poon and he lets Mei-Li stay here. It's where Tang Lui (Tang Ching) goes to meet her to exchange his part of the treasure map.

Thursday, March 5, 2026

Summons to Death - Tang Ching (1967) - Tai Po Road Lookout, Tai Po Road

After evading the cops, pirate brother Poon (Ku Feng) runs down onto Tai Po Road and is met by another of his former pirate brothers, Ma Loong (Chiang Kuang-chao). As the car turns around it drives back towards Kowloon past a pavilion. This is the Tai Po Road Lookout and the pavilion is still there - although the lookout's view is perhaps not as expansive as it was back in the late 60s.

Wednesday, March 4, 2026

Summons to Death - Tang Ching (1967) - View from Fei Ngo Shan Road

Poon escapes the police at Shatin Inn and, all of a sudden, is above Kowloon near to Fei Ngo Shan Road. The large hill in the middle image is the "Diamond Hill" that the area is named after. The hill is long gone having been excavated and the area was turned into the Fung Tak Estate and adjacent Po Kong Village Road Park (there's a great bike track there for anyone interested). People always ask me where the hill is in Diamond Hill and, well, that's where it was.

Tuesday, March 3, 2026

Summons to Death - Tang Ching (1967) - Shatin Inn, Tai Po Road

Head pirate, Gin Te-biu (Lo Wei) meets up with his old pirate chums and arranges to meet one of them at the Shatin Inn the next day. However, he has been double-crossed and the police turn up to arrest him.

Shatin Inn was apparently used in quite a few films over the years - it opened in 1955 and only recently closed down in September 2024 for reasons I will get into below. However, I've only ever seen it once previously on the blog and that was for a scene with Chow Yun Fat and Sylvia Chang in All About Ah Long.

We see the venue in its heyday below, when the Tai Po Road was the only way into the Shatin Valley from Kowloon, and all traffic on the road went by the Inn. It was famous for its satay sticks, but by the time I last went (about 10 years ago) it was quite expensive and way past its sell-by-date. One of the contributors to its downfall was the reconstruction of the road system here back in the early 2000s. The changes turned that part of the old Tai Po Road into the singular access road for Shatin Heights up in the hills. This meant most traffic was rerouted away from the restaurant's location unless it was heading up into the Shatin Heights residential area. No doubt the Covid restrictions imposed between 2020 and 2024 also had a major impact on the place's footfall.

The top image below shows the view across the Shatin valley from Tai Po Road. Sadly, the New Territories hasn't looked like this for a long time. You can see the most recent Streetview from the same place here but the tree growth prevents you from seeing the hundreds of highrises that have sprung up.




View from the rear of the restaurant