Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - 17 Magazine Gap Road, Mid-levels

Another view of the previous version of 17 Magazine Gap Road. In this view, looking from the east end of the podium to the west, it's possible to make out the kinked shape of the balustrade at the other end. If you go to the Magazine Heights development today (current version of #17) then you will see the current development has a different shape podium but the original retaining wall is visible from the road complete with the original kink. For a later view from the other end of the site then we can go back and look at this image from Black Cobra Woman - filmed in 1976 with the current building.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Wanchai Gap, The Peak

The car chase goes up what looks like Magazine Gap Road (although it's proving hard to match those locations to the current area) and ends when Evans makes a quick and sneaky turn down Wanchai Gap Road and the chase car goes past them. The terrace in the background supports the precursor to today's #1 Peak Road, but I'm not ure what it looked like. The area is very similar today but with more trees obscuring the view. This is the same place where the multi-car crash was staged for Les Tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine a few years later in 1965.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Garden Road, Central

There is a much longer garden Road sequence later in the show when the two main characters are being followed in their car by the bad guys. The first part of the sequence takes us past the former Murray Barracks building. This is its original location at the lower end of Garden Road before being packed away and semi-reassembled over in Stanley (no, it wasn't rebuilt brick by brick. A concrete core was poured and the external verandahs were reattached to make it appear it was rebuilt - typical Govt 'heritage' smoke screen). This spot is now occupied by the I.M Pei Bank of China Tower. 

There is then a shot of cars driving up what could be Garden Road, but actually, I can't confirm, so instead I'll end on this shot of the section where Garden Road turns abruptly up the hill and becomes magazine Gap Road. There was a very similar angle used previously in this show, but on subsequent examination you can see the angle is not the same as the previous post.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - U.S Consulate, Central

Here is another view of the USA Consulate on Garden Road before it was all sealed up behind the great big concrete walls that now surround it. As you can see here (and in previous films featured here including: Golgo 13: Assignment Kowloon, Die Sieben Masken des Judoka and China Rose) it was once a rather open building with balconies. Even before I had first visited in 1995 though the exterior of the building had been renovated to remove the balconies and the massive security wall had been constructed. This was long before 9/11 so I imagine some other perceived threat had arisen to give the US Govt cause for concern.

In the episode, Blind Bargain, Glen visits his friends at the consulate to find out whether or not the female reporter he has spotted (and knows to be trouble) has registered there for an assignment. It turns out she hasn't because she is up to no good. The building in the background of the top image is the old Govt Offices East Wing.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Central Police Station Compound, Central

I'm sticking with the Central Police Station (now Tai Kwun) for the next episode, Blind Bargain. This is the episode adapted from the un-aired pilot that co-starred Alex Davion in the original Chief Inspector role.

Various descriptions on the web say that the pilot was a cut down version of this episode, however, the way the characters interact and the way the story plays out in this episode, it looks to me more likely that this episode was constructed from the pilot footage with extra pick up shots inserted to pad the episode out to its 50 minute length (the original pilot was only 30 mins). An example would be the friendliness between Taylor's and Davion's characters that implies a close friendship despite the fact that for this episode, Davion is supposed to be a quick replacement brought in to fill in for Lloyd Bochner's usual 'Neil Campbell' character whilst the latter is away in the UK giving evidence in a trial.

So that I don't repeat myself too much, I've already updated the Pilot locations with a tag that also identifies them as locations for this episode, so the locations I'll include here are the ones that weren't in the pilot. In this case it is footage of Rod Taylor driving his car up the access ramp into the Police Station compound from Hollywood Road and then circling the central car park.

This exact same sequence was reused for the very last episode, The Runaway, a well.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon

The final shot from the series pilot is when Evans' female colleague is shown off at the airport. This image below shows the not-so-clear RAF Officer's Mess on the hill in the background which puts the plane in the RAF section of the airport.

Actually, by 1960 when this series was filmed, the new runway had already opened so this looks to me as though it was most likely stock footage. This isn't surprising given that this was the pilot episode intended only as a showcase for the show in the hope that it would be commissioned. This also explains why much of the on-character shots are either on a studio set or use back projection (in one scene, Taylor is filmed against a back projection that has been reversed - showing the Chinese characters written backwards).

Luckily for us, the series proper does use proper location filming and we'll get to some of those over the next few episodes.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Port Shelter, Sai Kung

This pilot episode involves Evans and a fellow journalist being kidnapped and a attempt made to take them over into "Red China" for propaganda purposes (the story was worked into a longer version for one of the proper aired episodes called Blind Bargain) and the vessel on which they are stowed is a wooden Chinese junk.

The footage shows the junk "near the border" but in actual fact I can tell you exactly where it was...Port Shelter in Sai Kung, between Hebe Haven and Sharp Island.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Des Voeux Road Central, Hong Kong

One of the establishing shots that pops up in the pilot episode (and several subsequent ones from the series) is one looking down Des Voeux Road Central from next to the Bank of China Building. The ornate lion on the left fronts the bank's Des Voeux Road entrance. Of course, that is the old Prince's Building in the background. It was knocked down not long after Queen's Building and the newer (current) version opened in 1965.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Aberdeen, Hong Kong

Another snippet from the pilot show's opening credits shows us a few shots taken around Aberdeen. In the top image you can just about make out the Chinese Permanent cemetery on the hillside in the background. The bottom image shows the small promontory with the Holy Spirit Seminary rooftop sticking up above the tree line.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - View Over Central, Hong Kong

Another brief shot from the opening credits of Hong Kong has us looking down at the bank buildings in Central. The quality isn't very good but I think most of those familiar with Hong Kong at the time would be able to recognise a few buildings, some of which are still around including the Bank of China Building and the US Consulate and old Govt offices on Garden Road. Notably missing is City Hall which had only just begun construction  in 1960.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Victoria Harbour

Another shot out to Steve Monticelli for pointing me towards Rod Taylor's website and its links to all of the episodes of Taylor's 1960 series, Hong Kong. I had heard of this show a while ago but it had been relegated to the back of my memory with everything else that I was finding so it's nice to have finally get to watch it.

The premise was apparently inspired by the Soldier of Fortune novel/film with Taylor as a foreign correspondent getting involved in all manner of subterfuge as he seeks out stories on the criminal goings on in the British Colony. He's aided in this by the Police Chief Inspector (played by Alex Davion in the pilot, but then changed to Lloyd Bochner in the subsequent series) and sometimes his butler/manservant, Ah Ting (played by Harold Fong).

It looks as though there was some location filming in Hong Kong, but very little of it actually involves the main actors and there is widespread use of back projection for some of the supposed local close ups. However, there is enough in there worthy of identifying and starting with the 30 minute pilot and its opening aerial shot of the harbour.

It's interesting to note that the opening credits features a bit of a blunder as the Chinese characters for Hong Kong are mixed up. See below. The characters read from right to left, and then move into vertical alignment with the 'Hong' (香 - heung1 in Cantonese) at the bottom and the 'Kong' (港 - gong2) at the top. The characters then spin and turn into the anglicised version of the words, but now the right way around. Someone must have tipped them off because the error was fixed for the start of the proper series.