Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - 41a Conduit Road, Mid-levels

A final post from Colonel Cat and it's the establishing shot for the closing scene as Tully and Evans convalesce in hospital following their tussle with the ruthless Japanese Colonel himself. The shot for the hospital appears to have taken some inspiration from Love is a Many-Splendored Thing and used the former Mok Villa at 41a Conduit Road (in that film, it was also supposed to be the hospital where Han Suyin practiced her medicine). Sadly the shot is so brief that if you blink you'll miss it. The building was demolished in the late 60's and Realty Gardens was built on the site. It pops up again, briefly, in the next episode in its true form for the time: the F.C.C.

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

In a brief scene, from Colonel Cat, shot in Aberdeen, Lloyd Bochman's Chief Inspector Campbell boards a sampan and makes his way over to what looks like the Sea Palace. I can't say for certain but the circular decoration close to where he boards looks very much like part of the ornamentation that used to be on the front of that, now disappeared, 'floating' restaurant.On an aside, you can see the old Police Station on the hill in the background.

This was footage used several times throughout the series and it occurs in a much longer version in the very last episode.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Canossa Hospital Steps, Robinson Road

There is a brief scene of Lloyd Bochner walking along a raised concrete pathway during the "looking for Tully" section in the middle of the Colonel Cat episode. This is a view I have never seen before but thankfully there are a couple of background landmarks that help narrow the location. Look carefully and you can see the Roman Catholic Cathedral down below in the background. This puts us somewhere in the vicinity of the section of Robinson Road that skirts the higher, southern edge of the Zoological and Botanical Gardens. Also, there is a large rectangular structure on the left of the sequence that is still there and is Raimondi College.

Initially, I thought this may have been part of the small walkway that creeps up the hill from Glenealy to Robinson Road, but closer examination of older aerial images confirms that this set of steps was located at the front of the podium terrace where the previous version of Canossa Hospital stood.

The current version of the hospital is an amalgamation of the old building (that Bochner would have been looking at) and a curved addition that goes right up to the edge of the terraced podium level. It looks as though the area where these steps were was incorporated into the car park that now sits under the new facade. Corrections welcome.

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

In one of the driving scenes from episode 8, Colonel Cat, Evans (Taylor) is driving his signature car around one of the hairpin bends on Magazine Gap Road. The "driving up" part of the sequence was also reused for the last episode, The Runaway.

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

Here is a new view of the Central Police Station Compund from episode 8, Colonel Cat. This is the first time we have this view from the central carpark/courtyard looking south towards what was once the main barrack block.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - KCR Terminus, Kowloon

Another of the entry points shown in the opening sequence is the KCR terminus in Kowloon. There is a little bit of footage of some of the old train carriages and then a quick jump to the platform.

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

Moving on to episode 8, Colonel Cat, and this story is about a known Japanese wartime criminal returning to Hong Kong to secretly reclaim a stash of bank notes that he buried before the end of the war. I'm not sure how widely known the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong was in the US, post-war, but this story follows a little bit of that history. The Colonel has escaped from a Japanese prison and is seen by Tully, Evans' bar-owning friend (played by Jack Kruschen), who was a victim of the Colonel's sadistic practises as an internee during the Japanese occupation of HK.

There are quite a few locations in this episodes largely thanks to the portion of the plot where Evans and Chief Inspector Campbell spend a bit of time wandering Hong Kong in search of the Colonel and their difficult to locate friend, Tully.

This is a brief sequence of a plane landing at Kai Tak from that episode. It was part of the opening sequence where the narration explains how many different ways there are to get into Hong Kong.