L'Inconnue de Hong Kong - Dalida (1963) - Chungking Mansions, Tsim Sha Tsui

Another good spot from Thomas who was able to read the Chinese writing on the front of the building (樂聲牌陳列室) and determine that it was the "National Appliances" showroom. He was able to confirm from the current company website that they opened up a new showroom in Chungking Mansions in 1962 and it certainly does look as though this particular screen shot from the film was taken right at the main entrance. Chungking Mansions had opened in 1961 (back then it was a rather upmarket residential development - a far cry from its current reputation as cheap hostel complex), the National Appliance showroom opened in 1962 and then this film was shot in 1963.

You can look at the modern day Streetview for a comparison.

Anyway, once more a great find by Thomas so many thanks to him.

L'Inconnue de Hong Kong - Dalida (1963) - Prince Edward Road West, Kowloon City

Another great find thanks to Thomas. I was curious to find out where the following corner shophouse was located. It is briefly glimpsed in the film as the two women are catching a taxi ride from the airport back to their intended place of work. It's a brief glimpse that lasts only a couple of seconds. here is a couple of screen grabs.

Of particular interest for me was this rather elegant corner building with its open balconies. Anyway, it turns out there was enough information on screen to make a positive identification - largely courtesy of the building just to the left of the lamp post in the first picture.

Thomas was able to identify the place as a branch of the Liu Chong Hing Bank (廖創興銀行). It's not easy to see but the English name is also evident on the building as is the words "Kowloon City Branch". With this in mind Thomas asked a friend who lived there if he knew anything. Luckily his friend's mother-in-law remember the shop next to the bank. Thomas highlighted it below on another screencap.

The shop was called 煥更陳 and was along Prince Edward Road West near the junction with Nam Kok Road in Kowloon City. What a great find, but what is perhaps even more astonishing is that the building containing the aforementioned shop is still around. And what's more, it still has the same square patterned window frames! Here is the Streetview.

Sadly the corner building with the "Amoy" sign on it has now gone - but part of it was still in-situ until only just recently as you can see in the Streetview picture. Although the corner section of the block was demolished some time ago (around 1966) the section immediately next to it remained. Chow Tai Fook were the last company in there and you can see their shop in the Streetview picture above. Below is a closeup showing how the newer corner section (left side) was separated from the older bit on the right.

At the top of the right hand section you can see that the art deco/ziggurat style roof decoration (you can see it in the black and white screencaps) was left up there - albeit chopped in half when they demolished the corner section to the left. Sadly, as confirmed by Thomas who visited the site the other day, the whole block has now been demolished and is being replaced by a high rise.

So anyway, a very big thank you to Thomas who has, once again, gone above and beyond the call of duty to track this one down. 

2021 Update: I'm sad to report that this building has now been demolished and replaced with a new residential high-rise.

L'Inconnue de Hong Kong - Dalida (1963) - Aberdeen Harbour, Aberdeen

We also are treated to a quick glimpse of one end of the Tai Pak floating restaurant as two of the characters meet for a surreptitious meal as well as a very nice view across the harbour towards Ap Lei Chau showing just how little development there was at this time.

Restaurant Pontoons

On the deck of the Tai Pak 

L'Inconnue de Hong Kong - Dalida (1963) - Morrison Building, Tuen Mun

This one took some tracking down but I'm pleased to announce it is still standing although, sadly, it is not open to the general public. The place is actually a declared monument and goes by the English name of the Morrison Building. It's a great example of one of Hong Kong's many art-deco style buildings but you can only really catch glimpses of it these days through the railings of the school whose grounds it now sits within. You can read the link above for its historical significance.

It lies on the opposite side of (what was Castle Peak Bay) Tuen Mun to Tsing Shan Monastery but this scene was no doubt filmed at around the same time as the previous visit to that place.

L'Inconnue de Hong Kong - Dalida (1963) - Des Voeux Road Central, Hong Kong

A nice street scene here as the other central actress (Tania Béryl) goes for a walkabout in Central. The place is Des Voeux Road at the junction with Queen Victoria Street and the building she goes into is now called the Nexxus Building. In 1962 it was constructed as the Hang Seng Building but changed names later on (I'm not sure when, but perhaps when the bank constructed and moved into its current HQ next door?).

Look carefully at picture 3 and you can just see the roof edge of the Central Fire Station on the left hand side. That was the site Hang Seng took over for their new HQ.

L'Inconnue de Hong Kong - Dalida (1963) - Star Ferry Pier, Central

Much like Kai Tak Airport, a film set in Hong Kong is rarely complete without a quick trip on the Star Ferry. In this film we see the two female stars catching the Star Ferry from the pier over in Central - the pier was quite new at this time but has since sadly (and rather controversially) been removed and replaced by the most recent round of harbour reclamation.

The picture isn't clear enough for me to make out the name of the ferry but the style of boat is still very much in use even if the actual vessels themselves have been changed over the years.

L'Inconnue de Hong Kong - Dalida (1963) - Middle Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

In fact this view is from Salisbury Road looking over the (then) empty plot now occupied by the Sheraton (built ten years later in 1973). The buildings you can see are the Ambassador Hotel with its recognisable motif on the external wall. The hotel has since gone and been replaced by an office block called Oterprise Square. Next to it is Far East Mansion (built 1959) one of the old blocks still surviving today and looking much the same. Of course, the building far left in the top photo is the corner of The Peninsula Hotel.

L'Inconnue de Hong Kong - Dalida (1963) - Prat Avenue, Tsim Sha Tsui

On a night off from work, the girls are accompanied by their friend (played by Serge Gainsbourg) to the Bodega Bar. This was a real bar and night club and located at #30 Prat Avenue. In the screen grabs you can also see another establishment called the Bombay Oriental Restaurant, also on Prat Avenue (#19) and you can find one of it's old business cards over on Gwulo.com (reverse side of card here). Prat Avenue is still around of course, but the buildings have long gone.

L'Inconnue de Hong Kong - Dalida (1963) - Pilkem Street, Kwun Chung

Whilst the girls are performing at the night club, they are accommodated in a hotel called the Honor Hotel. It turns out to have been a real place and was located at the Austin Road end of Pilkem Street (where the Pilkem Commercial Centre now stands). Most people call this area Jordan after the nearby MTR station, but actually it's proper name is Kwun Chung. The hotel appears to have a fair amount of sordid history according to the blurb that is attached to this video of it on Youtube.

L'Inconnue de Hong Kong - Dalida (1963) - City Hall, Central

Well, not really a view of City Hall but rather a view from City Hall. In one of my favourite scenes, one of the actors walks from Edinburgh Place along the open space directly under City Hall before heading out onto Connaught Road.

This passageway under City Hall remains virtually unchanged but there have been big changes around it since including the removal of the Star Ferry terminal with its iconic clock (background of top picture), the redevelopment of both the Standard Chartered and HSBC bank buildings (picture 3) and finally the Hong Kong Club (across the road in the lowest picture). Note the empty space on the right of picture 3 - this is the area that was getting ready to have Prince's Building built on it. It opened 2 years later in 1965.

L'Inconnue de Hong Kong - Dalida (1963) - Tai Pak Floating Restaurant, Castle Peak

Some time around 1962 (not sure on the exact year) the owners of the Tai Pak Floating restaurant in Aberdeen Harbour decided to retire their old restaurant and replace it with a brand spanking new one. The original (that can be seen in films such as The World of Suzie Wong and Love is a Many-Splendoured Thing) was moved out of Aberdeen and towed all the way over to the Sam Shing Hui area of Castle Peak Bay (Doug has lots of great pictures of it, including this one) where it sat for many years.

Anyway, it's the original version in Castle Peak Bay that can be seen in L'Inconnue de Hong Kong. Note that when it was relocated to Castle Peak (today's Tuen Mun) it had a wooden board walk linking it to land (very similar to the old floating restaurant in Shatin that some people confuse it with).

L'Inconnue de Hong Kong - Dalida (1963) - Aerial View of Kowloon Part 3

The final few shots of the Kowloon panorama take in the rest of the space between Mongkok and the Kowloon hills. You can't see the famous ridge line of Lion Rock because it has been chopped off by the camera however, it's the hill on the centre right in the third picture. The ridge line rises on the left hand side up to Beacon Hill. 

On the lower slopes of the hills you can see a faint line running across, made more obvious by the shaving of the hills at various points. This is Lung Cheung Road and is still the main highway linking north and east Kowloon.

Above the previously mentioned Tai Hang Tung recreation ground is a small hill called Woh Chai Shan - you can see it on the left in the upper picture and centre left in the lower pictures. These days it is a fairly anonymous hill in Shek Kip Mei (though it seems to be popular with walkers and bird watchers) with a service reservoir on the summit, but for a long time it also housed a large number of squatter huts up and down its various slopes. As part of the response to the fires (in Tai Hang Tung in 1952 and Shek Kip Mei the following year) the Govt constructed the two housing estates that can be seen above - Tai Hang Tung estate t o the right of Woh Chai Shan and Shek Kip Mei to the left. Both estates have since undergone subsequent regeneration/rebuilding.

On the right of the lowest picture is the low-rise areas of Yau Yat Chuen and Kowloon Tong, but at the mountain end of that area you can see the relatively high rise white buildings of what were the Kowloon Tsai military quarters. These have since been replaced (quite recently - 2004) by a large residential development called One Beacon Hill.

L'Inconnue de Hong Kong - Dalida (1963) - Aerial View of Kowloon Part 2

Moving to the north slightly for our next set of three pictures and the top left hand side of the top picture shows Kadoorie Hill. You can see it move to the right as the camera pans left. The main road that runs from the bottom left of the picture past the right hand side of Kadoorie Hill is, of course, Argyle Street and you can actually see more of it in the middle picture. On top of Kadoorie Hill you can make out the vague shape of the Diocesan Boys School, although the playing field is more obvious as a bare patch. Just to the right of that is St George' Court built in 1961.

To the right of Kadoorie Hill is an empty patch of ground next to Waterloo Road. It was once a hill but at the time of filming was being formed for the construction of the developments around what would become Man Fuk Road and Man Wan Road. The first block to be completed here was Sunlight Garden in 1964 - this place is perhaps more famous for being Bruce Lee's home when he first returned to Hong Kong to launch his movie career in 1971.

Look carefully along Argyle Street in the next picture and you can make out the KCR rail bridge about halfway along the road just at the tip of Kadoorie Hill. In the bottom centre veering right is Mongkok Road - perhaps better known now as the road that has the pedestrian walkway running down part of its length. Look carefully on the left hand side and you should be able to make out what looks like a river channel/nullah. This is the famous nullah that gives Nullah Road its name and as far as I know the waterway still runs underneath the road. I may pop down one day and see how much of the nullah is still visible.

The last picture below shows a little more of the Tai Hang Tung area. The large open space is still open today and consists of Tai Hang Tung recreation ground and Fa Hui Park on the other side of Boundary Street. In fact if you look closely you can see Boundary Street running through the middle of it all. On this side is the Boundary St recreation ground and the running track of what is now Mongkok Stadium. Splitting the open ground in two on the left side is the southern end of Yau Yat Chuen and at the very tip you can make out the still standing Yau Yat Chuen School.

Anyway, lots to see but too much to mention here. A little more to come in the next post.

L'Inconnue de Hong Kong - Dalida (1963) - Aerial View of Kowloon Part 1

There is a rather nice sequence at the start of this film when the protagonists are supposedly flying into Hong Kong which takes in a large swathe of Kowloon. I have around 9 grabs taken from it but wanted to split them up because there is a lot to look at.

The sequence starts over the old typhoon shelter and finishes looking to the hills to the north and I am sure anyone familiar with Kowloon in the 1960's (and later) will recognise some familiar landmarks. here are the first three pictures. I've arranged the pictures in reverse order below so that the continuity is easier to see between the buildings. I guess we are looking at the area where Yau Ma Tei meets Mongkok.

So what are we looking at? The lower picture shows the old typhoon shelter (now reclaimed) with two main roads visible at the waterfront. On the left is Soy Street and on the right (just off top centre) is the end of Dundas Street. Unsurprisingly, the whole (ex-) waterfront has been redeveloped extensively and in fact only until recently we still had some survivors. The large block between both roads has only just been knocked down. You can still see it on Streetview for the time being but the next time Google do an update it will be gone. The typhoon shelter at this section now houses some large developments including Charming Garden and Park Avenue.

In the middle picture there is some difficulty in making out detail amongst all the grey, but on the left of centre is a large white block that sticks out a bit. This building sits on Reclamation Street (on the other side of the building from where we are) and was brand spanking new in 1963 - hence it being nice and shiny. I was in Reclamation Street just the other week and noticed that this block (it encompasses #331 thru #355) has recently been taken over by the dreaded U.R.A (that's the Urban Renewal Authority that for so long has been very successful at under-compensating old flat owners for the destruction of their homes). So, it looks like the block will be demolished at some point in the near future. You may feel I bang on a bit about getting rid of old buildings, but just take a look at this place to see how old buildings can be made to look absolutely fantastic if people took the time and effort.

Anyway, in the top picture you can just make out the slopes of King's park at the top right and the hospital buildings of Kwong Wah Hospital along Waterloo Road at the bottom of the slope. The hospital has had another wing added to the main building since then but other than that remains fairly unchanged.

L'Inconnue de Hong Kong - Dalida (1963) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon City

A fair amount of the early action takes place inside the old terminal building at Kai Tak airport as a smuggled diamond is passed around from one person to another inside a bar of soap. As a result we get some shots of what I can only assume is the inside of the old terminal building as well as a few shots of the exterior including the first one, below, of the ramp up to the departures area.

A few shots of the interior which look legit to me, although feel free to correct me otherwise.

And finally a couple more shots on the outside showing the famous (and still there) runway. Note in the top picture you can see the buildings that line Mok Cheong Street (aka Saw Mill Street) in Ma Tau Wai. Those buildings were all completed in and around 1960 and are still standing.