Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Queen's Building, Central

In Double Jeopardy the other sister is staying at a hotel in the city and Queen's Building is the building used as the establishing shot for the hotel. Although Queen's Building and Prince's Building were of a very similar, almost identical, design, Queen's Building is identifiable by the top storey arched windows whereas Prince's Building has rectangular windows on that floor.

Anyway, it's nice to see such a great looking building that was demolished not long after this was filmed and replaced by the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in 1962.

Interestingly, in the background the top floors of the new Union/Swire House can be seen. I know a portion of the later Hong Kong episodes were shot and shown in 1961 but I was under the impression that the Hong Kong on-location footage would have been filmed in one big chunk sometime at the start of the show in 1960. Even if this is a later shot filmed in 1961 it still pushes the build date of Swire House back to 1961 (there was some discussion about the date over on Gwulo.com).

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

In Double Jeopardy, the "double" in question are twin sisters, one of whom has committed a murder in order to steal a large sum of money. The money is then stashed in a safety deposit box at a local bank and the establishing shot for these scenes is an image of what I believe is the old United Chinese Bank (中國聯合銀行) building that used to stand (until around 2010) on the corner of Des Voeux Road Central and Douglas Street. Unfortunately, it has been quite difficult to track down a similar vintage street shot to confirm 100%.

Anyway, the bank was taken over by the Bank of East Asia in the 90's and this building became part of the BEA network until it was demolished and replaced by the current building, opened just a few years ago, inspiringly named "33 Des Voeux Road Central".

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Cheung Sha Wan, Kowloon

For episode 18, Double Jeopardy, I'm re-posting a clip that was used way back in episode 2, Murder Royal, because in this later episode we see a bit more of the Cheung Sha Wan area as the camera pans from right to left. Recall from the original post that this clip was initially shown reversed but for this later episode it is shown in the correct orientation.

As I mentioned on the old post, the large white block on the right is about the only recognisable structure that is still around today but what is interesting is that this image captures some of the old So Uk estate still under construction (lower left of bottom image). The estate, quite famous in Hong Kong, has also undergone a complete demolition and rebuild over the last few years or so and, like all new Govt housing, the lower height blocks are now all replaced by new high rises. The footage looks like it was taken from Tai Po Road in the vicinity of the former Carlton Hotel.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - King's Road, Quarry Bay

This episode, The Dragon Cup, actually has a location in it that took a long time to track down, simply because the area has changed so much over the last 30 years that I was having a hard time reconciling the screen captures with how it looks today. Again, the mapping office aerial pictures were crucial to identifying where this was.

What you are seeing is how the section of King's Road in Quarry Bay used to look when it was largely filled with Swire/Tai Koo-related infrastructure. In the top two images we are looking west back along King's Road. The steep slope with the building at the top was located where Westland Gardens now sits. The building was one of the Tai Koo buildings but I'm not sure what it's role was.

as the car passes the location of the camera, although the background is blurred from the camera motion, it's possible to make out a flat area with a wall and gate. This open area corresponds with today's Fortis Centre/Eastern Centre and Shipyard Lane that runs in a loop around these two office buildings.

These final two images show the view looking east towards the curve in King's Road that existed prior to the road being straightened and becoming Kornhill Road. If you look at modern maps, you'll see that King's Road actually still follows its original route here, turning north where Kornhill Road begins. The tree covered hillside seen at the road bend below was excavated at some point. The road was straightened and the massive Kornhill development (including the north and south developments as well as the plaza) were built in the location. It is completely unrecognisable today. The excavation/removal of the hill and subsequent creation of Kornhill Road et al occurred sometime around the mid 1980s.

This same clip was also used in the later episodes Double Jeopardy, Lady Godiva.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Causeway Road, Causeway Bay

This quick sequence showing Evans' car driving in the westbound lane of Causeway Road is used for the first time in this episode, To Catch a Star. The large monolithic building in the left background is the former Causeway Bay magistracy, built in a very similar style to the North Kowloon Magistracy on Tai Po Road that now houses the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), with its long vertical window openings. This isn't surprising given that both buildings were built around the same time, the only difference is that this one was demolished sometime in the late 1980s and "Park Towers" built on the site.

This snippet was used again in future episodes 12, 18, and 19 - The Dragon Cup, Double Jeopardy and Lady Godiva, respectively.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Pottinger Street, Central

The first shot following the opening credits of episode 4, Freebooter, is a glimpse up Pottinger Street from Queen's Road Central. This same shot is used again in Double Jeopardy.(ep:18) and The Runaway (ep:26).