Showing posts with label Gambit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gambit. Show all posts
Monday, December 8, 2014
Gambit - Shirley MacLaine (1966) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon
To round off this short trip back to 1966 for Ronald Neame's Gambit, here is a parting shot of a plane coming in to land at the former Hong Kong International Airport at Kai Tak.
Sunday, December 7, 2014
Gambit - Shirley MacLaine (1966) - Cameron Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
Well, after following her slowly in the car, we see Shirley's body double arrive at her destination. It's the Cherry Bar and many thanks to Doug Price who identified the location of that particular bar (and several others) for me earlier in the year: 24 Cameron Road (and the Kobe Bar next to it at #26)
The site these days is occupied by a building called the - perhaps rather aptly - Eastern Flower Centre. Anyway, I've attempted to recreate the same angle below with Streetview. Just to be clearer, the old Kobe Bar was situated in the area now occupied by the black entrance to the right of the bank. The Cherry Bar, with its big red doors, was immediately next door under the red sign next door. Sadly both now gone.
The site these days is occupied by a building called the - perhaps rather aptly - Eastern Flower Centre. Anyway, I've attempted to recreate the same angle below with Streetview. Just to be clearer, the old Kobe Bar was situated in the area now occupied by the black entrance to the right of the bank. The Cherry Bar, with its big red doors, was immediately next door under the red sign next door. Sadly both now gone.
Saturday, December 6, 2014
Gambit - Shirley MacLaine (1966) - Hart Avenue, Tsim Sha Tsui
In one of those scenes I mentioned earlier, we see a first person's view of a woman walking away from the camera along a road somewhere in Hong Kong. The woman is supposedly the nightclub dancer character played by Shirley MacLaine and the person whose eyes we are looking through is Michael Caine as he slowly follows her in his car.
Luckily for us, this area hasn't changed very much despite the time that has passed (nearly 50 years!) and the fact that a large tract of the area was razed to make way for the U.R.A redevelopment that now has 'The Masterpiece' (and the K11 mall) as its centrepiece.
Anyway, in the first few pictures above we see our body double as she walks south around the rather unique bend of Carnarvon Road where it intersects with Humphrey's, Hart and Pratt Avenues.
As she walks around the corner we see the very distinctive shape of a corner building. This is Rose Mansion and we can also see it in the recent Streetview picture below. This old building on the corner of Prat and Hart Avenues has been around since 1958 and is really about the only recognisable thing left.
After she crosses the road in front of Rose Mansion, our walker heads to the right down Hart Avenue and we get a brief glimpse of how it looked back in the mid-60's (see the last two pictures in the screen grabs). And here it is today. It seems that the right hand side of Hart Avenue is fairly modern compared with the left - and it looks as though the modern buildings have encroached somewhat on what used to be a much wider road.
Except that, in this only real close up view of the Hong Kong, we are actually following a body double and Michael Caine, when we get a glimpse of him, is actually being filmed with a back projection. In other words, neither actor was ever in Hong Kong for these scenes and it is likely that a local company was hired to film them or a small unit from the US went out to capture what was necessary for the plot.
Anyway, it's done quite well and luckily for us we do get a brief glimpse of what turns out to be a few streets in the Tsim Sha Tsui area of Kowloon. Here are the grabs.
In case you hadn't guessed already, the woman in the green dress and headscarf (conveniently hiding her hair) is supposedly Shirley MacLaine's dancer who Caine wants to recruit for a heist operation. He's following her along Hart Avenue in Tsim Sha Tsui as she walks towards her place of employment.
Luckily for us, this area hasn't changed very much despite the time that has passed (nearly 50 years!) and the fact that a large tract of the area was razed to make way for the U.R.A redevelopment that now has 'The Masterpiece' (and the K11 mall) as its centrepiece.
Anyway, in the first few pictures above we see our body double as she walks south around the rather unique bend of Carnarvon Road where it intersects with Humphrey's, Hart and Pratt Avenues.
As she walks around the corner we see the very distinctive shape of a corner building. This is Rose Mansion and we can also see it in the recent Streetview picture below. This old building on the corner of Prat and Hart Avenues has been around since 1958 and is really about the only recognisable thing left.
After she crosses the road in front of Rose Mansion, our walker heads to the right down Hart Avenue and we get a brief glimpse of how it looked back in the mid-60's (see the last two pictures in the screen grabs). And here it is today. It seems that the right hand side of Hart Avenue is fairly modern compared with the left - and it looks as though the modern buildings have encroached somewhat on what used to be a much wider road.
Friday, December 5, 2014
Gambit - Shirley MacLaine (1966) - Views of the Harbour, Hong Kong
A quick change of film for a few posts as we look at a few scenes from 1966's Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine film - Gambit.
Now, this film is obviously (to me at least) one of those that has a few outdoor scenes shot on location in Hong Kong, but actually the main action occurs elsewhere (i.e. in a studio in California). Much like the HK scenes in You Only Live Twice, these ones from Gambit are also only used as a device to establish the location of the characters at the beginning of the film - so I strongly suspect neither actor was in HK for any filming.
Despite the lack of any real HK-based scenes the film makers did get some nice shots of a mid-60's Hong Kong including these ones that were shown during the opening credits.
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