The Million Eyes of Sumuru - George Nader (1967) - Hongkong Hilton, Central

Well, following on from the last post for The Yin and Yang of Mr Go, I think I can now safely remove this location from the unknown list and post it here. As suspected, it appears to be an inner courtyard within the Hongkong Hilton hotel. I had hoped the distinctive wall decoration would be able to jog someone's memory but in the end it has taken the other film to confirm where it was.

So it looks like this was a Japanese garden within the hotel grounds. I had initially assumed the Japanese style arches were temporary for the purpose of filming but the appearance in two films over a space of 2 or 3 years tells me they were slightly more permanent. Anyway, another mystery solved.

The Million Eyes of Sumuru - George Nader (1967) - Shaws Movietown Temple Set, Clearwater Bay

I'm in the process of going through The Vengeance of Fu Manchu and was just about to post about the temple set when I realised I had neglected to post the same location for The Million Eyes of Sumuru. So here it is. This set used to stand around where the Clearwater Bay ESF school currently stands near to the entrance to Movietown.

Incidentally, if you are a member of Facebook, you can see a picture of this set at the following link within the Hong Kong in the '60s group (well worth joining for some nice pictures of HK). The owner of the photo (Brian Avery) puts the date at either 1966 or 1967. Given the state the place is in I suspect it was before these films were made, so more likely 1966. But there is enough detail in the picture to see it is the same set and of course, those are the Shaw dormitories at the back.

The Million Eyes of Sumuru - George Nader (1967) - Kennedy Road, Central

A quick one here that had me stumped for some time but after revisiting the film and paying a bit more attention to the surrounding frames of film I can confirm the location of the old mansion (it stands in for an Italian hospital in the film) was at 32 Kennedy Road on he site now occupied by a residential building called "Kenville".

Pay close attention to the building in the right hand side background because that is the rather modern (for 1966/7 anyway) looking side of St Joseph's College on the north side of Kennedy Road (#7).

The problem I had in identifying this location is that the road shows a distinct large curve (see third picture) around the front of the property. This curve has gone and the road it leads to can actually be seen in this post. It's the small driveway that leads around the back of Kennedy Apartments. All the other buildings along this strip of Kennedy Road date back to before the film was made which only left #32 as the potential and it was also confirmed to me in a brief shot (taken from that last scene I just linked to) as the guys are running down the steps to escape arrest at their hotel. I didn't include the shot here (because at the time it didn't seem important) but it shows a car waiting foir them at the bottom of the steps and lo-and-behold in the background is the same crumbly wall also seen in picture 3 above.

So there you go, another mystery solved and a brief glimpse at the old mansion that used to sit at #32 Kennedy Road.

Unfortunately I can't find anymore information about it, so if anyone can remember the place from pre-1973 (i.e. before Kenville was built) I would love to hear about it.

The Million Eyes of Sumuru - George Nader (1967) - Kennedy Road, Central

A quick trip back to Kennedy Road for this last Sumuru post (for the while, at least, while I try and get help identifying some other more obscure places).

After Nader and Avalon find a recently murdered girl in their Italian hotel room, they quickly scarper out the back entrance and into the hands of British Intelligence. The small alleyway they run down is actually a narrow link between Kennedy Road and MacDonnell Road and pops out onto Kennedy Road not far from the location of this earlier post.

The road on the left is a small road that runs up behind Kennedy Apartments at 34a Kennedy Road (and leads to South Garden Mansion) and the brick wall at the back is a retaining wall for the ground floor carpark/terrace of a development called Seaview Mansion. here is a modern view courtesy of Streetview.

The vegetation on the left is obscuring the wall of Kennedy Apartments but judging from other pictures I've seen the wall remains the same except for glass bricks being put in the wall openings. I also get the impression that the pathway has been widened. Looking at the modern picture you can still see the slanted stone steps on the left side of the path and the right hand side looking much more level. I think this portion of the steps, added where the concrete block with drainage holes is on film, was probably created when the neighbouring section was redeveloped into its current building, Kenville (built 1973). Actually, most of the buildings along this section of Kennedy Road seem to date from the 1960's with the exception of the relative "new boy" just mentioned.

The Million Eyes of Sumuru - George Nader (1967) - Yau Ma Tei Typhoon Shelter, Kowloon

When the police are about to launch their attack on Sumuru'a fortress island, they first assemble at a pier in the Yau Ma Tei Typhoon Shelter. Once again the nearby Yau Ma Tei Police Station gives us a rough indication of where the pier stood. You can see the station in the top picture, it's the white building in the background. 

The position of the pier/waterfront where the actors are seems to tally with the north side of Man Cheong Street. A large portion of the Ferry Point Estate was already completed by 1966/1967, so I think I am probably correct in saying this most likely filmed on the north side of man Cheong Road in front of the Man Wai Building (completed in 1966). The low rise buildings along the road at the back (it's still Ferry Street by the way) have since been replaced by one of China Light & Power's substations and the Saigon Street Playground.

In the lower picture you can see the old tenements that used to line Ferry Street that have since been replaced by Prosperous Gardens, but the building at the back between Maria Rohm and Paul Chang's head (he played the Police Inspector) is the still-standing Wah Tak Building along Waterloo Road.

The Million Eyes of Sumuru - George Nader (1967) - Star Ferry Pier, Tsim Sha Tsui

Despite the fact that she runs down a pier in Yau Ma Tei Typhoon Shelter, when the camera flicks over to her jumping on the ferry it is actually about a mile to the south at the Star Ferry Pier in Tsim Sha Tsui. But can you spot the rather obvious continuity error?

The top picture shows the ferry that she is running to, and the bottom one shows the ferry she actually gets on board.

The Silver Star (top picture) seems to still be in service in Hong Kong. It was brought into service in 1965 so was fairly new when this film was made. The Radiant Star is a relative veteran of film and despite going out of service in 1971 we have seen it before on this blog courtesy of an appearance in The World of Suzie Wong.

The Million Eyes of Sumuru - George Nader (1967) - Ferry Street, Yau Ma Tei

Maria Rohm's escape through the streets of Kowloon terminates at a ferry pier along, fittingly, Ferry Street in Yau Ma Tei. In fact there are two locations used in this shot, the first is this one Ferry Street, and the second one appears to be the Star Ferry Pier in Tsim Sha Tsui. A quick editing job makes it look like they are the same place. The older buildings along ferry Street seen below have long since gone, they were once part of the "six street slum" that was replaced by Prosperous Garden, but the Yau Ma Tei Police Station is still around for the time being and you can see it in the lower pictures where it sits along Public Square Street.

We had a glimpse of this area when we were looking at Ferry to Hong Kong a couple of years ago, and in fact this jetty is the same one used for the berth of the ferry in that film. I keep banging on about how much this area has changed, especially with the creation of the west Kowloon reclamation (which basically filled in the old typhoon shelter). But pictures speak a thousand words, so here's the Streetview.

The Million Eyes of Sumuru - George Nader (1967) - Wholesale Fruit Market, Yau Ma Tei

Coincidentally, this place was in the news last week due to a rather severe fire that ripped through part of the old market buildings (some built as long ago as 1913) and caused quite a bit of damage.

It appears very briefly in Sumuru as Maria Rohm (who also happened to be the wife of the producer Harry Alan Towers, hence why she is in this film, Five Golden Dragons and The Vengeance of Fu Manchu) makes her escape from the clutches of her former cult and makes a dash for it through the old streets of Kowloon.

The Million Eyes of Sumuru - George Nader (1967) - Kennedy Road, Central

After mentioning a hard-to-trace car park where the previous chase scene starts from, I ran into a bit of luck only a short time later and managed to track it down to a building on Kennedy Road. Here is the scene in question, it's when Nader leaves the night club and his associate is suckered into stopping to help a man lying on the road before being kidnapped. 

It turns out that this building - which looks like a low rise car park on film - is still around and is called Chenyu Court. It was pretty much brand new when this film was made (built in 1965) and has had surprisingly little done to it since then. The problem I had was that Google's excellent and very useful Streetview is currently having a problem with this location in that whenever you try to go there it throws you back onto MacDonnell Road. I've reported it but decided to head over this morning and take some of my own pictures for a change. The results are below. In the film we are still supposedly in Italy, and some Italian signs were put up to try and convince us as such.

The curved wall below is also still there and part of the boundary wall of the lower building of St Paul's Co-Educational College that fronts this part of Kennedy Road. I couldn't quite recreate the same angle without risking being run over.

I also wandered past Chenyu Court and confirmed that the parking lot seen in the film is this one as well. Sadly the grill was down so my view was a bit restricted, but I think you can see that it hasn't changed at all in the last 50 years.

The Million Eyes of Sumuru - George Nader (1967) - MacDonnell Road, Central

At the beginning of the film, Nader follows some kidnappers disguised as ambulance men along a twisty and rather dark street. If I was more familiar with Hong Kong Island I am sure I would have found this sooner, but the fact is even after 10 years in HK I know the streets of the Island itself very poorly. Anyway, after some rather long winded searches I have eventually found some of the buildings seen along the route and they are on MacDonnell Road.

Although I haven't quite found out where the funky looking carpark is where the chase starts (I'll stick it up on my "help me" page at some point), it's not long before we are passing a few recognisable spots. The following two shots show the garage of the precursor to today's Visalia Garden.

If you look carefully at the left hand side of the top picture you'll notice a wall fronting some apartments. The wall is still there (along with the apartments) and are part of Donnell Court. The current Streetview is below. 

The next shot is taken just around the next bend and shows the darkly illuminated exterior wall of St Paul's Co-Educational College. The current Streetview shows a bit of work going on outside, but I imagine people familiar with the school will recognise it below.

The next shot also shows us looking up to the next bend in the road. The building on the right belongs to the Christian Science (ha! gotta laugh at that name) Reading Room. The pillars at the back are part of a structure that looks to be part of the Morning Light Apartments up the slope - perhaps they are part of a small garage structure?

The Million Eyes of Sumuru - George Nader (1967) - Hap Mun Bay, Sharp Island

Well, the film makers were certainly very consistent in their portrayal of Sumuru's island hideaway. We've already seen some scenes from the north part of Sharp Island as the entry and exit point for the island and later in the film when the police stage a raid they actually sneak in from another direction - Hap Mun Bay at the southern part of Sharp Island.

There are couple of quick scenes filmed around the north part of Sharp Island as we see the police launch making its approach.

But the approach to the beach seen from the boat shows us Hap Mun (also known as Half Moon Bay) followed by shots looking back out to the sea from the point of view of the beach.

You can see a good comparison of the view in the lowest screen grab with this picture over on Panoramio. The peaks in the distance appear to be Buffalo Hill and West Buffalo Hill.

The Million Eyes of Sumuru - George Nader (1967) - Tiu Chung Chau, Port Shelter

I'm still trying the fathom the logic behind the next scene. It's when Avalon heads out to Sumuru's island with a fisherman in pursuit of the boat that George Nader has boarded. As they approach the island, Sumuru's henchwomen come out on a small boat a chuck a grenade at them.

It's basically a scene that could have been filmed pretty much anywhere in the waters of Hong Kong, but for some reason the location chosen was the relatively difficult-to-get-to (especially for a film crew) Jin Island aka Tiu Chung Chau.

What appears to be a secluded channel from where the baddies boat emerges from is actually the small gap between the southern tip of Jin Island and a rocky pinnacle called Tiu Chung Pai. The only thing I can think is that the film makers wanted us to believe it was some sort of entrance channel.

The following shots were taken at sea level as we see the grenade being thrown into the fishing boat. In the background you can see the part of the Clearwater Bay peninsula that is home to Lung Ha Wan (Lobster Bay) and surrounding area with High Junk Peak clearly poking up behind on the right. The second picture shows the small islets around that area including Trio Island which happens to be a favourite diving spot of mine.

The Million Eyes of Sumuru - George Nader (1967) - Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter, Causeway Bay

There's lots to see in the next scene where Avalon's character suddenly stumbles across Nader's as he is heading back to Sumuru's island. The whole sequence takes place on the causeway that once linked Kellet Island with Hong Kong. Actually, we've seen this area previously in Suzie Wong but in this film we get a much better look at the surrounding environment.

The scene starts with the camera pointing at the water of the shelter before panning south (to the right) showing the full extent (almost) of the causeway. Notice the far East Motor Company building at the back - the same one we can see in that Suzie Wong link. This whole area was taken over as the entry/exit point for the HK-side of the cross harbour tunnel. I believe the chimneys poking up behind Avalon's head on the third picture belonged to the famous North Point Power Station. The site was later redeveloped into the City Garden development.

A rather more expansive view of the waterfront is also to be had in this scene showing Gloucester Road before the Wanchai reclamation added a whole new portion of waterfront closer to Kowloon. There's something very striking about the second picture, it's not just the buildings but the fact that you can still see the mountains at the back. Sadly, all you can see these days is just the odd bit of green poking out between the various gaps in the skyscrapers.

Finally we also get a view the other way towards Kellet Island and the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club. I don't think the building has changed that much, but of course the club gained a whole bunch of land courtesy of the reclamation. The steps that Avalon runs down looks to be the one that is still there. It looks quite new in the film though.