Das Mädchen von Hongkong - Joachim Fuchsberger (1973) - Kowloon Wharf and Godowns, Tsim Sha Tsui

From one harbourfront location to another, this time across the harbour and over to Kowloon side and the cargo processing area that was around before the Gateway and Harbour Centre were built. 

The waterside road that the cops are walking along has since been turned in to Gateway Boulevard. Most of the scenes filmed around here don't show the various water side buildings, but we've seen them on the blog previously (such as here and here).

Jason King (TV Series) - Peter Wyngarde (1972) - Hong Kong & Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company, Tsim Sha Tsui

We last visited the godowns in TST whilst looking at Shirley's World a few weeks ago. Here it is in Jason King in what I assume is stock footage.Stock footage or not, it's nice to remember that what is now prime waterfront commercial space had a more humble past life.

Shirley's World (TV Series) - Shirley MacLaine (1972) - Hong Kong & Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company, Tsim Sha Tsui

We just saw it in the last post because Shirley's destination is the Wharf and Godown offices that used to line the waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui. So far the place has popped up once before when we looked at Golden Needles a few years back. The rather nicely designed main building use to stand pretty much where Harbour City stands today.

Look carefully at the bottom picture and you can see where Ocean Terminal (in the background) is relative to the old building. You can still access this area along Gateway Boulevard, but of course these days the buildings are all part of the aforementioned Harbour City development and Ocean Terminal has also had the car park spiral exit/entry ramp built on the side.

A Countess from Hong Kong - Sophia Loren (1967) - Former Kowloon Docks, Tsim Sha Tsui

Another notable glimpse of the real Hong Kong from this film is a quick view of the wooden pier that used to occupy the spot now taken up by Ocean Terminal. It shows a large cruise ship at dock - the one that all the subsequent action is supposed to take place on - which can just be identified as the SS President Wilson.

We know that this film was released in 1967 which means it was most likely filmed either earlier that year or sometime in 1966. The problem is that Ocean Terminal also opened in 1966 (on the 22nd March according to wiki), quite early on in the year. So either the limited HK locations on this film were shot a couple of years earlier or the film was perhaps some unused footage shot for another movie and incorporated into this one. My gut tells me that the HK images we see on film were licensed from someone else - there is just too little footage to justify spending money on a separate film crew to capture some brief scenes.

Well anyway, if you look at the screen grab below taken from the beginning of The World of Suzie Wong (the original post can be seen here), it's interesting to note that it shows the very same ship berthed at the very same wooden pier - you can even see the curved canopy that runs along the centre of the pier.

The World of Suzie Wong (1960)

I wonder if anyone out there knows how often the SS President Wilson used to berth at Hong Kong in the 1960's? It seems to have been a regular visitor and was eventually bought by CY Tung anyway.

Ferry to Hong Kong - Curt Jurgens (1959) - Former Kowloon Docks, Tsim Sha Tsui

We go back to the late 50's now for a story based on a real life incident involving a post civil-war refugee (a chap named Michael P. O'Brien) who had to spend several months to-ing and fro-ing between Hong Kong and Macau. Taking his twice daily trip between HK and Macau as the basis for the story, Curt Jurgens plays a down and out who is marked as an undesirable by both the Macau and HK authorities, meaning he isn't allowed to step foot in either.

As you can imagine we get to see a fair bit of coastline and waterside facilities in this film and the opening scene gives us a very similar one to that seen a year later in The World of Suzie Wong when William Holden disembarks from his ship into TST.

It's a brief glimpse, but we see a large ship tied up at what is now Ocean Terminal. You can see the distant shape of western Hong Kong Island in the background.

The World of Suzie Wong - William Holden (1960) - Former Kowloon Docks, TST

Most people who have visited HK will be familiar with Ocean Terminal and it's associated shopping mall, but did you know that before that place was built is was a working dock area that doubled as a cruise ship berth? Going back to 1960 and we can see what it looked like at. The beginning of the film involves a sequence where we see William Holden disembark his ship and walk all the way over to the Star Ferry where he first sees the beautiful Suzie. The working nature of the dock should be evident by the derricks and the rail tracks on the floor. This section of track actually ran all the way over to the KCR terminus so that goods could be loaded on/off the train. There is also a small turn circle on the floor (3rd picture) to allow a small goods rail truck to go to another part of the dock yard.

Notice the sign on the wall of the last picture that is advertising St Andrew's Church. I guess it was a slightly more religious era because, personally, after spending several weeks on a boat I would probably be more grateful of directions to a hotel and/or bar.