Summons to Death - Tang Ching (1967) - Hotel Merlin, Middle Road

A fourth pirate brother, Cheung Biu (Huang Tsung-hsun), is responsible for killing all of his fellow pirates for the treasure map and, in a bit of pre-Mission Impossible face swapping, Tang Lui creates a mask of him so he can access his hotel room in town. The hotel in question was the Hotel Merlin located on the corner of Hankow and Middle Roads. This is where the Kowloon Hotel now stands although the Kowloon Hotel takes up the space once occupied by both the Hotel Merlin and the Peninsula Court Hotel. The hotel has appeared briefly on the blog before, although in name only, see the bottom images on this post.

I do remember Chaplin Chang telling me many years ago that Hotel Merlin was where the production offices were based for the filming of Lord Jim whilst the crew were in town for the HK-based scenes.

A Cause to Kill - Ivy Ling Po (1969) - Middle Road Carpark, Tsim Sha Tsui

Hsin Li arranges for a taxi driver to pick up her unclaimed briefcase on her behalf and she sits in his taxi waiting for him to return. The taxi was parked on the carpark located on what is now the site of the Sheraton Hotel. This film was shot just a few years before the site was redeveloped into the hotel in the early 70s.

In the background of the lower image you can see the former Ambassador Hotel on the left (now a mixed use block called "26 Nathan Road") and on the right the still-extant Far East Mansions. The road on the left hand side is, of course, Nathan Road.

The Merry Wife - Li Ching (1971) - Brunswick Bowling, Middle Road

Zhenzhen's classmate follows her to Brunswick Bowling Alley on Middle Road. I believe this place was operating from the mid-60s on the ground floor/basement of the former Middle Road Multi-storey carpark. The carpark was knocked down circa 2015 to make way for a new high rise office block, but I have no idea when the bowling alley disappeared.

The zig-zag wall in the background of the second image was located in front of the former Mariners Club building. I'm not sure if it survived the recent development so I'll be sure to have a look next time I am down that way. On the left of the last image (with Li Ching looking past the camera) is the former Ambassador Hotel on the corner of Middle and Nathan Roads.

Heisser Hafen Hongkong - Horst Frank (1962) - Far East Mansion, Middle Road

Another pandemic find that never made the blog is this image from Heisser Hafen Hongkong. It shows a shop facade decorated like a Chinese temple and the misleading name of Plaza House had me scratching my head for where it could be. Luckily, regular Gwulo'er Moddsey was able to identify this location courtesy of his huge catalogue of old Hong Kong photos and he told me this was a tailor business located on the ground floor of Far East Mansions on Middle Road, Tsim Sha Tsui. It's a while since I watched this film but I think it was supposed to be the business run by the film's antagonist, Marek (Horst Frank).

To Be Number One - Ray Lui (1991) - St Peter's Church, The Mariner's Club

Next up is To Be Number One, a romanticised/glorified version of the story of Limpy Ho, one of Hong Kong's most notorious drug lords. The story follows Limpy Ho (Ng Ho-sik - played by Ray Lui) from his beginnings escaping the Communist-fuelled famine in the Mainland, and his rise up through the ranks and power of the Hong Kong triad gangs as he peddled opium and heroine from noodle carts in Shek Kip Mei.

Ray Lui chews up the scenery and even appears to be emulating Marlon Brando's "Godfather" as later in the film it looks like he has stuffed his cheeks with cotton wool to appear fatter. The film was obviously made before the real Ho passed away from cancer in 1991 because the end credits state that he was released in 1995 (in reality he had already had his sentence reduced and was living in supervised hospital care for the remainder of his life).

The opening scene shows Ho (Lui with dyed-grey hair) in his later years as he attends a church service and then looks back on his life. These scenes themselves are now part of their own history because the real-life chapel where this was shot was St Peter's Church located in the recently-demolished old Mariner's Club. The church was deconsecrated in 2018 and the building handed over to the developers in 2020. It has since been replaced by a monstrosity at least three times taller than the original building. 

Yellow Emanuelle - Chai Lee (1977) - The Ambassador Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui

It appears that George's favourite hotel when he is stopping over between flights is the Ambassador Hotel on Middle Road. Well, the front entrance was on Middle Road but the building itself occupied the corner plot shared with Nathan Road. It was famous for having a large, tall mural on the exterior facade facing Nathan Road. It closed in 1994 and Oterprise Square went up in its place, although this has also been renamed simply to "26 Nathan Road". I've included the screen shot of what I think might be the hotel's real lobby, but I'm not sure so perhaps if anyone can remember what it looked like they can comment below. (edit: confirmation from Rodney in the comments that it was real)

Note the sign above the front entrance - possible evidence that the film was shot in 1976, assuming it wasn't left up too long after it was needed. 

City on Fire - Chow Yun Fat (1987) - Middle Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

As Tiger and Ko Chow case up a few jewellery stores along Nathan Road,they take a lunch break on the corner of Middle/Nathan Roads and watch two women emerge from the Peninsula Hotel across the street.

In the background you can see the sign for the Kowloon Hotel which was in the news recently when the actor Kenneth Tsang passed away in one of the rooms during his quarantine stay. Sadly, the hotel staff were unwilling to open the room for his daughter when she lost contact with him. A sad indictment of Hong Kong's increasingly ridiculous Covid restrictions and the repurcussions the Govt has threatened should any rules be broken i.e. the staff were more fearful of the Govt than they were of a man (a revered HK actor, no less) dying in one of their rooms.

Righting Wrongs - Yuen Biao (1986) - Middle Road Playground, Tsim Sha Tsui

Biao drives his Merc to the Middle Road playground to reminisce about one of the trial witnesses that has just been killed when some kid called "fatty" (yes, Hong Kongers really do have a tendency to call people who are "gravitationally challenged", fat - kids and adults) accidentally chucks his football through the car's open window.

This playground no longer exists because it was removed to make way for East TST - then KCR, now MTR - station. Another change in this area is that the Mariner's Club has either been demolished already or is about to be (I haven't checked yet) to make way for a newer larger version.

When the station construction was complete, a new playground was constructed on the roof and the area is linked to the promenade by a rooftop walkway over Salisbury Road. Spot the also-now-demolished New World Centre building in the background of the last image.

Weiße Fracht für Hongkong - Dietmar Schönherr (1963) - Nathan Road, Kowloon

Here's a view I haven't seen before on this blog, at least from the early 60's. It's a view up Nathan Road from the corner of Middle Road. That corner is now occupied by Oterprise Square but prior to that had one of Tsim Sha Tsui's most popular hotels - The Ambassador - with its large exterior wall mural. We don't have the angle to see the mural on these following screencaps but if you look at my previous posts that include the hotel then you can catch brief glimpses of it.

On the left of the top picture is what I believe to be the former Marco Polo - Peninsula Court Hotel (since replaced by the Kowloon Hotel) and beyond that looks to be the Prestige Tower in its inaugural year (built in 1963). This one is still around with its inward curving lower floors taken up be jewellers and high end fashion. Under construction next door (along to the right) is Alpha House, opened in 1964, and then beyond that is the former Hyatt Hotel (now iSquare) under its original name "The President Hotel". According to this postcard over on Gwulo.com, it opened in the autumn of 1963, but I can't tell from this picture whether or not it's open when this was made. 

Flatfoot in Hong Kong - Bud Spencer (1975) - Middle Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

Another one from Flatfoot in Hong Kong that I have just found. It was seen during the chase sequence between Rizzo (Bud Spencer) and Barella (Al Lettieri). It's a quick shot of the stone steps next to the Mariner's Club at the end of Middle Road. I had originally posted a Streevtiew shot of the same place, but this whole block has been redeveloped in the past few years due to the demolition of the old Mariner's Club. The original 60's era club building has been replaced by a modern day skyscraper of which the club now occupies a few floors (no doubt this was part of the redevelopment deal). So I shall give you this link to the historical Streetview for comparison. I believe the steps are still there but they won't be looking quite how they used to since the rebuild.

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.

I Spy (TV Series) - Robert Culp (1965) - Nathan Road southern end, Kowloon

Moving back to I Spy for this one and a nice sequence from the episode entitled Chrysanthemum. What we have is a view of the side door to the hotel which opens onto Nathan Road (for those who don't know, the main door of the hotel faces south towards Salisbury Rd and the harbour).

Now, there is still a side entrance at this point of the hotel but much has changed since 1965. The doorway now leads into the so-called Peninsula Arcade - basically a shopping mall containing the usual high end shops. In 1965 though, when these episodes were filmed this door entered into the hotel proper. As you can see from the brass plate in the current Streetview below, this is also now the entrance to Gaddi's, which is now situated up the stairs (it used to be on the ground floor). You should also be able to see that along with being turned into a mall, the exterior of the ground floor has also been extensively remodeled so that the shops have external window displays.

A second after the man in the hat follows Culp and Cosby, the camera pans across Nathan Road to the opposite side and we get a quick glimpse of another hotel that has since departed: The Ambassador.

The Ambassador was quite striking courtesy of a large mural on the Nathan Road-facing wall. Gwulo.com has a good closeup here: http://gwulo.com/node/14902. Although I'm unsure when it disappeared - probably when Oterprise Square replaced it (whenever that was, it's build date seems to be eluding me at the moment) - it was built in 1960 and so was only a few years old as we see it above.

Eagle-eyed readers may also have noticed the rather large space standing on the south side of Middle Road (on the other side of the bus in the pic above). This of course is now the Sheraton Hotel, but in 1965 was just a large open car park. The hotel didn't appear until 1973.