...and Millions will die! - Richard Basehart (1973) - Edinburgh Place, Central

A last post from this movie before we move on and it's the location where Gallagher's minion grabs hold of Pruit and forces him into a waiting car to take him back to the Excelsior. The building with the circular window apertures is the Connaught Centre (now Jardine House). This was completed in 1973 and by the looks of the imges below it still had some temporary construction lifts running up the side of it (second image) when the film was shot.

...and Millions will die! - Richard Basehart (1973) - The Excelsior Hotel, Causeway Bay

Alas no more, demolished during the Covid lockdown, the Excelsior has been a popular filming location over the years, perhaps most famously for the lift farting scene in Revenge of the Pink Panther. In this film it appears to be that Gallagher (Leslie Nielsen) has some sort of private residence on the roof, but I believe this was the "Talk of the Town" bar on the - then - top floor. At some point the hotel looks to have encapsulated the previous open roof section around the 34th floor and incorporated it into the main structure. The second batch of images below, shows the previously open roof section around the bar - behind where the hotel name sign was.

Talk of the Town? Please feel to comment if you ever went there. I only ever made it as far as the Churchill Bar in the basement with a bunch of folks from Gwulo many years ago.

The area on the roof by the bar

The scarring on the hillside in the background is the start
of construction of the Lai Tak Estate.

Roof terrace entrance/exit

We then get afew shots of the hotel interior as Pruit tries to escape from Gallagher. You can compare the entrance lobby lift shot to the same area a few years later for the aforementioned Pink Panther movie.

This clearer shot above shows the same place in Revenge of the Pink Panther

...and Millions will die! - Richard Basehart (1973) - Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter

Gallagher meets his crooked cop contact, Wilson, at the shorefront in Causeway Bay. As Gallagher walks away you can see the Excelsior Hotel again in the background.

...and Millions will die! - Richard Basehart (1973) - Victoria Harbour

We get some reasonable views (resolution permitting) as Pruit and Inspector Bigelow have a meeting on board a boat in the middle of Victoria Harbour. Despite being quite a short scene, the view behind changes drastically from Central Fire station in image 2, to The Excelsior in image 3. That's quite a distance between those two landmarks.

...and Millions will die! - Richard Basehart (1973) - Aberdeen Harbour

There are a few scenes of Aberdeen Harbour throughout the film, as well as a chase between Gallagher (Leslie Nielsen) and Pruit (Basehart) later in the film.

...and Millions will die! - Richard Basehart (1973) - Old Aberdeen Police Station

Finally, after all these years of this old, colonial, brick Police Station appearing in countless movies as mere background, I have finally found a film that used it as a proper location. This is where Pruit goes to consult the Chief Inspector of police about what to do about the imminent gas threat. It's a shame we only get a brief glimpse of the place from one of its verandahs. The building is still around and used as a youth club called "The Warehouse".

...and Millions will die! - Richard Basehart (1973) - Kai Tak Airport

As Dr Pruit arrives in Hong Kong to begin his investigation we get a nice view of a Singapore Airlines plane touching down at the old airport. Note the prominent checkerboard in the background. Not so long ago someone (I'm not sure if it was Govt sanctioned or not) went and touched up the red/white squares of the south facing checkboard so it is still very much plain to see above Kowloon Tsai Park. Well worth a visit still if you get the chance. The lower images below show the local Police Inspector waiting for Dr Pruit on the upper drop off/pick up level at the old terminal building.

...and Millions will die! - Richard Basehart (1973) - Aberdeen Praya Road

Another part of the opening car sequence sees the gunmen's car driving around the bend of Aberdeen Patraya and into Wu Nam Street along the waterfront. The floating restaurants nicely lit up in the background.

...and Millions will die! - Richard Basehart (1973) - Gloucester Road, Wanchai

As the gunmen make their way to their target, heir car can be seen driving along Gloucester Road in Wanchai.You can see the Excelsior Hotel. This hotel features prominently in the film so I'll post about it later.

...and Millions will die! - Richard Basehart (1973) - View from Ocean Terminal

It's not the first time we have seen this view on a film  (for example: Amaya, Black Cobra Woman, Love in Hong Kong). In this movie we get a panning shot here as the film's name is displayed during the opening credits.

...and Millions will die! - Richard Basehart (1973) - Rumsey Street carpark

Just when you think you have run out of films, one appears that you feel you should already have known about it a long time ago. So next up we have ...and millions will die!, a 1973 Australian TV movie that was a pilot for a series that never was. It stars Richard Basehart (his second appearance in Hong Kong, and on this blog, following the earlier Visa to Canton) as Dr Pruit, some sort of Australian-based investigator into chemical weapons. He is called to a gas poisoning incident in a small Asian territory in the midst of a civil war and the incident leads him and his team to Hong Kong where a former Nazi chemist has planted a time bomb attached to some cannisters of the same poison gas.

It's a bit of a weird film that pretends several Singapore locations are actually in Hong Kong (for example, the Tiger Balm Gardens sequences were filmed at Haw Par Gardens in Singapore, not Hong Kong) but there are some interesting locations to see and I like it when obscure films like this show upon my radar, regardless of quality. It also includes Leslie Nielsen in the first of his two outings (that I know of) to Hong Kong. You may remember he was also in Blade in Hong Kong.

I've managed to get hold of a slightly better definition version from some nefarious corner of the internet and uploaded it to Youtube here, so please feel free to go and watch.

The film starts with long drawn out sequence that turns out to be a dream, as two gunmen meet in a carpark and make their way to their target. The carpark is the Rumsey Street carpark on the Sheung Wan waterfront.

Visa to Canton - Richard Basehart (1960) - China Merchants Steam Navigation Company Offices, Hong Kong

We interrupt normal broadcasting to post a location from a film that I initially covered during my last stint in the UK, Visa to Canton. I still have a few relatively anonymous street scenes outstanding in terms of indentification but last night managed to pinpoint the location of one after some full on, face-to-computer-screen looking at minute details on old photos.

The key to this one was the building in image 4 (among others). The blurry sign on the front appears to say China Merchants S.N. Cmp Ltd, or something along those lines, but the double columned facade makes it stand out from its neighbours and allowed me to pinpoint it on an old photograph on gwulo (see here). This was enough to confirm the business name and locate it as the current #16 Connaught Road Central. The plot is still owned by one of the China Merchants group companys and currently houses the newly built CM+ Hotel and Serviced apartments (it's one of the current Designated Quarantine Hotels).

What I hadn't realised is that next door (to the right from our point of view) is a building that was still around until quite recently. It's #17, and housed the "Hoi On Cafe" (海安咖啡室). You can see it in image 3 below. Sadly, it looks like I might be too late and if I had managed to identify this lcation laste year, I might have been able to grab a snap. However, I think the site might be getting redeveloped as the cafe has closed and there is a new footprint on Google maps.

Anyway, this seqeunce appears to begin somewhere around #22 and then tracks east (to the left) passing all the shop fronts to around #12. All of these buildings have all been redeveloped and #17 was the final hold out.

Hoi On Cafe (海安咖啡室), replete with vitasoy sign

China Merchants S.N Company Ltd