Flight to Hong Kong - Rory Calhoun (1956) - Victoria Road, Mount Davis

A couple of scenes from this chase were showdown on Victoria Road on the west side of Mount Davis. In the first sequence, we can see the hairpin bend where Mount Davis Road joins with Victoria Road. The last shot shows the road further north with Green Island in the background.

  

Flight to Hong Kong - Rory Calhoun (1956) - Peak Road, Magazine Gap

Once the bad guys spot their car, a chase begins. This first shot shows the car driving down Peak Road towards Magazine Gap with 40 Peak Road just out of shot in the top right. Similar shots of the area from other films can be found here.

Flight to Hong Kong - Rory Calhoun (1956) - Albany Road, Central

Jean (Dolores Donlon) finally reunites with Tony and Mama Lin in the back of a car parked on Albany Road between the two sections of the Zoological and Botanical Gardens.
  

Flight to Hong Kong - Rory Calhoun (1956) - Hennessy Road, Wanchai

Whilst Jean and Tony are trying to give the bad guys the slip, Tony heads over to a phone booth located at the junction of Hennessy Road and Queen's Road East to make a phone call to Mama Lin.

   

Flight to Hong Kong - Rory Calhoun (1956) - International Funeral Parlour, Lockhart Road

I'm not sure if the funeral parlour was officially on Lockhart Road or Fenwick Street because it appears the main entrance was bang on the NW corner of the junction. I did add this screengrab to Gwulo a while back and some helpful comments have been added to the Gwulo page. The parlour was later replaced by the East Town Theatre and now the East Town Building. 
  

The film crew also shot some scenery of Lockhart Road as well by just turning the camera a little to the right at the junction. The view down Lockhart Road shows a section of the funeral parlour wall on the left before the columns of the tenements start. This was used for a back projected scene whereby Mama Lin (Soo Yong) reports someone following her to a traffic pagoda policeman (played by James Hong!).

Flight to Hong Kong - Rory Calhoun (1956) - former Junk Bay, Tseung Kwan O

The attempted cargo heist scene was filmed in the, then unreclaimed, northern section of Junk Bay -essentially what is now the Po Lam area of Tseung Kwan O. Of course it's completely unrecognisable now and even the mountains you see in the screencaps below are now very difficult to catch a glimpse of from ground level because of all the high rises blocking the view.

The first image below shows the view looking almost directly northwest between Razor Hill and Tai Sheung Tok. The ridgeline in the distance is Kowloon Peak. This image is actually a stitch of several screen caps from a camera pan. It's hard to believe that all of this area covered by water is now solid land and has high rises built on it. 

The next image shows Razor Hill.The flattish area on the left side of the hill is Pik Uk Au where Rise Park Villas now stands. Old readers may remember that flat area was used for filming A Queen's Ransom, so you can see the reverse view (back down into the bay) here.

The next image shows the view towards the mouth of the bay with the top of Tung Lung Chau just visible in the distance and Junk Island on the right of frame.

Flight to Hong Kong - Rory Calhoun (1956) - 21 South Bay Road, Repulse Bay

Tony (Rory Calhoun) lives in a rather lush property, supposedly in Macau, but the exterior shots for this place were filmed at a large property located at 21 South Bay Road. The property has since been knocked down and replaced by "Villa Corniche", a development of several luxury townhouses, but the road up to the house doesn't appear to have changed that much since the film was shot nearly 70 years ago.

Flight to Hong Kong - Rory Calhoun (1956) - Sham Shui Po Waterfront, Tung Chau Street

My memory has just been jogged by some posts over on Gwulo that feature various shots of the old Tsim Sha Tsui Star Ferry terminal taken from Flight to Hong Kong. I did a deep dive on this film a few years ago but also went back over it during the slow months of the pandemic and found quite a few more locations that I forgot to post about. So here is the result of the second look starting with an almost unrecognisable old waterfront in Sham Shui Po on what is now Tung Chau Street near Kiu Kiang Street. The big clue to the location here is the balconied building in the background. This was the Jubilee Buildings, a private tenement block that was later acquired by the army and incorporated into the Sham Shui Po Army Camp. It later became a transition centre for Vietnamese refugees awaiting approval for emigration overseas. The street corner where the car is parked is the entrance to what is now the lower section of Kiu Kiang Street.

Flight to Hong Kong - Rory Calhoun (1956) - Percival Street, Causeway Bay

During a car chase, the pursuer's car is blocked by a tram pulling out from what I believe to be the old tram depot in Causeway Bay - where the Times Square development now stands. That would make this the angled junction between Percival Street (on the left) and Russell St/Matheson St on the right.

Confirmation seems to come from the dome that can be just seen around the top left of the top image (directly above the car). This is the dome of the old Lee Theatre where Percival Street joins Leighton Road. The hill at the far end of Percival Street (past the dome) is Leighton Hill.

Flight to Hong Kong - Rory Calhoun (1956) - The Peak Tram, Central

Xmas must have addled my brain a little bit because I forget to put up a few of the remaining posts for Flight to Hong Kong. This is a scene when Dolores Donlon is being followed by a gangster and she hops on a tram at the lower tram terminus, and then rides it to barker Road before hopping off again and running away.

Flight to Hong Kong - Rory Calhoun (1956) - Pottinger Street, Central

The two girls flee their pursuers down Pottinger Street before heading into a cafe. Right now I am finding it hard to place which section of Pottinger Street but I suspect it's the bit between Stanley and Wellington Streets. Any higher up and I would expect to see side of the old Central Police Station at the top.

Flight to Hong Kong - Rory Calhoun (1956) - Tiger Balm Gardens, Tai Hang

This has been a long time favourite for foreign film makers in HK and it's just a shame that we only get to see a black and white version for this film. I wonder if there is a colour version of this film somewhere? If anyone knows please let me know.

Anyway, it's where the lead man (Rory Calhoun) meets up with his friend (played by Soo Yong). One of the images is a back projection studio shot. I've included it because it has an angle on the old swimming pool I haven't seen before. It's a weird shot because all it involved was Soo Yong rubbing the front of a Buddha statue (in a rather dodgy looking fashion) for good luck. I don't remember there being any Buddha statues at this place (it's been nearly 25 years since I went though) so I guess the film makers threw it in there because they had seen it going on at various temples and thought it added a bit of authenticity.

Another back projection shot filmed in the studio

Flight to Hong Kong - Rory Calhoun (1956) - Aberdeen, Hong Kong

A shot of Tony (Rory Calhoun) standing at the waterfront in Aberdeen, where he's been hiding since he arrived back to Hong Kong from San Francisco.

Flight to Hong Kong - Rory Calhoun (1956) - Star Ferry Bus Terminus, Tsim Sha Tsui

A fair bit of action occurs around the bus terminus next to the Star Ferry pier in TST. We get a couple of views towards the old pier building (it was replaced by the current one the following year) as well as a quick glimpse back at the end of the film so that we can see the columns at the western end of the old KCR Terminus (last image). Note that the second image is a studio based back projection. You can tell by the different lighting and focus on the car in the foreground. You can see a nice colour shot from the exact same era over at Gwulo.com.

Flight to Hong Kong - Rory Calhoun (1956) - Temple Street, Yau Ma Tei

This is a familiar strip for regular readers of this blog, although it has changed a lot over the years. The year before this was shot, Clark Gable was also filmed at this same location during Soldier of Fortune. If you compare the following images to the screen grabs from this post, you can see the common elements between both films including some of the signboards and of course the steps that lead up to the front of the temple.

Flight to Hong Kong - Rory Calhoun (1956) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon

Back in 1956, Kai Tak airport was located partially in what became the San Po Kong factory estate. The famous runway sticking out into the harbour wasn't built until a few years later. Once again, another of the 1955 films shows it off better (Love is a Many-Splendored Thing). According to the American Film Institute, the productions notes for Flight to Hong Kong mention that these Kai Tak scenes were shot as part of the film's pre-production in January 1956. It's possible the non-main cast scenes were but do films include main cast in pre-production, I don't know? It's possible the main cast scenes were pick-up shots filmed later during main production.