Red Dragon - Stewart Granger (1965) - #10 Fei Ngo Shan Road

Another pandemic find that I neglected to post due to the fog in my brain at the time is this old property up on Fei Ngo Shan Road. It was previously located at #10 Fei Ngo Shan Road and can be seen as Michael Scott (Stewart Granger) narrowly avoids being assassinated by a man pretending to be blind whose white stick is actually a disguised gun. The failed assassin is then killed himself and the perpetrators flee in a car down Fei Ngo Shan Road.

The old house used in the film was demolished and redeveloped sometime in the mid-90s but the neighbouring house (#8), which makes a brief appearance as part of the backdrop, is still around (or at least was at the time of my initial discovery) and doesn't appear to have changed very much over the years - an impressive feat given the sometimes dizzying speed of redevelopment in Hong Kong.

Red Dragon - Stewart Granger (1965) - 38 Island Road, Deep Water Bay

Following on from my last post for Die Jungen Tiger von Hongkong, here is the same property ("Merachiaro") used a few years earlier for Stewart Granger's foray into German-produced thrillers. At the time I couldn't pinpoit the property but after looking at the more detailed online maps courtesy of the geoinfo map, the building shape (and that distinctive exterior covered walkway) are quite obvious. Google isn't so useful as it lacks the same detail. Never mind, it's nice to know such an old property is still around and looks really nice. If you own this property then you are no doubt already loaded, but can now add the additional boast that Stewart Granger has been to your house - albeit in 1965.

Red Dragon - Stewart Granger (1965) - Fei Ngo Shan Road, Kowloon Peak

Another car chase that ends up at the top of Kowloon Peak. I won't go sdo far as to say this film is a bit of a copycat of other German productions, but we have already had a car crashing into Lung Ha Wan courtesy of Weiße Fracht für Hongkong and that film also features a car chase up along Fei Ngo Shan Road. Then there was Heisser Hafen Hongkong which didn't feature any crashing into Lung Ha Wan but did also have a car chase up Fei Ngo Shan Road culminating in one of the cars crashing down the side of the mountain. So here is a similar scene in Red Dragon: a car chase up Fei Ngo Shan that culminates in a very similar car crash.

Edit: I found out that all of the German productions I've been looking at recently (Heißer Hafen Hongkong, Weiße Fracht für Hongkong, Ein Sarg aus Hongkong and Das Geheimnis der drei Dschunken (i.e. Red Dragon) all had the same producer -Wolf C Hartwig - so this probably explains why some of the locations and scenes appear to have some similarity.

Red Dragon - Stewart Granger (1965) - Lung Ha Wan Road, Clearwater Bay

You may recall a while back that in Weiße Fracht für Hongkong, Horst Frank deals with one of his loose ends by tipping her over the edge of Lung Ha Wan Road in a car. Well, he was at it again two years later in Red Dragon only this time he's trying to off Stewart Granger. Same part of the road though. It's blurry, but yet another car takes a dip in the sea and Granger manages to escape by clinging onto the cliff.

Red Dragon - Stewart Granger (1965) - Aberdeen, Hong Kong

One of the key scenes in this film involves an assassination attempt at the hands of a nefarious Aberdeen fisherman as Granger's character and sidekick are questioning a witness to the murder of the US spy. We start off with a shot of Granger walking down what appears to be Tung Sing Road with what appears to be the Tsung Man Building at the far background (beyond the red signboard).

This shot above shows Granger walking along the main road where it curves into the town. This is the old area (now a bus terminus) where the restaurant pontoons used to be before the waterfront was reclaimed. They head out onto the water to interview a rather younger looking Ho Li-yan before someone tries to off them with a dagger. You may remember this famous Chinese actor from an appearance on Shirley's World a few weeks ago.

Ho Li-yan

Red Dragon - Stewart Granger (1965) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon City

The spy agency sends two agents to HK to infiltrate the smugglers who are illegally shipping electronic parts to Red China inside hollowed out logs. Michael Scott (Granger) arrives first but is soon followed by Carol (played by Rosanna Schiaffino) who has been recruited to take the place of the secretary - who was shot dead at the Botanical gardens.

Red Dragon - Stewart Granger (1965) - Zoological and Botanical Gardens, Central

In the 1960's, Stewart Granger made a bunch of movies in Europe, quite a few of them for German companies. One of that batch was a spy thriller called Das Geheimnis der drei Dschunken (The Secret of the 3 Junks) or Red Dragon as it was known for its English release. Sadly, there doesn't appear to be that many prints of it around and the version I obtained looks to be a straight transfer from VHS with the screen being cut off at either side of the screen. This is a big shame because even though the film is a fairly average potboiler, it has some decent locations on screen and we don't really get to see them in their full glory. Horst Frank returns as another baddy (we've seen him recently in this blog in
Heisser Hafen Hongkong and Weiße Fracht für Hongkong.

One of the earlier scenes shows an American spy (as we find out later) walking through the Botanical Gardens in Central to meet his girlfriend, only to discover she has been shot dead. The scene starts on the famous steps before moving to another part of the park with what looks to be the Catholic Cathedral in the background.

Sadly the detail isn't clear because of the nature of this print and it's perhaps too obscure a film for anyone to make any effort in a restoration. Never mind. Is that the Catholic Cathedral spire at the back left? I haven't been to the gardens for a while but I think the front part of it is quite dense with tree growth so I am not sure you get anything like this open view anymore (tall buildings aside).