Target Hong Kong - Richard Denning (1953) - Harbour view from the Peak

About the only other recognisable piece of footage from this film is a panning shot of the harbour from the peak. Only, there is something wrong with it. Can you tell what it is? I've merged the sequence into a fairly decent panorama below.

Well, if you haven't figured it out by now then I can tell you the whole sequence is flipped. I don't think it really mattered at the time because the level of HK knowledge of most of the US cinema going public in the early 50's was probably minimal and the sequence is quite quick, but it's always interesting to see how easy it was to flip a film without realising.

Anyway, I've flipped it to how it should look below but I was having problems reconciling the skyline with what I would have expected to see in 1953 when the film was made/released, so I went and asked the guys over at Gwulo for some help. 

If you click through to the link then you'll see they managed to narrow it down to around between 1935 and 1937. I'd already figured it must be post 1935 because the previous version of the HSBC headquarters is visible, but my upper limit was 1951, the year the Bank of China (now the old Bank of China) was built. It's missing in this panorama. Thanks to 'gw' who saw that the older version of Central Market is still visible. This was demolished in 1937 so the film was shot some time before then. So there you go, a film shot in 1953 was using stock footage from the 30's and no one even noticed.

Target Hong Kong - Richard Denning (1953) - Central Waterfront, Hong Kong

Target Hong Kong is a bit of an anomaly for this site because so far it's the only film that wasn't actually shot here - not even partially. The low-budget film relied entirely on stock footage of HK and other places (including Shanghai) in order to convince us we are viewing HK-based action. It seems that the viewing film public in the early 50's was none the wiser and I suspect many people even now would be too.

Never mind, the stock footage still has value and historical significance including this quick scene taken at the Central waterfront. The partial roof on the right in the top photo is actually the 2nd generation of the Star Ferry Pier that was in place between 1912 and 1957. Looking at the fashion in the pictures though I would say this is possibly 1920's or 1930's vintage.

Some of you may recognise the pier at the back. It's the original Blake Pier that was removed in 1965 and was recently reconstructed over in Stanley. I say 'reconstructed' but I have no idea if the original ironwork has been used. There is a tendency for the Govt to oversell its heritage concern in this respect and it still genuinely tells people the Murray Barracks building (also in Stanley) was reconstriucted "brick by brick" when it wasn't, so I shall reserve judgement.

Just for reference, the old Blake Pier used to sit at the waterfront in front of the old General Post Office which puts it at the end of Pedder St. This equates today to roughly where Pedder St turns into Connaught Place at the junction with Connaught Road.