The Amsterdam Kill - Robert Mitchum (1977) - Clipping from April 1977

Following on from my Revenge of the Pink Panther clipping, the previous year saw Robert Mitchum and co-stars also staying at the Peninsula Hotel whilst they were filming the Hong Kong scenes for The Amsterdam Kill. This clipping is from the April 1977 issue of The Peninsula Group Magazine.

At the time the Hongkong Hotel - where Bradford Dillman stayed - was part of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels group and so also got a fair bit of coverage in this in-house magazine.

The Amsterdam Kill - Robert Mitchum (1977) - Peking Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

I suspect this is the last The Amsterdam Kill post. I was going to post another one of what I believe is Blake Pier but the quality of the screen grab isn't great and there isn't ,much to see anyway, so I'll make this one the last one. Quite fitting because it's also the last HK location from the film anyway.

Okay, the background is a bit blurry but look carefully and you will be able to make out a couple of familiar signs in the background including the Red Lips bar and Club Tasogare.

The Red Lips Bar sign is the one just to the right of Mitchum's head, and Club Tasogare, which we have seen on a few films featured here before, is at the far back with a yellow border. Coincidentally, I was in that very venue just last night having a nice pint with some friends although now it is a pub called Delaney's.

The Amsterdam Kill - Robert Mitchum (1977) - Kai Tak Air Terminal, Kowloon

As I clear up with the final few locations of The Amsterdam Kill (no, I'm not doing the Amsterdam ones...) here is a quick one that looks to have been shot inside the real terminal building at Kai Tak. You can see the familiar square columns.

The Amsterdam Kill - Robert Mitchum (1977) - The Peninsula Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui

We haven't see the Peninsula for a few posts, so here is the interior and exterior from The Amsterdam Kill.

Notice that in 1977 the fountain, steps and clockwise entrance were still being used.

The Amsterdam Kill - Robert Mitchum (1977) - Aberdeen Harbour

Well, I guess it wouldn't be a Robert Clouse film without some scenes from Aberdeen Harbour on the southern side of Hong Kong Island.

Nothing much to say about this place that I haven't already done so on almost every single film we looked at on this blog already, other than the fact that in the space of around 30 years it's gone from being a floating slum to being a hangout for the rich. Wooden junks, by-and-large, being replaced by multi-million dollar cruisers and yachts.

The Amsterdam Kill - Robert Mitchum (1977) - Shatin Railway Station, Shatin

Yet even more rail nostalgia and a very quick look at the northbound platform of Shatin station circa the late 70's through to the 80's.

This is where Mitchum, after arranging with the local police to raid the drug factory at Ho Tung Lau, is attacked and drugged by some local gangsters as he leaves the station to rendezvous with the police.

This particular building sat under where the Citylink Plaza now stands - roughly halfway between Pai Tau and Tin Liu villages.

The Amsterdam Kill - Robert Mitchum (1977) - KCR Rail line, Shatin

Some train nostalgia for those who are into that sort of thing as we see the KCR Diesel Locomotive No.53 speeding towards us. Judging by the fact that the track merges from two into one at this point I will make a stab at the location as being just south of Shatin station.  I believe Shatin station was one of several 'passing points' for the north/south bound trains on an otherwise single track system. Note the guy crossing the track as the train approaches...you can't do that anymore.

Anyway, we're led to believe this train is taking Mitchum north towards the Ho Tung Lau drug factory when this is quite obviously a southbound train heading back towards Kowloon. Never mind, remember this is movie land where geography is molded around the whims of the director (in this case Robert Clouse).

Whatever happened to these old diesel trains? Well, No.51 is still in HK at the Hong Kong Railway Museum in Tai Po, but this one (and a few others) - No. 53 - was the H.P Winslow. It was built by Clyde in 1957 and served in HK until retirement in 2004. According to that great rail aficionado, Marcus Wong, they were sold to a company in Australia where they were given a spruce up and re-entered service down under.

The Amsterdam Kill - Robert Mitchum (1977) - Happy Valley Racecourse, Hong Kong

A quick post to see out the year (it's still 2014 as I type). A brief glimpse of the racecourse at Happy Valley.

Here's looking forward to an interesting 2015 and a whole host of new film locations!

The Amsterdam Kill - Robert Mitchum (1977) - Connaught Centre/Jardine House, Central

Well, not so much the building, but actually the view from one of its famous circular windows. In the film the US Drugs Enforcement Agency is based inside.

The black and white building we can see through the window is the former Gammon House, now the Bank of America Tower - which was subject to a significant fraud case many year ago. Look carefully on the far left of the lowest picture and you can also make out Hutchison House and the Furama Hotel, the latter quite famous for its revolving restaurant at the top. HMS Tamar is the dockyard in front.

The Amsterdam Kill - Robert Mitchum (1977) - Ho Tung Lau, Shatin

One of the more elusive properties to find information on seems to be Ho Tung Lau. This grand building used to stand on the shores of the Shatin Sea at the upper end of the valley close to the modern-day Fo Tan station. It's exact locale is still a bit difficult to ascertain, but there is an area on the local maps also called Ho Tung Lau as well as one of the MTR Fo Tan depot buildings with the same name, which indicates that it was somewhere close to the far end of the residential development known as "Royal Ascot" (Edit: see Thomas' comments below about it being further south under Jubilee Garden).

There seems to be only a few decent photographs of this place, so it's nice that Robert Clouse (the director) managed to feature it quite prominently in this film - possibly not too long before its eventual demolition and the areas redevelopment into the Fo Tan train depot. The building features in the film as a drugs lab that gets raided by the police. 

 Ma On Shan in the background

I may have gone a bit overboard with the screencaps here, but I think any shot of this long forgotten building is worth putting up.

I'm not sure if the school sign on the roof was authentic or not, simply because I can't find any useful information on the place, but in the film the building is referred to as an abandoned school.

Mitchum goes back at night to case the joint and gets inside. The following night time shots are from this scene, but I have no idea if they were filmed on location or in a the studio. I'm going to take a gamble and say they were on location simply because I am an optimist...

I've put a location link in this post (it can be found at the bottom), based on Thomas' comments below (i.e. Block 6 Jubilee Garden)

The Amsterdam Kill - Robert Mitchum (1977) - Caine House, Wanchai

A brief look at the older building, Caine House, that forms part of the Wanchai District Police HQ on Arsenal Street. Here we see Mitchum walking along by the outer wall that fronts Arsenal Street before turning through the (now gone) main entrance. You can just make out the underside of one of the watchtowers as Mitchum walks underneath. This along with another was removed when that part of the site was redeveloped, but there are still two left along the wall on Gloucester Road.

The Amsterdam Kill - Robert Mitchum (1977) - HMS Tamar, Hong Kong

Not a typical view of the place in that it is looking at a ship at dock on the harbourfront, but seeing as the ship is obviously a military one then it makes sense that it would be docked in front of the Naval Base that has since the handover become the PLA HQ in HK.

I'm sure there are certain individuals out there who will be able to tell us the class and name of this vessel as well as when it was stationed here. The grabs are a little blurry courtesy of the fact it was a moving shot and this DVD transfer isn't the greatest quality, sadly.

Anyway, on that note, have a nice Xmas and I'll start posting again when I get back from my hols :-)

The Amsterdam Kill - Robert Mitchum (1977) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon

The obligatory shot of a plane landing at Kai Tak, just so that we know we are actually in Hong Kong. No matter how many times I see pictures of Kai Tak, I never get tired of them which is a good thing because I suspect Kai Tak has pretty much featured on almost every (pre-1998) film I've featured on this blog.

The Amsterdam Kill - Robert Mitchum (1977) - Connaught Centre, Hong Kong

Just as we run into Xmas, I thought a new film would be nice, this time The Amsterdam Kill directed by Robert Clouse (we already looked at two of his HK-made films on this blog: Enter the Dragon and Golden Needles). It stars an ageing Robert Mitchum, but actually is a cracking film if you get the chance to see it, and of course lots of interesting HK locations to be found, some never seen here before.

So let's start off with a quick view of the Connaught Centre where the US Drug Enforcement Agency is supposedly based. Of course, these days we know this building as Jardine House, although I'm not sure of when the name change occurred. In 1972 when it first opened it was Hong Kong's tallest building and its very first 'skyscraper'. At some point the owners noticed bits of concrete were crumbling from the side of the building and the whole thing was encased with the aluminium cladding we can now see, however, it looks to have still been exposed concrete in this film.