The Scavengers - Vince Edwards (1958) - Peking Restaurant, East Point Road

Sometimes little facts pop up in my comments that lead to an identification months, or even years later. A good case in point is this following screencap of the Peking Restaurant. I can't remember the context from the film but this shot was an establishing shot for part of the sequence where Stuart is trying to track down his estranged wife. You can just make out the road sign on the side of the building and it looks like it says "?? Point Rd". As far as I know there are only two road with the word "point" in their name: East Point Road in Causeway Bay and North Point Road in...erm North Point.

Well, going back over old posts I recalled that fellow Gwulo'er "C" (who I met for the first time in person last year btw) had commeneted on one of my old posts showing some buildings in and around Yee Wo Street. Here is the post from Heisser Hafen Hongkong (aka Secrets of Buddha). But TL:DR, here is his pertinent comment:

There was a restaurant called Peking Restaurant (東興樓, pronounced Tung Hing Lau) on the ground floor of Hop Kwan Building men's hostel (not sure if it is the official English name; Chinese name is 合羣大厦男子公寓).

Well, it seems as though this is the restaurant in the screencap. You can see the English name in neon above the door, but more eagle-eyed (and perhaps Chinese literate) peeps will notice that in Chinese writing on the door lintel is three Chinese words that look very much like (reading r-l) 樓興東 i,e, Tung Hing Lau as described by C in his comment.

So, East Point Road it is and this is obviously the ground floor of the Hop Kwan Building. According to T in that same post, the current building, the Island Centre, was constructed in 1984 so I guess this building must have disappeared a few years before that. I don't know how long the restaurant was around for.

The Scavengers - Vince Edwards (1958) - Stubbs Road Lookout

We've had several productions film up around here over the years but I think 1958 may be the earliest yet. This is where Allison arranges to meet his wife in an attempt to get her away from the hotel so O'Hara (Vic Diaz) can try to search her hotel room for the stolen bonds. Rather than the concreted terrace that the lookout now is, back in the 50s (and as late as the 60s according to these screencaps) the lookout was more like a natural grassy clearance with some trees dotted around. Remember, in Hong Kong the solution to most problems that don't exist, is to pour more concrete.

I've also managed to stitch some of these frames together (with the help of Autostitch) for a nice view that gives a better sense of the area. Click in the image for a closer view.

The Scavengers - Vince Edwards (1958) - Astor Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui

Marian (Carol Ohmart) is staying at the Astor Hotel. We know this because we are told by O'Hara at some point in the story. The film did use that very hotel as well, although you never really see the name properly despite it being emblazoned across the main entrance to the hotel in neon light.

The hotel was located on the corner of Carnarvon Road and Cornwall Avenue. Sadly the latter street was obliterated when the K11 Masterpiece was built and there is no physical trace of it anymore, other than an open, nameless thoroughfare alongside the skyscraper where the street used to be.

In the first two images below Vince Edwards is standing on the corner of Bristol Avenue,with the hotel entrance on the corner of Cornwall Avenue. Carnarvon Road runs along left of frame where the cars are lined up.

The hotel makes a final appearance at the end of the film and although Allison's arrival there looks to have been filmed on location, his departure soon after (right at the end of the film) looks to have been filmed on a set.
 

The Scavengers -Vince Edwards (1958) - View from Penha Hill, Macau

When I fist saw this next scene it immediately brought to memory a location mystery that cropped upon Gwulo many years ago and had us all scratching our heads. If you follow that link and read the comments you'll see we had a hard time reconciling it with anywhere in Hong Kong despite the fact that the image's original title had it located in Hong Kong. I guess it's a good lesson in how you should always treat any photo description with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Suffice to say it was eventually located thanks to an local discussion forum called Uwants which I have used myself in the past when looking for older images of obscure areas in Kowloon and Hong Kong.

This is a now very much changed southwest view from Penha Hill in Macau looking towards a cluster of islands that have now been absorbed into the Zhuhai mainland next to Macau. The low, stone wall of the Penha Church courtyard is quite obvious in this image (and it remains the same to this day). It wouldn't surprise me at all if the stone bench seen bottom right is one of the ones still there today.

The Scavengers - Vince Edwards (1958) - Hong Kong Macao Ferry Wharf

Allison (Vince Edwards) looks out of the window where he is chatting with Puan (Efren Reyes) and sees his estranged (and until then, missing) wife on the street below. We are looking directly down onto the old Hong Kong Macao Wharf where ferries such as the Fatshan and Tai Loy (later renamed to the Chung Shan) berthed. This place started life as a Japanese owned wharf called the Osaka Shosen Kaisha Wharf (O.S.K) but following the war/occupation was confiscated by the HK Govt earning it the name "Custodian Wharf" and later becoming the HK Macao Wharf sometime in the 1950s.

This film gives us a really nice view of the building that fronted the pier along Connaught Road. I've never seen it this close before. We also get some shots waterside as well as a close up of the rear of the aforementioned Tai Loy.

For modern day context, the pier was located along Connaught Road at the end of Gilman Street.

The Scavengers - Vince Edwards (1958) - Magazine Gap Road, Midlevels

The next view is from in front of what is now the Harbourview at 11 Magazine Gap Road. The former development here was called Harbour View Mansions, but I'm not sure when it was constructed and whether it would have been there at the time of filming. I guess it's not relevant anyway. There is a large layby in front of the development where the road curves. These days it's concreted over but back in the 50s it looks like it was basically just a clearing with some great views down into the harbour area. I know the Blogger google marker will probably snap to the address I mentioned above, so here is a link to GoogleEarth showing the location now. Sadly the Google car didn't pull into the layby to provide us with a nice modern day comparison of the view.

The Scavengers - Vince Edwards (1958) - View from the Peak

I have to thank renowned China author, Paul French, for this next movie. Paul is well known for his deep knowledge of all things Chinese but also dabbles in some film nostalgia and can often be found posting movie clips of old China/HK/Macau on his various social media. It was via his Bluesky that I happened upon a post he made about this film, The Scavengers. I'd not heard of it before and he soon pointed me in the direction of Youtube where the film was originally uploaded. I've since had to make a copy available on another platform: Dailymotion.

The movie, shot in 1958 on location in Hong Kong and Macau (and in a Manila film studio), stars Vince Edwards as Stuart Allison, an ex-US soldier who, following the Korean war, is in Hong Kong as a smuggler. Just as he is about to hang up his smuggling boots he spots his estranged (and missing) wife boarding a ferry to Macau and chases after her. It turns out she is involved in some Nationalist-era bond smuggling and has become addicted to drugs. What follows is a fairly decent film noir story as he tries to save his ex-wife and make away with the bonds with a variety of bad men on his tail. One of which is the former RTHK journalist, John Wallace (full name: Geoffrey Wallace John Trodd), who shows of his acting chops as a rather nasty Brit gangster called Taggert. It appears to be a largely Filipino produced film but with an American director and stars (hence why it has an entry on the AFI catalog).

The film has some decent locations to see but many have been too difficult for me to track down due to lack of clues and the often night filter used for many scenes. However, the views are still good and the film is well worth a looksee if you like 50s era film noir. The opening sequence is a view of the harbour from atop the Peak on Hong Kong Island.