Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - 17 Magazine Gap Road, Mid-levels

In the show, Taylor's character, Glenn Evans, lives in a rather swish modern low rise apartment block. In several of the episodes a well used shot of the place is used for establishment purposes and , after a bit of digging around, it turns out that the apartment block in question was the precursor to the current Magazine Heights (which incidentally, I covered not that long ago for Black Cobra Woman).

According to Gwulo.com, this building was constructed at 17 Magazine Gap Road in 1950 and was demolished in circa 1967 when it made way for the current Magazine Heights development. You can see a distant view of it (marked as 9a) here.

There is some other footage of this place, or at least its podium, but you'll have to wait until episode 6 for that.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Kowloon KCR Terminus, Kowloon

Part of the plot of Clear for Action involves Evans sending his faithful butler over the border on a spying trip. He dispatches him from the Kowloon terminus on the KCR train being pulled by engine #54.

Taylor at the old KCR Terminus

For the train fans who read this site, then please check out Marcus Wong's always interesting blog. I've linked to it before but this link seems to be extra poignant as I believe Marcus has an image of the very same engine seen below in its later purple livery. It's nice to know these things are still going strong nearly 60 years later. Well, at least some of them.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - View over Central, Hong Kong

Well, the series was commissioned by 20th Century Fox television and got underway proper with real on location filming and a minor switch up in the regular cast - the Chief Inspector of Police role was handed to Lloyd Bochner whereas in the pilot it was played by Alex Davion. This is worth noting because as I mentioned in a previous post, the pilot was rehashed into a full length episode and Davion's scenes from the pilot were crowbarred back into plot. This first episode was called Clear for Action and had Frances Nuyen as a co-star - fresh from her breakdown that led to her removal from The World of Suzie Wong made earlier in the year.

Anyway, I also mentioned the mixed up words for the opening credits were also fixed and so here they are with a slightly different view across the harbour. It starts with the various banks, and moves eastwards taking in HMS Tamar before finishing with the west wing of the old Bowen Road Military Hospital (now the Carmel School).

Jack Kruschen played the character of Tully, a bar owner based on the character from Soldier of Fortune called Tweedie who, in turn, is thought originally to have been based on the real life character Edward Gingle. Coincidentally (or not), Kruschen also had a role in Soldier of Fortune. - he played the creep Austin Stoker who meets Hayward's character on board the ship as they arrive in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon

The final shot from the series pilot is when Evans' female colleague is shown off at the airport. This image below shows the not-so-clear RAF Officer's Mess on the hill in the background which puts the plane in the RAF section of the airport.

Actually, by 1960 when this series was filmed, the new runway had already opened so this looks to me as though it was most likely stock footage. This isn't surprising given that this was the pilot episode intended only as a showcase for the show in the hope that it would be commissioned. This also explains why much of the on-character shots are either on a studio set or use back projection (in one scene, Taylor is filmed against a back projection that has been reversed - showing the Chinese characters written backwards).

Luckily for us, the series proper does use proper location filming and we'll get to some of those over the next few episodes.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Port Shelter, Sai Kung

This pilot episode involves Evans and a fellow journalist being kidnapped and a attempt made to take them over into "Red China" for propaganda purposes (the story was worked into a longer version for one of the proper aired episodes called Blind Bargain) and the vessel on which they are stowed is a wooden Chinese junk.

The footage shows the junk "near the border" but in actual fact I can tell you exactly where it was...Port Shelter in Sai Kung, between Hebe Haven and Sharp Island.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Des Voeux Road Central, Hong Kong

One of the establishing shots that pops up in the pilot episode (and several subsequent ones from the series) is one looking down Des Voeux Road Central from next to the Bank of China Building. The ornate lion on the left fronts the bank's Des Voeux Road entrance. Of course, that is the old Prince's Building in the background. It was knocked down not long after Queen's Building and the newer (current) version opened in 1965.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Aberdeen, Hong Kong

Another snippet from the pilot show's opening credits shows us a few shots taken around Aberdeen. In the top image you can just about make out the Chinese Permanent cemetery on the hillside in the background. The bottom image shows the small promontory with the Holy Spirit Seminary rooftop sticking up above the tree line.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - View Over Central, Hong Kong

Another brief shot from the opening credits of Hong Kong has us looking down at the bank buildings in Central. The quality isn't very good but I think most of those familiar with Hong Kong at the time would be able to recognise a few buildings, some of which are still around including the Bank of China Building and the US Consulate and old Govt offices on Garden Road. Notably missing is City Hall which had only just begun construction  in 1960.

Hong Kong (series) - Rod Taylor (1960) - Victoria Harbour

Another shot out to Steve Monticelli for pointing me towards Rod Taylor's website and its links to all of the episodes of Taylor's 1960 series, Hong Kong. I had heard of this show a while ago but it had been relegated to the back of my memory with everything else that I was finding so it's nice to have finally get to watch it.

The premise was apparently inspired by the Soldier of Fortune novel/film with Taylor as a foreign correspondent getting involved in all manner of subterfuge as he seeks out stories on the criminal goings on in the British Colony. He's aided in this by the Police Chief Inspector (played by Alex Davion in the pilot, but then changed to Lloyd Bochner in the subsequent series) and sometimes his butler/manservant, Ah Ting (played by Harold Fong).

It looks as though there was some location filming in Hong Kong, but very little of it actually involves the main actors and there is widespread use of back projection for some of the supposed local close ups. However, there is enough in there worthy of identifying and starting with the 30 minute pilot and its opening aerial shot of the harbour.

It's interesting to note that the opening credits features a bit of a blunder as the Chinese characters for Hong Kong are mixed up. See below. The characters read from right to left, and then move into vertical alignment with the 'Hong' (香 - heung1 in Cantonese) at the bottom and the 'Kong' (港 - gong2) at the top. The characters then spin and turn into the anglicised version of the words, but now the right way around. Someone must have tipped them off because the error was fixed for the start of the proper series.

Now You See Me 2 - Mark Ruffalo (2016) - Macau Science Centre, Macau

The final location from this film is the Macau Science Centre, where the tech heist is supposed to take place. At least it is the exterior part of the building that scene on screen, I doubt very much the actual heist was filmed inside.