Bons Baisers de Hong Kong - Les Charlots (1975) - Park Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui

The next location is not the best in terms of visibility because the film only shows it from inside a car looking out but it's worth including because it's still around. It's the Park Hotel on the corner of Cameron and Chatham Road South. The hotel was opened in 1961 and so is only one of a few remaining 60's era hotels that is still around.

In the film the car we are in turns into Cameron Road from Chatham Road South so we see the curved front of the hotel and the lower section that fronts that road.

Here it is on Streetview.

Bons Baisers de Hong Kong - Les Charlots (1975) - Connaught Road, Central

In a little joke about the quality of the French secret service (known as the SDECE or the Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage) there is a scene when two of Les Charlots are looking up at two buildings supposed to be the KGB and CIA agencies. Two rather tall and impressive skyscrapers compared to the shabby buildings occupied by the SDECE in the middle of them both.

The building on the right is still around, although it has since been given a remarkable facelift. It's the Nan Fung Tower (南豐大廈). Sadly, the ramshackle row of shophouses in the middle have since been replaced by CTS House (that is the HQ of the China Travel Service) and the KGB building on the left has been replaced by the naff sounding 'Beautiful Group Tower'.

Just poking through the gap at the back (seen on the right of the SDECE sign in picture 3) is the General Commercial Building at 156 - 164 Des Voeux Road Central. It's still there and STILL painted in those very same colours.

Bons Baisers de Hong Kong - Les Charlots (1975) - Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

Another view of the Tsim Sha Tsui section of Nathan Road, but this time filmed from the area just adjacent to Kowloon Park.

It's interesting to note the section of wall on the right because this has since been removed to make way for the construction of the Park Lane Shopping Promenade and (further down) the Kowloon Mosque. Thankfully the trees are still around but they have been collapsing at a steady rate for some years now. I'm no expert but I am sure that surrounding a tree with concrete and having only a tiny area at the base where water can actually penetrate the ground is probably not the best way to guarantee their health.

Bons Baisers de Hong Kong - Les Charlots (1975) - Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

There's some nice colourful street scenes in this film including this brief look north up Nathan Road near the southern end. You can see the Holiday Inn sign which puts us in familiar tourist territory. Both Mirador Mansion and Chungking Mansions can be seen either side of the Holiday Inn - Chungking Mansions being closer to the camera..

Note the Royal paraphernalia draped on the lamp posts. Don't forget this film was made the same time as the Queen's 1975 trip to HK and utilises a lot of the footage from that for its own plot.

Bons Baisers de Hong Kong - Les Charlots (1975) - Ocean Terminal, Tsim Sha Tsui

Despite authentic footage of the airport entrance being used for the last post, when the film's main stars are waiting for a taxi in front of the 'airport' it's quite obvious the action has moved to the other side of Kowloon and the filmmakers are trying to convince us that Ocean Terminal is in fact part of the airport by sticking a small sign that says so in the background (picture 2).

Never mind, because there are some nice sights to see including the clock tower (when it was still part of the train station) and an advert for a Maxim's restaurant on the side of Star House (top picture, left hand side).

That taxi in the bottom picture is in much better shape than some of the death traps I've ridden in over the past 10 years.

Bons Baisers de Hong Kong - Les Charlots (1975) - Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon

We haven't had a French film for a while so here is another one courtesy of a famous (in 1970's France, at least) group called Les Charlots. The English title of this film was actually From Hong Kong with Love and was a wordplay with the Bond-like theme of the film - it even had cameos from Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell revisiting their famous roles as M and Miss Moneypenny, respectively.

The plot is silly enough...the British Queen is abducted and taken to Hong Kong by the villain (Mickey Rooney). Les Charlots play the French secret agents who are tasked with getting her back. In all it's a bit of fun and has some fairly amusing scenes as well as some decent locations, but one of the best things for me is the film using real footage from Queen Elizabeth's trip to HK in 1975 and incorporating it into the rather silly plot. It's quite well done.

The action starts off back in Europe but soon moves to HK where we have the obligatory shots of people arriving at the airport terminal. The second pictures shows Mickey Rooney arriving with a double bass case that is supposed to have the kidnapped Queen inside :-)

The Last Grenade - Stanley Baker (1969) - Aberdeen Harbour, Aberdeen

This is the last post from this film for a while because I still have some rural locations to identify (it;s proving a bit difficult) but here is a parting shot from Aberdeen at night and we can see the Tai Pak and Sea Palace restaurants all nicely lit up.

This was just an establishing shot for the ensuing scenes but it looks as though what followed was actually filmed back in the studio (at Shepperton Studios according to IMDB) so I won't bother putting it up here.

The Last Grenade - Stanley Baker (1969) - Hanoi Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

Baker's comrades (which included very young looking John Thaw and Julian Glover) head out to a pub for the night. Unfortunately their nice little drink is disturbed by the enemy (Alex Cord) and they escape out of the front door onto Hanoi Road.

 There are a couple of clues as to the location. The first one is the white sign in the upper right of the lower picture. Look closely and you can see it says "Siu Lam Kung". We've come across this place before courtesy of I Spy. Also spot the sign behind it which mentions "Nancy's Shoes". If you look at the bottom picture of this post (no, I mean the picture at the bottom, not the picture with the bottom!) you'll see that we are in pretty much the same location used in The Man with the Golden Gun. Another confirmation by the fact that the Kam Lung shop is visible in our top picture above.

Anyway, the guys escape in a cab and drive north out of Hanoi onto Carnarvon Road. It's a bit dark, mind you, so not much to see.

The Last Grenade - Stanley Baker (1969) - Dragon Garden, Castle Peak Road

Another film to feature this rather picturesque private property that sits on Castle Peak Road about halfway between Tsuen Wan and Tuen Mun. This film was before The Man With The Golden Gun, which, I guess, was the film that made the location famous, but we've seen it multiple times on this blog now including I Spy, Men of the Dragon and Noble House. Now that it has been restored it would be good to see it on film again.

The sequence starts with a taxi journey (with Honor Blackman) to the front gate. Now, I have no idea what the Castle Peak Road used to look like but in this film it looks narrow and surrounded with bamboo, so I can't say for certain that this was the actual location of the front gate. However, the appearance of the famous red doors seems to be in favour of it being the right place and not some mock up.

But once we are inside there seems to be no doubt about where we are with the familiar decorations and orange/gold-roofed villa.

And lastly the various Chinese archways and structures on the upper terrace and the nice view over to Ma Wan island in the distance before it was ruined by over-development.

The Last Grenade - Stanley Baker (1969) - Mai Po, Yuen Long

Sticking with the far reaches of the New Territories and we catch a brief glimpse of some of the wet lands around the Mai Po Marsh area. The area is famous for its almost complete coverage of shallow ponds that were once part of the fish farming industry. There is a cluster of areas here: Nam Sang Wai, Lut Chau, Tai Sang Wai and Mai Po, that are all similar in terrain so it's a bit difficult tracking down the exact spot used in the film.

The hills in the background of the screencap are Ki Lun Shan (a.k.a Haddon/Hadden Hill) on the left and Tai Lo Tin centre screen (a.k.a Snowden) with the north slope of Kai Kung Leng on the right hand side.