Weiße Fracht für Hongkong - Dietmar Schönherr (1963) - Lung Ha Wan Road, Sai Kung

Staying around Lobster Bay for the next post as the mysterious drug heister gets into his car and drives off up Lung Ha Wan Road. I'm 99% confident that the flat area we can see is the space now occupied by the Clearwater Bay Equestrian Centre (CEEC). The slope in the background leads up to where there is now an open space meant for kite flyers (that's the same location used for the photo shoot in All About Ah Long).

The next shot shows the car leaving the flat area and heading back towards the main road past the beach that once had the concrete ramp. Despite the current tree growth it is quite easy for me to recognise this area. I've included a similar angle from Streetview below.

And then as the car drives past the camera, we pan to the left and follow it up the road. Again, the current Streetview placed underneath for comparison.

This isn't the last time we see this road though as the bad guys return later to dispose of a car (complete with requisite drugged victim placed in the driver's seat). They stop the car at a lay-by (it's a single lane road and so has lots of passing places).

They dump the car...

...and then drive off again.

Now, this got me thinking. There is (or perhaps was...it's been a while since I dived there) an old car wreck in the middle of this side of Lobster Bay. It wasn't a modern car either, quite old and in fact was really just the collapsed wheels and steering column - no body and very little chassis left. It's possible that the car wreck in Lobster bay may be this very same car dumped into the bay for the purpose of this film. For a long time people have assumed it was a car that fell off one of the old fast smuggler's speedboats but the age doesn't seem to tally with the time frame. So, if there are any car experts out there who can identify the make and model of the one in the picture above (HK 2358) it might be possible to compare the two to see if they match. My hopes aren't high but it would certainly explain the reason for the car's presence in the bay.

Weiße Fracht für Hongkong - Dietmar Schönherr (1963) - Lobster Bay, Sai Kung

Some more coastal action from the general area of Sai Kung as the heisted drugs are shipped ashore by a masked figure and his accomplice. The initial part of the scenes shows their boat approaching Lobster Bay - Lung Ha Wan - from the north. This is the part of the area that is popular with scuba divers (even I have dived there!) and once had a concrete ramp used by luxury car smugglers.

That's Shelter Island at the back, although it looks as though the concrete ramp was not there in 1963.

After they jump off the boat, for some reason the next part of the sequence flips over to the other side of the headland and the part of Lobster bay that was popular with Shaw Brothers films in the 70's. I can only think that the other side of the headland (below) provided a slightly bigger area for filming.

Readers of my other blog may recall I once spent  a glorious summer's day traversing the headland the hard way i.e. around the rocky coast, and there are plenty of similar pictures on that post showing the areas where the filming was done.

Actually, it's a lovely part of Hong Kong and I recommend anyone with some time to head down there for some great scenery.

Weiße Fracht für Hongkong - Dietmar Schönherr (1963) - Port Shelter, Sai Kung

Time to revisit the 1960's and the first of three German titles I managed to get hold of. The English title is Mystery of the Red Jungle but seeing as it was all filmed in Hong Kong and is about heroin traffickers I'm not sure what the title refers to. Sadly, my German language skills are non-existent and so much of the plot has escaped me (no subtitles or dubbing) but never mind because it's the locations that are the star of the film and there are some really good ones here.

The film starts off with a drug heist gone wrong in the middle of Port Shelter.

Foxbat - Henry Silva (1977) - Hennessy Road, Wanchai

One last one from Foxbat before I post up the mystery locations to my help page. It's the Chinese Methodist Church - the original one designed by Denis Bray's father and built in 1936 - that has since been replaced by a taller more modern (and slightly less interesting) version.

It's not obvious from this screen grab but the original building had some Chinese Renaissance elements to it including a pagoda like structure on the roof. The modern replacement - Methodist House - has tried to retain some of that feel but then has a massive skyscraper sticking out of the back.

Foxbat - Henry Silva (1977) - Hebe Haven, Sai Kung

The master villain (Roy Chiao) is caught up with at Hebe Haven as he tries to make his escape by boat. This is the eastern side of the bay where the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club is located - at the end of Che Keng Tuk Road.

Foxbat - Henry Silva (1977) - Harbour Drive, Wanchai

Not strictly Harbour Drive, but the end part of the car chase culminates in the newly reclaimed section of the Wanchai waterfront that now houses buildings such as the China Resources Building, Sun Hung Kai Centre and the nearby Wanchai Sports Ground.

For example, in the first picture we can see the bus continuing along Marsh Road towards this area that is still obviously a very young construction site.

The finale involves Philip Chen (who also happened to co-write the film) crashing his car through the top of the bus and the following two pictures show where it happens.

I initially though the low building with the open front was the old Wanchai Police Station, but it turns out we are looking a bit further to the east. The cream building (in the DVD screencap you can clearly see a Citizen advert on it) is actually still around (although I think the advert has long gone) and it is the City Centre Building/City Mansion (the name depends on whether you are looking at Google Maps or Centamap) that sits on the corner of Stewart Road (the music company Tom Lee currently occupy the first two floors). That means we are looking down Stewart Road in the second picture.

So the low rise building was actually the pre-cursor to the current AXA Centre. I can't find any information about it so can only assume it was just a row of shophouses like the ones that can be seen on the other side of Stewart Road. Anyway, it must have been knocked down not long after because the AXA Centre was built in 1982.

Foxbat - Henry Silva (1977) - Gloucester Road, Wanchai

The next shot of the ambulance is as it turns onto Gloucester Road from Arsenal Street. This is a great picture and it's a shame I haven't got a better quality version because there is a whole bunch of stuff to be seen. As well as the recognisable buildings in the background (which include the Bank of America Tower - then perhaps still known as the Gammon Centre? - Hutchinson House, Furama Hotel and the Connaught Centre - now Jardine House), there is a tantalising glimpse of Caine House in its former red coat of paint as well as the old China Fleet Club (behind the lamppost).

A little further on down the road and the ambulance is passing by the old Luk Kwok Hotel. That's the building with the red signage at the top. It's hard to see from this angle but it was actually a big advert for SANYO (it's the building immediately behind the ambulance in the picture below). I'm not to knowledgeable on the various buildings that can be seen but suffice to say most have already been replaced. I think the only survivors are the PICO Tower (newly built and on the other side of the Luk Kwok Hotel) and the Malaysia Building - the gold-coloured building in the background. Can anyone remember what the white building was on the right hand side?

Foxbat - Henry Silva (1977) - Marsh Road, Wanchai

After leaving the ambulance at Canal Road West because the double-decker bus won't fit under the flyover, Silva manages to somehow turn the bus around, head back up the way he came and take a turn into Marsh Road. The film camera looks to have been placed on the pavement at the side of the flyover, luckily almost exactly where the Google car took its Streetview pictures from so we can compare the exact same angle.

In the Streetview grab you can see that the famous Tung Tak Pawnshop - the low rise building at the back on the corner of Marsh and Hennessy. Sadly this place was eventually demolished only just last year. A sad way for such a nicely designed and historical building to go and yet another sad indictment of HK's official policy towards heritage conservation.

In the lower pictures the only change has been the replacement of the two end blocks by a newer building and its podium floor. It's called the Sun Group Building.

Shirley's World (TV Series) - Shirley MacLaine (1972) - Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay

A mystery location from Shirley's World cleared up again thanks to Thomas and Arthur. In Figuratively Speaking we see some sailors patronising the various shops in Hong Kong and one of them was the Wing Hung Photo Supply Company.

Thomas was able to read that this branch was in Causeway Bay, and Arthur was able to track down the exact address courtesy of an old advert on a Facebook page (at the bottom is a list of branches, the second one from the bottom is the Causeway Bay branch which has the address of Ground Floor, 452 Hennessy Road).

It actually looks as though the same building is still there, although it's hard to confirm. Anyway, the same space was occupied by a 3D-Gold shop back when the Google car did its rounds.

So a big thanks to both Thomas and Arthur for once again finding the needle in the haystack.

Foxbat - Henry Silva (1977) - Arsenal Street, Wanchai

We're just on the cusp of Wanchai District with this next shot. Although the ambulance turns left into Canal Street West in the previous scene, it actually ends up popping out by the waterfront along Gloucester Road by the Police HQ.

Sadly most of the screen grabs I have are badly interlaced and my efforts to fix them have resulted in an equally eye-crossing blockiness, so I just have one that is okay to look at. The shot below is looking south back along Arsenal Street from the elevated lane that goes into the eastbound direction of Gloucester Road. At the right of the screen you can see the old Police HQ that has since been replaced by the current version. 

Seeing as this is Arsenal Street, it's interesting to note that the compound had an extra couple of white painted watchtowers along that stretch of road before they were knocked down during the redevelopment. The compound still has two on the wall facing Gloucester Road as well as a big one on top of one of the roofs.

You may recall Robert Mitchum walking along that same stretch of wall during The Amsterdam Kill.