Black Cobra Woman - Laura Gemser (1976) - Talk of the Town, Excelsior Hotel

This last week or so witnessed the closure of the Excelsior Hotel for redevelopment (in fact, for the record, it closed on the 31 March 2019). So I thought it was quite serendipitous that one of the locations from Black Cobra Woman should be the former open rooftop restaurant and bar, "Talk of the Town". This is the "club" where Eva is employed as an exotic dancer and where she later goes for lunch with her new girlfriend, Gerr. The image below shows the view looking across Happy Valley towards Braemar Hill where you can see the (then) new high rises of Evelyn Towers.

It looks as though this roof top terrace was later blocked in by windows because the roof top now appears to be enclosed, perhaps to make it more weather friendly.

Black Cobra Woman - Laura Gemser (1976) - Lockhart Road, Causeway Bay

Here's an interesting look at what used to be at the very end of Lockhart Road where it meets East Point Road. This is where Eva is driving Gerri home, and she stops and chucks away her plane ticket.

The first image is looking back up along Lockhart Road from the end. That whole block of buildings on the right hand side is still there. The next image shows them stopping outside the "Excelsior Shopping Centre" which was in the Chee On Building, which is still there today. The next shot shows the camera looking up East Point Road towards the junction with Yee Wo Street.

Black Cobra Woman - Laura Gemser (1976) - Tin Hau Temple, Repulse Bay

Judas' brother introduces Eva to one of his girlfriend, Gerri, and they immediately strike up a rapport. The venue for this meetup is the Tin Hau Temple at Repulse Bay where Eva is having a bit of a swim in the bay.

Black Cobra Woman - Laura Gemser (1976) - Edinburgh Place, Central

There is a quick scene filmed around Edinburgh Place when Eva and another of her girlfriends are being taken by rickshaw past the old Star Ferry terminal. In the background of the first image is the General Post Office still under a bit of scaffolding. It opened in 1976 so this ties nicely in with the filming. Actually, I believe it's about to undergo redevelopment. There's been a bit of a murmur from the built heritage activists but, in my opinion, there are far more nicer and older buildings that warrant protection before this one.

Black Cobra Woman - Laura Gemser (1976) - Lockhart Road, Wanchai

Once in her new car, Eva (that's the character's name) takes it for a spin and the next shot was taken looking along Lockhart Road at the junction with Fenwick Street. There are some familiar bar and restaurant names here including the Diamond Steakhouse, Neptune and Magpie bars, and I believe the large one on the corner of Fenwick Street must be the Back Door Club. The one in the last image with the curves above the columns was the Pussy Cat Bar. All these old buildings have been redeveloped.

We also see the same area a bit later in the film but this time from the pavement as Eva and her new found friend are walking around and hanging out.

Black Cobra Woman - Laura Gemser (1976) - Magazine Gap, Wanchai

Jack Palance's character in this film, Judas, is supposedly immensely wealthy and one of the establishing shots used to show where he lives is a pan of the area in the vicinity of Magazine Gap. We start with a view across to Central before panning left, past Katoomba (image two) before finally settling on a building that no longer exists but stands at what would have been today's 40 Peak Road.

Katoomba on the left

40 Peak Road

Black Cobra Woman - Laura Gemser (1976) - Leighton Road, Causeway Bay

As a treat for his new charge, Judas (Jack Palance) buys her a car - a brand new Mercedes convertible - and the brother, Julius, takes her out for a spin in it. When we first see the car it is parked on Sun Wui Road right where it meets Leighton Road. The angular building on the other side of the road is Bonaventure House and it's still there with its angular corner. I am guessing that the Mercedes dealership used to be in there because there looks to be a large Merc symbol stuck to the side of the building behind the lamppost. Just behind that you can just make out the original Lee Theatre building with its roof dome - the current version of the building (opened in 1991) has tried to pay homage to the original by including a roof top dome but you really have to crane your next to see it given the current building's height.

Black Cobra Woman - Laura Gemser (1976) - Yee Wo Street, Causeway Bay

The first street shot from this film is a view looking east along Yee Wo Street. It's unrecognisable compared to today but look carefully in the far left background and you can see a building with horizontal ledges along its front. This is the "V Causeway Bay" building long before it was modernised. In fact you can see the same building in this post from That Man Bolt, it's the one in the top image there.

Anyway, our tough exotic dancer friend gets out of that cab and heads into the restaurant next to Maria's Cake House.

Black Cobra Woman - Laura Gemser (1976) - Views across the harbour, Hong Kong

Coupled with the initial Kai Tak landing sequence, the opening scenes from Black Cobra Woman also show a little bit of the Hong Kong Island waterfront. Some familiar views here, even if many of the buildings no longer exist. Just in the top image you can see the Furama Hotel, Sutherland House (with the circular BAYER advert), the Hong Kong Club, the Hilton Hotel behind them all and the older HSBC building which have all gone the way of the dodo.

Black Cobra Woman - Laura Gemser (1976) - Hong Kong International Airport, Kai Tak

In my quest to discover all foreign movies that filmed in Hong Kong, I have already included the soft-porn, sorry, I mean"art house" Les Fruits de la Passion, and of course Emmanuelle: L'antivierge. So, the following few films are from that same sort of exploitation genre. This first one is Black Cobra Woman starring Black Emmanuelle herself, Laura Gemser. It also has, of all people, Jack Palance, in a co-starring role and I am still undecided if any of his scenes were actually filmed in Hong Kong.

Gemser is an exotic dancer who uses snakes in her performance and bumps into Palance's brother (played by Gemser's real life husband, Gabriele Tinti) on a flight to Hong Kong. He introduces her to Palance who is smitten and invites her to stay at his house along with his collection of poisonous snakes. What follows is a rather nasty tale of jealousy and revenge and a particularly gruesome end for Tinti.

Anyway, in true 70's style, the films opening establishing shots are of a plane landing at Kai Tak airport, however, it seems the director was so taken with this scene that he decide to show a whole bunch of planes landing. But here are the grabs from the main landing sequence.

There also follows an additional scene at the pick up point which has been seen on quite a few occasions on this bog previously.