Love is a many-splendored thing: film locations

The Hospital Scene was filmed at the Fairview which was situated at 41 Conduit Road. The Fairview was built by the wealthy Mok family in 1911. It was a grand palatial mansion built with Italian marble which overlooked the harbour and was the site of the Foreign Correspondent's Club after WWII.

In 1970, the site was re-developed and today's Realty Gardens stands in its place.

Sources: FCC in-House Magazine 'The Correspondent' Sep-Nov 2008

Peter Halliday: http://sunzi1.lib.hku.hk/hkjo/view/44/4400875.pdf

Dan Waters: http://sunzi1.lib.hku.hk/hkjo/view/44/4402533.pdf

Gillian Bickley: http://sunzi1.lib.hku.hk/hkjo/view/35/3500488.pdf

Scenes of the Farview: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare6/loveisamany.htm

Photo Source: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=624220&page=3

Thanks for the detailed reply.

Regards, David

Hi there,

There used to be another floating restaurant called the Floating Palace (海上皇宮) other than the Jumbo, but the Palace had been sold and was tolled to Australia to it's new rightrul owner.

Also a reminder, the floating restaurants today are not in their original location.  Before the reclamation on both sides of the harbour and before the construction of the first Apleichau Bridge, the floating restaurants were located closer to the current site of the  Aberdeen Bus Terminus, west of the Apleichau Bridge and right in the middle of the channel.  The 1964 aerial photo book could be a good reference.

Best Regards,

T

Hi there,

Thanks for the update.  Obviously my memory was a bit shaky when I blurted out the name and I only got the [Palace] part right.

Best Regards,

T

Night view

Day View (Dragon Boat Races)

Hi there,

The location, at least for the camera capturing the scene being shown as the window appeared to be standing somewhere at the corner where the old Man Yee Building used to be.  It was there back in the 1950's, I think.  I could not recall whether the current Man Yee building had kept the old foundation stone.

Best Regards,

T

Well, it is not the Man Yee Building as it was built after the film was made.

The street scene outside the window is of Pottinger St but it looks like ,as you say, to be shot in a studio. Is it possible to have the shot of her walking along the street for comparison?

1950s Queens Rd C looking west. Pottinger St is on the left.

1950s Pottinger St

Wikipedia suggests that the Man Yee Building was built in 1957.

According to Jennifer Jones' Biography timeline, the movie was filmed between March and June 1955.

William Holden's Biography records that he arrived in Hong Kong in March 1955 for 2 weeks location filming, The location filming was completed prior to the completion of the screenplay. Please see here As I understand, no dialogue scenes were shot in Hong Kong.

The gala premiere of Love is a Many-Splendored Thing was screened at the Roxy and Broadway Theatres on November 4, 1955

Hi there,

I think it's more likely one of the building on the Eastern side of Deep Water Bay/Island Road.  The screen capture of the movie showed some sort of a skyline at the top.  If it was somewhere between the Repulse Bay and Middle Bay, it doesn't seem to match the landscape.  You have the Twins at the back that way.

T

It's worth mentioning that all of the scenes containing dialog were shot in a studio. For interior locations with a "live" background, the background scenes were shot on location and then back-projected while the studio scene was being filmed back in the US.

So, with the tea shop scene, it is perfectly possibly that the scene of Suyin entering the shop could have been a very different location to that used for the back projection.

Phil, you hit the nail on the head. I had difficulty in locating the tea shop scene as it did not quite match the Pottinger St view. My guess is that the street scene was shot on Queen's Rd C but to the east of Pedder Street.

Some nice shots of 1955 Hong Kong, the year the film was made. Note the Pottinger St view: http://www.memoriesofkorea.com/?p=96

The famous tree scene above the Fairview shot in a Hollywood Studio:

http://www.doctormacro1.info/Images/Jones,%20Jennifer/Annex/Annex%20-%20Jones,%20Jennifer%20(Love%20is%20a%20Many-Splendored%20Thing)_01.jpg

good find Moddsey, but there was also a real location featured for some of those scenes (and used as the back projection for hills) which was actually at what was then called Fox Ranch, but is now known as Malibu Creek State Park (same place they used to film M.A.S.H).

The tea shop scene at street level I reckon, was taken on the southern side of Queen's Rd C looking west towards Pedder St and the former Queen's Theatre.

The building on the right with the advertisement signs on its pillars would be the site of the present day Landmark (or is it a hotel once again?) with the China Building in the middle facing Pedder St.

A comparison photo below showing the junction of Queen's Rd C with Pedder St but looking in the opposite direction.

Hi there,

There is an entry in the Chinese version of Wiki saying in the 1950's the site at the corner of Pedder & Queen's was the Hong Kong Hotel, the first five star hotel in time of the time.  The site is now occupied by the Central Building.

The Landmark is right behind it with Mandarin Oriental occupying part of a tower of the Landmark.  Yes, there are two Mandarin Orientals in Central now.

Best Regards,

T

Suyin walks out from the hospital, and apparently looks up to a tree on a hilltop, a short distance away. She has an appointment to meet Mark here. Here's the view a little later (43:23), as they walk up to the hilltop together:

It's clear this isn't the view you'd see a short distance above Conduit Road, but I thought it could be another hilltop somewhere in Hong Kong. It turns out it's not in Hong Kong at all - see Phil's notes above.

Also, though in this shot I think they are really walking up a hill, it's clear from the shot Moddsey links to that other times we see Suyin near a tree, it may well have been shot in a studio.

This hilltop is also the setting for the closing scenes of the film.

The shot above was on location in California. It's a tracking shot that involves no dialog.

The dialog scenes around the tree were filmed in the studio as Moddsey's picture testifies.

I thought for a long time that the location was perhaps in the NT (it's just too expansive to be anywhere on HK Island) until I listened to the DVD commentary and the Fox Ranch was revealed as the location.

The commentary basically says what you have already guessed - that filming in China in 1955 was a non-starter and so they simply obscured the view of the airport in that scene by sticking a wooden hut in the way with "Chung King" written on the side.

However, the background in those shots makes me wonder if they snuck off to Shek Kong for that scene? There's no mention in the commentary.

David, could you post a view of the plane's descent into Chungking ('Kai Tak') for comparison? Cheers.

The Terminal Building was built in 1947 and became disused in 1959 after the enlargement of Kai Tak and the building of the reclaimed runway.

1957

1960 (prior to its demolition)

Yes, the views are distinctly Kai Tak from the 1950s. The long shot view shows an aircraft landing on Runway 13 over today's San Po Kong.

The bottom view shows a Civil Air Transport (CAT) Curtiss Commando C-46 parked outside the Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company (HAEC) hangar.

A long shot view of Kai Tak from the 1950s. The HAEC hangar is the black structure in the centre of photo.

Taken from the Ocean Park Cable Car

Hi there,

For that particular section of the film as shown in the first capture I believe they have flipped the film over when during editing and nobody spotted it.  As you can see the skyline is not right.

Best Regards,

T

Hi there,

I should have quoted it earlier.  I mean this screen capture, the one you mentioned the pillbox:

http://gwulo.com/node/4377

Best Regards,

T

Apologies, I should have read the FAQ first. Now, here is the picture I thought was an Aberdeen floating restaurant in 1976, as per my previous question

Hi there,

The photo is of the Tai Pak, one of the three floating restaurants in Aberdeen back then.

Best Regards,

T

Anonymous writes:

Been trying to find out the brand of the car (and vintage) used in the movie Love is a Many Splendored Thing - thought it may be a Bentley, but perhaps not

GeoffWhere replied:

Looks too small to me for a Bentley, more like a Riley or Austin but can't find a match for these brands. Some sleepless nights ahead . . .

Maybe a Singer Nine Roadster? (The bonnet louvres might not be right)

Photo here.

In this shot, we see the ferry leaving Central for Kowloon, whereas it should be the other way round, as they've just come from Kai Tak airport and going to HK island.

I read the posts on this film with avid interest particularly The Tree Scene(s).

I could not get Moddsey's link to work (maybe it is now broken).

Do we therefore conclude that the background scenery for the tree scenes is not in Hong Kong at all but in California, and that the tree was just a studio creation? 

Or, more romantically, which I much prefer to believe, there really was a tree which is still growing on a hillside in Hong Kong (or even California) just waiting to be discovered. If so where is it? I would like to travel there with my Hong Kong wife.