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Matt Glasby

This is the latest instalment in an ongoing feature series reflecting on instances of East Meets West in world cinema, including cases of China-US co-productions.
In the years after World War II, cinema was forced to reinvent itself. To counter the rise of TV, movies became bigger, brighter and costlier, whisking viewers away to places far more exciting than their living rooms.
British melodrama Ferry to Hong Kong (1959) is emblematic of such escapist efforts.
Shot in expensive CinemaScope widescreen entirely on location, it was the Rank studio’s most ambitious project to date, even if, viewed today, it feels like a picture postcard from another era.
Based on the 1957 novel of the same name by Simon Kent – itself based on a true story – the film was directed by Lewis Gilbert, who would go on to make three James Bond films.


The story concerns Mark Conrad (Curt Jürgens), a down-on-his-luck drinker and gambler who gets expelled from Hong Kong after a bar fight.
Forced to take an ancient steamer called the Fa Tsan (or “Fat Annie”) to Macau, he is refused entry there as well, and finds himself stuck, travelling back and forth between the two islands for months, much to the chagrin of Captain Cecil Hart (Orson Welles).
On board, he makes friends with the crew, including engineer Joe Skinner (Noel Purcell), and romances the much younger teacher Miss Ferrers (Sylvia Syms), while gradually making himself at home.
After plenty of high-seas drama, not least being captured by pirates, the Fat Annie is eventually sunk, but not before Conrad has redeemed himself.
As one commentator noted, the film is part Casablanca – on a very bad day – and part The World of Suzie Wong.

While it is impossible to imagine quite how exotic Hong Kong must have appeared to British cinema-goers in the late 1950s, the location work still has its charms.
There are beautiful shots of the Fat Annie towering over junks in the harbour with a dramatic sunset behind; views from The Peak of a bewilderingly low-rise Central; and plenty of sailing sequences that feature Hong Kong’s smaller islands shimmering in the distance.
Not that the shoot was plain sailing for Gilbert, who referred to the project as “my nightmare film” on BBC radio programme Desert Island Discs.
“Everything was wrong,” he elaborated, “principally Orson Welles.”
Welles, who had been in decline since his stellar 1941 debut in Citizen Kane, was apparently jealous of Jürgens’ popularity, and repeatedly held up filming with his unprofessional behaviour.
It was, Gilbert admitted, a “battle to get him on the floor” every day – and not necessarily a battle worth fighting.

Whatever you make of the film, the casting almost scuppers it. As the obsequious captain, Welles gives an overly broad performance, with a wobbly English accent that is part Kenneth Williams and part Sid James.
It does not help that the dialogue was re-recorded back in England, making it seem like it had been dubbed by different actors.
Jürgens is equally miscast. With his strong German accent and stern bearing, he is more commanding than charming, closer to the Bond villain he would play in Gilbert’s The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) than a romantic lead.
Indeed, quite why the young, beautiful Miss Ferrers would fall for a grumpy middle-aged loser like Conrad is a greater mystery than anything served up by the plot.
Although the film falls prey to the usual racist clichés, depicting the Chinese as either silent, staring hordes or criminals, it is an otherwise genial way to pass two hours.

But the real interest lies not in the story, but what is going on beneath the surface.
During the post-war period, cinema was not the only thing reinventing itself. Britain was still trying to find its place in the modern world. The 1956 Suez Crisis had seen it embarrassed by the United States and the Soviet Union, and it would play a much smaller part in the ensuing Cold War than previous conflicts.
Faced with its own declining imperial power, Britain considered Hong Kong a prized possession, although one that was increasingly vulnerable to communist China.
The film, therefore, can be seen as nostalgia for the days when Britain did indeed rule the waves – there is even a small group of Chinese musicians playing Rule, Britannia! from a sampan as Conrad romances Miss Ferrer.

It also acknowledges that the times are changing. The Fat Annie may once have ruled the waves, but she is old and outdated, and equally vulnerable to Chinese pirates. When we last see her, she is sinking in the South China Sea as Hong Kong life moves on around her.
But then, as Miss Ferrers reminds us, “Not all stories have a happy ending.”
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In Ferry to Hong Kong, Casablanca meets The World of Suzie Wong, but cast nearly sinks it

Curt Jürgens (centre) in a still from Ferry to Hong Kong (1959).

Curt Jürgens (centre) in a still from Ferry to Hong Kong (1959). The movie, described by one commentator as part Casablanca, part The World of Suzie Wong, co-starred Orson Welles, who caused many issues for James Bond director Lewis Gilbert.

(From left) Orson Welles, Jeremy Spenser and Curt Jürgens in a still from Ferry to Hong Kong.

Sylvia Syms and Curt Jürgens in a still from Ferry to Hong Kong.

Orson Welles (left) and Curt Jürgens in a still from Ferry to Hong Kong.

A still from Ferry to Hong Kong (1959).

1984 meets Blade Runner in Shanghai-set sci-fi Code 46 with shades of Wong Kar-wai

Samantha Morton and Tim Robbins in a still from Code 46.

Tim Robbins and Samantha Morton in a still from Code 46. Shot in Shanghai on the fly, as well as in Dubai and elsewhere, Michael Winterbottom’s sci-fi takes elements from 1984, Blade Runner and Brazil and looks like a Wong Kar-wai film.

Samantha Morton (left) and Tim Robbins in a still from Code 46.

Tim Robbins and Samantha Morton in a still from Code 46.

Hollywood in Hong Kong: five East-meets-West films from a time when studios used city’s exotic setting to woo viewers

The “King of Hollywood”, Clark Gable (centre), in 1955 film Soldier of Fortune, which featured outstanding location footage of Central, Wan Chai, Aberdeen Harbour and Tsim Sha Tsui. Photo: Alamy

DEG2TH SOLDIER OF FORTUNE (1955) POSTER, EDWARD DMYTRYK (DIR) SOLD 003 MOVIESTORE COLLECTION LTD

BB69WX movie, Ferry to Hong Kong, GBR 1959, director: Lewis Gilbert, scene with Orson Welles (L) and Curd Juergens (R). Photo: Alamy. [02AUGUST2017 FEATURES ONLINE]

This handout image shows a poster of Ferry to Hong Kong (1959). Photo: HANDOUT [02AUGUST2017 FEATURES ONLINE]

This handout image shows a poster of The Sand Pebbles (1966). Photo: HANDOUT [02AUGUST2017 FEATURES ONLINE]

This handout image shows a poster of The World of Suzie Wong (1960). Photo: HANDOUT [02AUGUST2017 FEATURES ONLINE]

--LOW RES. IMAGE, ONLINE ONLY-- This handout image shows a stills of The Sand Pebbles (1966), Photo: HANDOUT [02AUGUST2017 FEATURES ONLINE]

This handout image shows a stills of William Holden (L) and Jennifer Jones in Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955). Photo: HANDOUT [02AUGUST2017 FEATURES ONLINE]

This handout image shows a poster of Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955). Photo: HANDOUT [02AUGUST2017 FEATURES ONLINE]

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Mickey Rourke and Ariane in a still from Year of the Dragon.

Mickey Rourke as a police captain and John Lone as a triad boss in a still from Year of the Dragon (1985), a crime thriller set in New New York’s Chinatown. 

Rourke as Captain Stanley White in a still from Year of the Dragon.

Ariane as reporter Tracy Tzu in a still from Year of the Dragon.

Rourke plays a Vietnam-vet police captain in a still from Year of the Dragon.

John Lone as triad boss Joey Tai in a still from Year of the Dragon.

Rourke and Lone in a still from Year of the Dragon.

Ariane as reporter Tracy Tzu and Rourke as Captain Whilte in a still from Year of the Dragon.

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Justin Chatwin and Emmy Rossum in Dragonball Evolution, the laughably bad 2009 movie adaptation of Akira Toriyama’s iconic Dragon Ball manga series.

Director James Wong (left) and Justin Chatwin, who played protagonist Goku, on the set of Dragonball Evolution.

Chow Yun-fat in a still from Dragonball Evolution.

Rossum (left) and Joon Park in a still from Dragonball Evolution.

(From left) Rossum, Chow Yun-fat and Jamie Chung attend a media event to promote Dragonball Evolution in Seoul, in 2009. Photo: AP

Rossum and Chatwin in a still from Dragonball Evolution (2009).

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(From left) Jack Soo, Nancy Kwan, Miyoshi Umeki and James Shigeta in a lobby card from Flower Drum Song. Photo: Getty Images

Reiko Sato (left) and James Shigeta in a lobby card from the film. Photo: Getty Images

Miyoshi Umeki (left) and James Shigeta in a lobby card from the film. Photo: Getty Images

A poster for Flower Drum Song. Photo: Getty Images

Lifestyle

Entertainment

Culture

Film & TV

Director Lewis Gilbert called it ‘my nightmare film’, with Orson Welles, who plays the ferry’s captain, proving a particular problem


Casablanca meets The World of Suzie Wong in the 1959 movie Ferry to Hong Kong, whose cast – specifically stars Curt Jürgens and Orson Welles – nearly sank it for James Bond director Lewis Gilbert.


American cinema

Cinema

Fame and celebrity

Hollywood