The beauty of old film locations

The other day I rewatched the classic Hollywood love story "Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing"  (1955) with William Holden and Jennifer Jones in the main roles. The film shot on location in Hongkong  was still as romantic as I thought it would be, and I thoroghly enjoyed it. But what particularly caught my attention were the beautiful sceneries from Honkong of the 50´s. What a beautiful place it was! (My own two visits to HK took place in the early 80´s, and as far as I can remember, the locations looked pretty much the same then. How HK looks now, I do not know, but hopefully much of the old charm is still there).

When I think of it, probably one important reason why it is so nice to watch old films, is that you get to see how some of your favourite places looked like long ago. Just a couple of examples: The post war Vienna in "The Third Man", Paris in "An American in Paris" or "Gigi", Rome in "Three Coins in the Fountain", San Francisco in "Vertigo", Los Angeles in "Chinatown", Hawaii in "From Here to Eternity"  and Venice in David Lean´s "Summertime". The list is endless. Sometimes even otherwise boring films can be interesting because of the locations.

For those interested in more information about movie locations there is an excellent resource: The World Wide Guide to Movie Locations.

PS
If you want to get a glimpse of Honkong as it was shown in "Love is a Many-Splendored Thing", watch this - and listen to one of the most beautiful film melodies ever, or this: