– Chasing the “Lifeblood of Macao”
In 1951 a Hollywood B-movie hit American screens, Smuggler’s Island – “in vivid Technicolour” no less. The lobby cards proclaimed it an adventure set in the “Pirate Port of the China Seas”. Guess where? You’ve got it – Macao, of course. Though Smuggler’s Island was a bit of a flop – it only ever showed at second-run-cinemas and drive-ins where teenagers went to smooch in their parents’ cars rather than to watch the movies. Hardly anyone reviewed it. When they did, the review read like a regurgitation of a studio press release designed to fill a newspaper column for free. But for those of us who love Macao, those of us interested in Macao’s history, Smuggler’s Island is a treat. People like us watch Smuggler’s Island and are totally sold from the opening voiceover describing the genuine 1950s location shots of junks and sampans under full sail in the Porto Exterior –
Macao: most loyal of Portuguese colonies
The Monte Carlo of the Orient
Lying 50 miles off the coast of China
From ancient times the haven of smugglers
Themselves preyed upon by ruthless pirates,
Who, even today, still infest the coast.
Macao: isle of intrigue, of secrecy
The constant whisper is heard in a dozen languages:
Gold…
Gold: the lifeblood of Macao
In the 1930s the American journalist Harrison Forman, who’d studied Oriental Philosophy, travelled from Tibet right across China to Shanghai arriving just in time to witness the Japanese invasion in 1937. From there he headed south to Guangdong, Hong Kong, and eventually Macao. Forman stayed on in Asia after the war and returned once again to Macao. There he found an ‘isle of intrigue’ and he heard one word whispered over and over again…. “gold…”
Of course, before, during, and after World War Two, Macao was famous for smuggling everything – salt, rice, kerosene, opium, people, and gold. It was indeed a “Smuggler’s Island”. And the script is lifted pretty much straight from Forman’s reporting. Steve Kent, an ex-US Navy frogman, is washed up in Macao, barely making a living using his old diving skills to salvage lost treasure. He meets Vivian Craig, a femme fatale just arrived from Manila in a very tight dress looking fantastic. She’s lost a precious cargo in a plane crash over the South China Sea. So now she needs Steve. Vivian claims her list cargo was expensive cosmetics. Steve doubts her – ‘three years in Macao makes you mighty suspicious’ – but can’t take his eyes off her.
He is right of course – rather than lipsticks and eyeliners, it’s a crate of bullion. She’s a smuggler looking to get her dubiously acquired gold out of Manila to Macao, smelt it down, and smuggle it to Hong Kong where prices are double anywhere else. But there’s a twist. Not only did her gold end up at the bottom of the South China Sea, but Vivian is on the run from her nasty husband. He’s all tailored suits and a cut-glass English accent, but really little more than a shifty pimp. Now he’s in Macao and wants his cut, as do the corrupt Portuguese cops and customs, the local Chinese pirates, and a mercurial Eurasian gold dealer Vivian needs to launder her loot called Dr Lorca.
Those familiar with Macao’s history will see an obvious parallel with the colony’s wartime eminence grise and post-war gold deal facilitator, Dr Pedro José Lobo. Forman had met Lobo, sat down with him and got him to explain his extensive gold dealing activities. Later, Ian Fleming (the creator of James Bond) came to town and also met Dr Lobo, spotlighting him in his account of Macao in Thrilling Cities (1959), his tour for London Sunday Times of the world’s most exciting locales. Fleming was astounded enough by Lobo to incorporate elements of his character into his arch-villain, Auric Goldfinger.
In Smuggler’s Island, Steve Kent faces cross, double-cross and triple-cross before a boat chase across the straits to the once notorious pirate haunt of Bias Bay (now Daya Bay), some gunplay and finally a finale that is literally a massive fireworks show. Along the way there’s some nice shots of junks under full sail in the Porto Exterior and Porto Interior and along the coastline of Macao and Lapa Island (Wanzai) as it was in the early 1950s. Hollywood’s attention to Macanese detail wasn’t too bad – even on the Universal Studios lot in Los Angeles the Goan police officers are authentically dressed, and the old ironwork lampposts that once lined the colony’s streets are accurate too. It’s imaginary waterfront of bars, casinos and crowded sampans were all created in California.
OK, I’ll admit Smuggler’s Island is a curiosity perhaps only for the Macao-addicted. Jeff Chandler (Steve Kent) is a ham actor; Evelyn Keyes (Vivian Craig) didn’t get much of a budget for her dresses and jewellery, and they could have made more of the location shots Universal took for the picture. But, as I hope I’ve shown, it was a storyline that tapped into a key facet of Macao life in the 1950s: gold – the getting of it, smuggling of it, trading of it, and Macao’s total obsession with it. As Smuggler’s Island tells it – “Gold: the lifeblood of Macao.”
Smuggler’s Island is available to view to on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9Ja9eeB7f0
DESTINATION MACAO
By Paul French – Author
www.chinarhyming.com
