星光伴我心之中西合壁

One of my somewhat embarrassing-to-admit interests is old black & white movies. I can never pass the opportunity if I happened to glance an old movie playing on TV when I was flipping through channels. That even included old-fashioned 粵語殘片, much to the annoyance of the people I live with since most of them would sneer at their corniness. Admittedly many 粵語殘片 are dated story and tilted acting galore, some actually are, however, in reasonably high quality (particularly those by 中聯) if only you give it a chance and judge it based on its own context. Naturally it caught my attention when net acquaintance Chris introduce the 粵語殘片 actress 麗兒 in his blog 子貓物語~~附庸風雅



麗兒 (Marianne Quon) is, of course, a ground-breaking Chinese actress in both Hollywood and Chinese movie history. However, what really took me a ride down the memory lane are the two actors in the audience in the above clip:



For those who are novice to 粵語殘片, the one on the left is 鄭惠森, one of his more famous (recurring) roles is 凌雲階 in 關德興’s 黃飛鴻 series. The one on the right is an actor named 馮應湘. His name was more obscure today because he was primarily a character actor and passed away in the mid 50s already. However, seeing 馮應湘 in the clip above has reminded me one of the most unusual 粵語殘片 I had once watched by chance when I was a kid years ago. 馮應湘 was often cast as ne’er-do-well or playboys but in this particular case not only did he play a hero, he actually played a superhero. I only remember bits and pieces of the movie but the part I remember is something like this:

There was a guy who took refuge in 馮應湘‘s house because he was on the run from some kind of (righteous) mission. Unbeknown to this man, 馮應湘 happened to have a jacket that can turn him invisible. As a result, they decide to join force together to carry out the mission...

It was an ensemble movie and 馮應湘 was just one of the many cast members who have super power but his is the one I remember the most. I have never come across this movie again and often I wonder if that actually happened at all. If this movie really did exist, it must be one of the first ever superhero movies in Hong Kong.

Now that my memory of the movie was triggered once again, I set out to locate the movie but even though 馮應湘 died at the relatively young age of 46, he has made a staggering two hundred something movies in his short life and most of them have details missing to say the least. It will need some detective work to find the match, if at all. Fortunately with its unusual storyline, I managed find a movie named 亂世英雄 (A Hero of Troubled Times) in 中國影視資料館 with the following synopsis and list of cast, characters:

新任市長章大朋的真正身份是大盜'迷魂賊', 其妻梅玲則是'野女郎'. 二人軟禁了前市長馬頌潮, 企圖迫他道出國家藏金的所在, 但頌潮一直不肯就範. 由政府首都派來的監察員金萬成正對大朋的舉動有所懷疑, 遂展開追查, 並聯同'女黑俠'呂秀雲施計營救馬市長. 秀雲以歌女身份混入大朋的迷宮, 與萬成裡應外合. 此際梅玲發現了她的勁敵'玉面霸王'史劍青及其妻雪蝶尋至, 便擬先下手為強, 除掉雪蝶. 劍青在逃命期間結識了'隱形博士'戴鐵龍, 二人決定合力除害, 對付大朋夫婦. 各路英雄用不同方法混進迷宮, 皆被識破, 最後萬成巧施催眠術, 加上隱形博士的隱形衣, 終告打敗迷魂賊夫婦, 成功救出頌潮復職, 社會回復太平.

羅品超 .... 玉面霸王史劍青
郭秀珍 .... 野女郎梅玲
姚萍 .... 迷魂賊章大朋
徐人心 .... 女黑俠呂秀雲
鄭君綿 .... 離魂秘客金萬成
馬小玲 .... 周雪蝶
譚子駒 .... 陸隊長
冼江 .... 特務長
馮應湘 .... 隱形博士戴鐵龍
藍菲 .... 馬頌潮
林華 .... 獄卒
佩佩 .... 蕙絲

The plot sounds like a page you ripped off from an episode of the 70s comic book superhero series Super Friends 萬能勇士:


萬能勇士

Remember that American TV program, featuring 正義堂 (The Justice League of America), 雙子少俠 (Super Twins)...? In fact, it is not hard to detect the American influence on 亂世英雄 from the photo still of the movie in 中國影視資料館:



Here we have the hypnotist wearing a sultan outfit that recalls the sorcerers in many old Hollywood fantasy movies like The Thief of Bagdad, an American cowboy and even a blackface, a distinctive (not to mention extremely racist and politically incorrect) piece of Americana.

The only other info I can find on 亂世英雄 is this photo still I came across on a discussion board on Hong Kong nostalgia, featuring "離魂秘客金萬成" (played by 鄭君綿) on the left and "迷魂賊章大朋" (played by 姚萍) on the right:



Even people of my generation would recognize 鄭君綿 since he had acted on TV from time to time until he passed away in 1994. He was famous for impersonating Elvis Presley during his 粵語殘片 days and he was nicknamed “東方貓王”. According to 中國影視資料館, 亂世英雄 was released in 1950, when Elvis had yet to put out a record. Looking at the above photo still, I can’t help but wondering if 鄭君綿 was channeling the famous Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí.


鄭君綿 vs. Salvador Dalí's self portrait
Even though I haven’t found any clip of 亂世英雄, I can’t tell you how excited I was to be able to locate the name of a movie that had lived in my memory for so long. For I have never met anyone who has recollection of such an odd 粵語殘片, even from people of my parents’ generation. Once and for all I proved that I didn’t dream the whole movie up. Next time I am in Hong Kong I definitely will try my luck with 亂世英雄 at Hong Kong Film Archive. In the meanwhile it would be more than welcome to hear from anyone who knows anything about the movie or how to get hold of it.