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Steve McQueen and his wife Neile Adams arrive in Hong Kong, in March 1966. Photo: SCMP

When ‘terribly moody’ Steve McQueen came to Hong Kong to film The Sand Pebbles

  • Described by the South China Morning Post as a ‘versatile actor’, his wife Neile Adams had other words for him
  • McQueen was in town to shoot the sea battle part of the movie, aboard the ‘most expensive film ‘action prop’ ever’

“Steve McQueen Flies In,” ran a South China Morning Post headline on March 23, 1966. The “versatile actor” had arrived the previous day “with a whole film company to carry out location shooting here for the 20th Century Fox film Sand Pebbles”.

The crew arrived from Taiwan, where they had spent several weeks shooting. At a press conference on March 23, McQueen admitted that he found Taiwan “very trying” because “the people there took advantage of them in financial matters”. The film’s director-producer, Robert Wise, also said he found filming there “a bit trying at times”, citing poor weather conditions and unexpected taxes as the reasons.

On March 30, a replica of a 1920 Yangtze river gunboat and four junks sailed into the colony. “Although she may have guns on board, the U.S.S. San Pablo is not interested in making war. The gunboat – built in Hongkong recently for almost US$250,000 – is the most expensive film ‘action prop’ ever,” reported the Post.

“The junks will be destroyed in the sea battle part of the film, a story of gunboat diplomacy on the Yangtze River in the twenties.”

In an interview with the Post, McQueen’s wife, Neile Adams, said of her husband: “He is terribly moody – one word can change his whole mood – but it only annoys me when I can’t understand it.

“I don’t worry about other women. If I did I would get old before my time.”

When Steve McQueen was talk of the town in Hong Kong

On May 7, the Post reported, “The makers of the film The Sand Pebbles have started filming the ‘most difficult’ scene – a sea battle between the gunboat San Pablo and 14 Chinese junks.” It was being shot “in a quiet inlet in the New Territories”.

After two months of filming, McQueen and his family flew to London. The San Pablo was put up for sale. Whether anyone paid the HK$200,000 asking price was not reported.

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