The film has more than stood the test of time, and in 2004 was inducted into the US Library of Congress’s National Film Library of “culturally significant” films. But during production, Enter the Dragon appeared snake bitten. The first-ever co-production between a Chinese film company (Golden Harvest/Concord) and a Hollywood studio (Warner Brothers), it was plagued by language barriers, script issues, and at least one physical confrontation involving its star. And the budget was significantly less than the commonly reported $850,000, claims associate producer Andre Morgan. “The whole budget was $450,000,” he tells BBC Culture. “Remember, you heard it from somebody that was there. I prepared the budget; I signed the budget.” Regardless, the profits were astronomical, with Enter the Dragon reportedly grossing $100,000,000 worldwide upon its initial release.
A star like few others
Morgan worked on the Chinese side. He was just 20 years old when principal photography commenced and celebrated his 21st birthday on the iconic hall of mirrors set that was built specifically for the climactic duel between Lee’s character and the villainous Han. He tells BBC Culture that in person Lee had a star presence unlike almost anyone else. “Bruce Lee never walked into a room in his life; he entered a room. When Bruce was in a room, nobody else mattered. Steve McQueen was the same,” he says. Indeed, McQueen was a close friend and student of Lee, who before hitting the big time himself, taught martial arts to a host of celebrities.
By the early 70s, McQueen, aka “The King of Cool”, had conquered Hollywood with iconic appearances in The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, Bullitt and The Thomas Crown Affair. Lee, who was born in San Francisco in 1940 but spent his formative years in Hong Kong, would also conquer Hollywood. After returning to the US in 1959, he made Seattle home, and attended the University of Washington to study philosophy. Soon thereafter, Lee started a family, and eventually decamped to California to pursue his film career in earnest.
But he had one major strike against him: he was Chinese. Regardless of his eye-popping martial arts skills and background as a child actor in the Hong Kong film industry, Hollywood’s biggest powerbrokers were unwilling to risk a significant investment on a 5ft-7in, 135lb Chinese leading man with a thick Cantonese accent. They were making a big mistake.
