Near the end of Enter the Dragon, Bruce Lee has ripped through his shirt, as always. His body is covered in bloody streaks in groups of threes, shredded by an enemy’s detachable Wolverine-like claw. Lee has finally cornered the villain, Han, who’s older—played by the veteran Hong Kong actor Shih Kien—and slower, but Han cleverly moves the fight into a hall of mirrors to confuse the nimble Lee. Fragmented images split Lee into several copies of himself, bouncing off each other, blurring our understanding of which Lee is real and which is merely an illusion. Han waits patiently, and strikes Lee, who flails around aimlessly at multiple reflections. When all hope seems lost, Lee remembers the words of his sifu, and looks up as if he’s heard the voice of God: “Destroy the image, and you will break the enemy.” Lee adapts, as he always does, shattering the mirrors and their illusions until only he and Han remain. He kicks Han with such force that the older fighter flies into a spear protruding from one of the mirrored walls. Lee solemnly exits in triumphant silence.

Moviegoers saw that scene for the first time on August 19, 1973, at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. The historic theater was redecorated for the debut of the film. A large sculpture of a dragon was perched above the canopy entrance, and a massive marquee of Lee wielding a pair of nunchucks invited patrons through the front doors. A crowd wrapped around the block in anticipation of Lee’s arrival on the big screen, without even really knowing who he was yet. Hollywood Boulevard was shut down to clear the path for a parade of Chinese dragon dancers in honor of the first-ever Hollywood–Hong Kong coproduction.

[Read Daniel Chin on the mythos of Bruce Lee, nearly 50 years after his death.]