Dracula (Hammer) Collection

Action

Horror

The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires

Hammer Film Productions

Shaw Brothers

Hong Kong

United Kingdom

普通话

English

Peter Cushing

David Chiang Da-Wei

Julie Ege

Robin Stewart

Shih Szu

John Forbes-Robertson

Robert Hanna

James Ma Chim-Si

Chan Shen

Lau Kar-Wing

Huang Pei-Chih

Tino Wong

Wynn Lau Chun-Fai

Ho Kei-Cheong

Wang Han-Chen

Lau Wai-Ling

Hsu Hsia

Wong Mei

Lo Wai

Yen Shi-Kwan

Chan Dik-Hak

Huang Ha

Chui Fat

Yuen Shun-Yi

Brandy Yuen Jan-Yeung

Law Keung

Alan Chan Kwok-Kuen

Tam Bo

Chik Ngai-Hung

Kong Chuen

Lai Yan

San Sin

Chan Keung

Chan Siu-Kai

Cheung Sek-Aau

Lui Hung

Chui Kin-Wa

Ng Yuen-Fan

Yeung Pak-Chan

Chan Ho-Cheung

Tang Tak-Cheung

Chu Kai

Sai Gwa-Pau

Fung Hak-On

Roy Ward Baker

Don Houghton

Vee King Shaw

James Bernard

Roy Ford

John Wilcox

Chris Barnes

Godfrey Ho

Lau Kar-Leung

Tong Kai

Yi Fung

Liu Chi-Yu

Wu Hsu-Ching

Peng Yen-Lien

Lai Yu

Runme Shaw

Run Run Shaw

Chua Lam

Bram Stoker

Frank Goulding

Les Hammond

Tommy Staples

Les Bowie

K.C. Jones

Larry Richardson

Philip Martell

Renée Glynne

Chris Carreras

Michael Carreras

Jean Walter

Chang Cheh

Johnson Tsao Chuang-Sheng

_**Hammer & Drac go chopsocky**_

While lecturing in China in 1904, Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) learns of a village where vampirism has broken out and investigates it with his son (Robin Stewart) & team (David Chiang, Julie Ege and Szu Shih). It turns out that Dracula is hanging out there disguised as a Taoist high priest.   

“The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires” (1974) was Hammer’s final Dracula film wherein producers decided to experiment by hooking up with Shaw Brothers Studio in Hong Kong for a mixed-genre flick that meshes Hammer’s Gothic horror with the kung fu craze of the early 70s. Hammer was already experimenting at the time by setting the previous two installments in the modern day.  

Whilst this is the least of the series, it can be somewhat entertaining if you roll with the comic book cheesiness and the martial arts fighting sequences, which resemble choreographed stage dances more than combat, sorta reminiscent of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video (lol). 

Highlights include the spirit of high adventure, the presence of Stewart as Van Helsing’s son, the beauty of Julie Ege & Szu Shih, the over-the-top energy and (dubbed) John Forbes-Robertson as Dracula, who looks like Christopher Lee from a distance. But I didn’t find myself caring much about the characters and the story isn’t very compelling despite loads of action.

The movie bombed at the box office. Perhaps if they would’ve titled it “Dracula and the 7 Golden Vampires” (as it was in Hong Kong and Singapore) it would’ve drawn a bigger audience due to name recognition. 

For those interested, Hammer did nine Dracula-themed films from 1958 to 1974 as follows:

Horror of Dracula (1958); The Brides of Dracula (1960); Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966); Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968); Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970); Scars of Dracula (1970); Dracula AD 1972 (1972); The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973); and The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires. Lee played Dracula in all of them except “Brides” and “7 Golden Vampires” while Peter Cushing appears in five of them as a Van Helsing.

The film runs 1 hour, 29 minutes, and was shot entirely in Hong Kong.

GRADE: C

CinemaSerf

"Prof. Van Helsing" (Peter Cushing) is lecturing a load of sceptical Chinese students about vampirism. They are so unconvinced that they walk out of his seminar. One, however, "Hsi Ching" (David Chiang) is convinced that the legendary Count has reincarnated near his local village where "Kah", the high priest of the legendary seven golden vampires has offered him his soul in return for the vampires restoring the dominant position of his priesthood. Short of funds, they manage to recruit the wealthy "Vanessa" (Julie Ege) and alongside his just as eager son "Leyland" (Robin Stewart) and seven young kung-fu experts all set off to this remote community where they will hopefully be in time to thwart the evil that is looming. When they arrive they discover, though, that's there also an army of the dead facing them - and things look ominous. Well, actually they don't really. The whole production is a bit cheap and cheerful, and save for the gravitas brought by Cushing, this would quickly be written off as a rather poorly written and acrobatically staged, lightweight Hammer feature that tries to integrate a different, Oriental, culture into an hackneyed format that can be fun to watch - you can almost see the wires and the costumes are of the cheapest form of latex - but the story is all just a bit too join the dots. These themes were very much running out of steam by now, and probably just as well because this is really just all rather poor.

<em>'The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires'</em> is fairly fun.

A relatively quick watch at just under 90 minutes, this movie smashes together martial arts and vampires. It's cool that it was filmed entirely on location in Hong Kong! Peter Cushing leads the cast strongly, with the likes of David Chiang, Julie Ege and Robin Stewart doing well behind him.

I found the whole run time to be decently entertaining, nothing that blew my socks off or anything but I did suitably enjoy it - the ending scenes are particularly positive. The martial art parts seemed well done to me, though I am admittedly no expert when it comes to that. All in all, it's worth a watch in my opinion.

Side-note, this is the second time in consecutive days that I'm ending my day with a movie featuring Dracula! Unintentionally so, I picked <em>'Renfield'</em> due its short run time and this (having known nothing about it) because of the eye-catching title; I didn't even acknowledge the vampire bit. Yet, I've still not seen the Christopher Lee original, gotta get to that!

The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974 Trailer)

The Legend Of The Seven Golden Vampires / Original Theatrical Trailer (1974)

Best Movies

The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires

Cast & Crew

Videos

Cast

Peter Cushing

David Chiang Da-Wei

Julie Ege

Robin Stewart

Shih Szu

John Forbes-Robertson

Robert Hanna

James Ma Chim-Si

Chan Shen

Lau Kar-Wing

Box office

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