The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires ** (1974, Peter Cushing, David Chiang, Julie Ege, Shih Szu, John Forbes-Robertson, Robin Stewart) – Classic Movie Review 2.857

The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires is a tolerable experience, but the mix of Michael Carreras’s British Hammer horror and Hong Kong film producer Run Run Shaw’s kung fu is uneasy, to say the least. And so is poor old Peter Cushing. 

Director Roy Ward Baker’s 1974 British and Hong Kong co-production martial arts horror film The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires promises and delivers a bout of black belt versus black magic, for better or for worse. It’s the first of two Hammer films shot back to back in Hong Kong.

For the fifth and last time Peter Cushing returns to the role that helped make him famous – Professor Van Helsing – who goes to China in 1904 on a lecturing tour and ends up on a vampire-finding mission after villagers persuade him to help them fight an age-old vampire curse.

Meanwhile, Count Dracula journeys to a remote Chinese village disguised as a warlord to support six vampires cut up over the loss of a seventh member of their cult. Van Helsing finds that seven vampires are dead and loving it in the local cemetery. He recruits the help of martial-arts expert Hsi Ching (David Chiang0 and his brothers to put the vampires to their final rest.

The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires is a tolerable experience, but, unsurprisingly, producers Michael Carreras and Run Run Shaw are strange bedfellows, and the mix of Michael Carreras’s British Hammer horror and Hong Kong film producer Run Run Shaw’s kung fu is uneasy, to say the least. And so is poor old Cushing, who, as so often, deserves a better screenplay than this one by Don Houghton, also writer of the modern-day Dracula AD 1972 (1972) and The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973). The script just seems opportunistic and pays little respect to the Bram Stoker original.

Basically, this martial arts horror film is daft stuff made to cash in on the Seventies kung-fu craze, but Cushing keeps his dignity as always and Baker directs with enough vim and verve. Good scenes include the return of the undead, a vampire-staking and the destruction of the Count’s Chinese disciple.

Also in the cast are Shih Szu as Mei Kwe, Wong Han Chan as Leung Hon, Robin Stewart as Leyland Van Helsing and Julie Ege as Vanessa Buren.

Obviously, Christopher Lee is much missed as Dracula, who was offered the role but declined after reading the script. He is instead played here by John Forbes-Robertson, the only actor other than Lee to play Dracula in the Hammer series. He was furious when he found out that he was dubbed by David de Keyser. Lee is also not in The Brides of Dracula (1960) but nor is Dracula.

Here Dracula can assume another person’s appearance, a power that was removed from Houghton’s script for The Satanic Rites of Dracula but revived for this film.

The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (aka The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires) is the only Hammer Dracula film not to feature his name in the title, though it was later re-titled The 7 Brothers Meet Dracula (the heavily cut US version) or Dracula and the 7 Golden Vampires.

It was shot from 22 October 1973 to 11 December 1973 at Shaw Brothers Studio in Hong Kong. Chang Cheh directed extra martial arts scenes for Eastern markets in a version with a longer running time of 110 minutes, first released in Hong Kong on 11 July 1974.

The London premiere was on 29 August 1974 at the Warner Rendezvous cinema, followed by its UK general release on 6 October 1974, by Columbia/Warner Distributors. The American version released in June 1979 cuts out 20 minutes from the UK version and runs only 75 minutes.

John Forbes-Robertson as Dracula.

It’s good to have the right connections. Don Houghton’s father-in-law knew Run Run Shaw, so Houghton flew to Hong Kong to discuss a movie with him and his brother Runme Shaw, who together agreed to finance half the film.

The film was not a box office or critical success. Roy Ward Baker recalled: ‘The whole set-up was slipshod, and nobody knew what anyone was doing. The film was an absolute failure.’ Michael Carreras recalled: ‘It wasn’t such a good idea though some of the film is quite good.’

John Forbes-Robertson (10 May 1928 – 14 May 2008) began his acting career in the 1950s and 1960s in films such as The Battle of the River Plate (1956), Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965) and The Spy with a Cold Nose (1966). He made two films for Hammer: as the Man in Black in The Vampire Lovers (1970) and The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974), as Dracula. Other film credits include Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), The Vault of Horror (1973), Venom (1981) and Lifeforce (1985).

The cast are Peter Cushing as Professor Van Helsing, John Forbes-Robertson as Count Dracula, David de Keyser as the voice of Count Dracula, Robin Stewart as Leyland Van Helsing, Julie Ege as Vanessa Buren, Robert Hanna as British Consul, David Chiang as Hsi Ching/ Hsi Tien-en, Shih Szu as Mai Kwei, Chan Shen as Count Dracula’s host Kah the High Priest, Lau Kar-wing as archer Hsi Kwei, Huang Pei-Chih as spearman Hsi Po-Kwei, Wang Chiang as twin swordsman Hsi San, Feng Ko-An as assassin, and Hsu Hsia as assassin.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,857

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