wasn’t a vampire, but a New England fishing Captain. Still working at age 91 and still married to his wife of 52 years, Bergit Kroncke, he has vowed to remain acting for as long as he can.
Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires aka The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula (1974)
Peter Cushing as Professor Van Helsing . David Chiang as Hsi Ching/Hsu Tan Yang . Julie Ege as Vanessa Van Buren. Robin Stewart as Leyland Van Helsing. Shih Szu as Mai Kwei. John Forbes-Robertson as Count Dracula. Robert Hanna as British Consul. Chan Shen as Kah. Screenplay: Don Houghton. Directors; Roy Ward Baker, Chang Cheh (uncredited)
Synopsis
In the Ping kwei province of China 1904, the spectre of Count Dracula rules over the oppressed people with the aid of the fabled the Seven Golden vampires. Hiding in the body of a determined slave, Dracula makes his vow for world domination. On hand to stop him are the seven kung Fu martial artistes and the incomparable Lawrence Van Helsing. The professor is recruited by Hsi Ching whose grandfather had been murdered by the vampires, but stole one of their amulets, a large golden vampire bat, and crippled their number as the bats are the vampire’s life force. With the monetary assistance of Scandinavian socialite Vanessa Buren, the Professor and his fighting allies brave the domain of the vampires and Dracula is destroyed forever in a final battle with his most hated foe, Lawrence Van Helsing .
Review
Hardly a great film by technical standards it betrays the hardships that were tantamount while filming The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires. Hammer had partnered with Hong Kong’s Run Run Shaw productions in a last bid to keep their Dracula franchise alive. The very first scene defies cinematic logistics as a weary and demented shaman travels to Castle Dracula to ask for his help in resurrecting the titular fiends.
Two very delirious things take place here that we overlook or just blatantly ignore because the film and concept is so outlandishly foolish already: The fact that;
1; Dracula’s castle and the surrounding countryside bear no similarities to the previous movies and are clearly not European in design. And
2; Dracula and the shaman understand each other perfectly even though the Holy man speaks in subtitles and Dracula speaks perfect English
Every checklist I covered for this film never mentions these two obvious gaffes.
On with the action.
Dracula performs an incredible feat by possessing the body of the servant so that he can continue his evil and emerge beyond the confines of his crypt;
“This miserable place, this mausoleum!”
As the disguised Count ventures into the wild, we are whisked to 1904 and a Chungking University lecture given by Professor Lawrence Van Helsing Like Hammer themselves, he is trying to spread the word of Dracula abroad and recounts a tale of a farmer who ventured to Ping Kwei to rescue his daughter and free his people from the rule of the vampires. The girl is stabbed with a sword and the farmer bolts but not before tearing a golden bat from the throat of one of the vampires as Dracula/Kah looks on. The Count summons apocalyptic skeletons on horseback to pursue the old man who leaves the amulet on a Holy shrine. As the vampire tries to retrieve it, he is destroyed when his hand touches the Holy statue. The farmer is killed by the zombies who look like extras from a Lucio Fulci canteen that didn’t get their screen time and Van Helsing’s story fails to hit home to the students the horror that is in their midst. But his story has hit a nerve with Hsi Ching (David Chiang) as he follows the professor home and confesses that the old farmer is his own grandfather. To prove this claim, he has the golden bat that was torn from the body of the vampire. Van Helsing wastes no time in telling Ching of his plans to venture to Ping Kwei to destroy the vampires and restore peace to the province, but it will be a
Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires aka The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula (1974)
Peter Cushing as Professor Van Helsing . David Chiang as Hsi Ching/Hsu Tan Yang . Julie Ege as Vanessa Van Buren. Robin Stewart as Leyland Van Helsing. Shih Szu as Mai Kwei. John Forbes-Robertson as Count Dracula. Robert Hanna as British Consul. Chan Shen as Kah. Screenplay: Don Houghton. Directors; Roy Ward Baker, Chang Cheh (uncredited)
Synopsis
In the Ping kwei province of China 1904, the spectre of Count Dracula rules over the oppressed people with the aid of the fabled the Seven Golden vampires. Hiding in the body of a determined slave, Dracula makes his vow for world domination. On hand to stop him are the seven kung Fu martial artistes and the incomparable Lawrence Van Helsing. The professor is recruited by Hsi Ching whose grandfather had been murdered by the vampires, but stole one of their amulets, a large golden vampire bat, and crippled their number as the bats are the vampire’s life force. With the monetary assistance of Scandinavian socialite Vanessa Buren, the Professor and his fighting allies brave the domain of the vampires and Dracula is destroyed forever in a final battle with his most hated foe, Lawrence Van Helsing .
Review
Hardly a great film by technical standards it betrays the hardships that were tantamount while filming The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires. Hammer had partnered with Hong Kong’s Run Run Shaw productions in a last bid to keep their Dracula franchise alive. The very first scene defies cinematic logistics as a weary and demented shaman travels to Castle Dracula to ask for his help in resurrecting the titular fiends.
Two very delirious things take place here that we overlook or just blatantly ignore because the film and concept is so outlandishly foolish already: The fact that;
1; Dracula’s castle and the surrounding countryside bear no similarities to the previous movies and are clearly not European in design. And
2; Dracula and the shaman understand each other perfectly even though the Holy man speaks in subtitles and Dracula speaks perfect English
Every checklist I covered for this film never mentions these two obvious gaffes.
On with the action.
Dracula performs an incredible feat by possessing the body of the servant so that he can continue his evil and emerge beyond the confines of his crypt;
“This miserable place, this mausoleum!”
As the disguised Count ventures into the wild, we are whisked to 1904 and a Chungking University lecture given by Professor Lawrence Van Helsing Like Hammer themselves, he is trying to spread the word of Dracula abroad and recounts a tale of a farmer who ventured to Ping Kwei to rescue his daughter and free his people from the rule of the vampires. The girl is stabbed with a sword and the farmer bolts but not before tearing a golden bat from the throat of one of the vampires as Dracula/Kah looks on. The Count summons apocalyptic skeletons on horseback to pursue the old man who leaves the amulet on a Holy shrine. As the vampire tries to retrieve it, he is destroyed when his hand touches the Holy statue. The farmer is killed by the zombies who look like extras from a Lucio Fulci canteen that didn’t get their screen time and Van Helsing’s story fails to hit home to the students the horror that is in their midst. But his story has hit a nerve with Hsi Ching (David Chiang) as he follows the professor home and confesses that the old farmer is his own grandfather. To prove this claim, he has the golden bat that was torn from the body of the vampire. Van Helsing wastes no time in telling Ching of his plans to venture to Ping Kwei to destroy the vampires and restore peace to the province, but it will be a
Similar Books
