Midnight Movie of the Week #40 - The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires

If you're like me, the first thing that you ask when you hear about 7 Golden Vampires is if finding one gets you free admission to a Vampire Chocolate Factory.  The second thing you ask is probably "Wait, what?"  The latter response is pretty appropriate for the film, a unique collaboration between England's Hammer Films and Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers.  By now, readers of this site hopefully known a bit about Hammer, but the Shaw Bros haven't been a hot topic at FMWL.  If you must know, the easiest way to explain them is to say that Shaw is to Hong Kong kung fu cinema as Hammer is British horror cinema.  Yeah.  THAT good.

So, what could bring these two super-powers, the Balboa and Creed of their generation, together?  Money, of course.  With Hammer's reign fading in 1974, the studios combined efforts on the production, which would mix the gothic horror aspects of Hammer with Shaw's Chinese kung fu magic.  Directors Roy Ward Baker and Chang Cheh, both experienced in their own studios, came together to produce the film on location in Hong Kong.  The idea was that Hammer could get some of the martial arts market - booming in popularity thanks to Shaw's films and the late Bruce Lee - and keep their classic series of Dracula films alive.

Recently, I've caught myself saying that Dracula A.D. 1972 and The Satanic Rites of Dracula were the final Dracula films produced by Hammer.  That's not a slight on this film, it's just that I often forget to include this film in that discussion. That's probably because this Dracula seems to be from an alternate reality than Chris Lee's - even if Peter Cushing pops up as Van Helsing to lead the charge.  Drac is played here by two actors: John Forbes-Robertson bookends the film by portraying The Count as a make-up wearing, widow-peaked fellow with a voice like James Earl Jones; Shen Chan (or Chan Shen, depending on your dyslexia) plays Kah, the Chinese Vampire with the Fu Manchu hairdo who Dracula possesses so he can reign over the golden vampires in their native environment.  Regarding the plot, I'm not quite sure why Dracula needs to switch bodies to leave Transylvania.  In terms of the film, it's so the vampires can be of the Eastern variety that hop around and fight in acrobatic measures, I think.

Definitely not the Dracula I know and love.

So, Van Helsing - accompanied by his son (Robin Stewart), a wealthy Scandinavian widow (the striking Julie Ege), and seven brothers and one sister who vow to destroy the seven golden vampires that have plagued their country for ages.  Foggy flashbacks of their story, as told by Van Helsing to a class full of cynical students, show the golden vampires and their rise from the grave to take power; yet only these few really believe in the curse that the group is in search of.  Van Helsing also explains some differences between the vampires he's used to and these, such as the fact that the cross is useless against them - but a Buddha is very powerful due to their native religion.  It raises that age old question about how to stop an Atheist vampire, but I'm too scared to ask it.

Along their way across the countryside to the Golden Vampires' lair, Carl Douglas' song is validated - because there is plenty of Kung Fu Fighting.  The action is frantic and entertaining, and even the Europeans like Cushing and Ege get in on the battle.  The Golden Vampires are visually gruesome and enjoy sacrificing maidens, which makes them a fine villain for this type of film.  The scenes of the vamps rising from the ground are especially well done, and the film's execution of these moments shows a few hints of Fulci.  The plot stalls out in some of the fight scenes, a common factor in kung fu cinema which I tend to ignore when the fighting is good.  This film definitely falls into that classification, so I'm not disappointed.

Probably the most unique film from Hammer (particularly because it's pretty much their half-child), the film is rich with orange, green, and gold lighting that provides a Hong Kong feeling throughout.  But the Hammer staples are there, and Baker's camera still produces some of the same shots it did in films like Scars of Dracula and The Vampire Lovers.  The film was cut to a 75 minute run-time and retitled as The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula for American audiences, because the production ran a little too far toward Shaw's territory at times.  Thankfully, the full version of the film (along with that truncated version) are restored on DVD (in a sad, non-anamorphic transfer), and Baker and Chen's combined vision of the film provides a lot of action and fun.

When you put it all together, almost everything in this film works for me.  It's a completely serious film despite its silly plot, and the tone adds to the film's charm.  In fact, I'd put it right alongside the likes of Flash Gordon and Starcrash as one of the most awesome bits of cheese from its era.  The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires might not be classic Hammer, but it's a fun alternative that always makes me smile.

(Note from The Mike: Sadly, an RIP must be said for Roy Ward Baker, who died today at the age of 93.  Baker directed several other Hammer films, including the cyclopic Bette Davis comedy The Anniversary and the infamous Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde.  He also was popular with Hammer rival Amicus Pictures, directing Asylum, And Now the Screaming Starts, and The Vault of Horror (among others); directed many episodes of The Saint and The Avengers, and was behind the Criterion-preserved Titanic film A Night to Remember.  A fond farewell to you, Roy Ward Baker.)