Review #1742: The Legend of 7 Golden Vampires.
Cast:
Peter Cushing (Professor Van Helsing), David Chiang (Hsi Ching/Hsi Tien-en), Julie Ege (Vanessa Buren), Robin Stewart (Leyland Van Helsing), John Forbes-Robertson (Count Dracula; dubbing by David de Keyser), Robert Hanna (British Consul), Shih Szu (Mai Kwei), Chan Shen (Kah the High Priest/Count Dracula's host), Lau Kar-wing (Hsi Kwei), Huang Pei-Chih (Hsi Po-Kwei), and Wang Chiang (Hsi San) Directed by Roy Ward Baker and Chang Cheh.
Review:
This might read like a tombstone for Hammer Film Productions, but this is probably the most fitting film to etch a mark of the end of the road, because by the time of the 1970s, the company became a victim of their own success. As one might have noticed, the quality of the movies dipped a bit in the era, but the key statement that can be stated about their time is that they were at their best when they could entertain their audiences without having to tread all the familiar grounds of repetition. Oh sure, they had been a company since 1934, but it was only in the mid 1950s that they truly became a name of curiosity in horror with their color filmmaking and content, which involved using characters such as Count Dracula, Frankenstein, and various others, with The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) being the first key step. Of course, putting in more and more gore/violence/sexual content can only go so far, particularly when American markets started to see restrictions become more loose by the time of the 1960s. The attempts at refining the familiar with the times resulted in a variety of films in varying quality, but the studio would go into liquidation by the end of the 1970s (sure, the name is still around...); I'm sure you are aware then of how the Dracula series would go into self-parody with the films done in that era. Hell, in 1970, they released two Dracula films with Taste the Blood of Dracula and Scars of Dracula (the latter essentially serving as a revitalization of the series). Two years later, they thought they could set a Dracula film in the current day (while revising the timeline yet again in a series where continuity is glops of putty) with Dracula A.D. 1972, which resulted in more chuckles. No points for guessing where The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973) went with "Dracula wants to destroy humanity with a plague". But hey, Hammer tried one more time, and they sure did go out with a film worthy of batting an eye. At the helm was a co-production involving Hammer and Shaw Brothers Studio (who until their reorganization in 2011 was one of the biggest studios in Hong Kong). Don Houghton (writer of the last two Dracula films) served as the screenwriter along with producing the film with Vee King Shaw, since his father-in-law had connections to the Shaws. Of course, familiar readers (or viewers of dreck) will recognize that the Shaws would continue to dabble with collaborating abroad that resulted in films like Meteor (1979). So yes, at least the folks at Hammer and Shaw did not bring complete rookies for the task of a British-Hong Kong production, since one would hope for no rubes at command. Baker had experience with the Hammer folks, having directed five features for them previously, with one of them being Scars of Dracula (1970) (another vampire movie he did was The Vampire Lovers, released the same year as the first of what was called "The Karnstein Trilogy"). He had a forty year career of directing films in numerous genres, with the most famous being A Night to Remember (1958). Of course, the Shaws were not quite happy with Baker, so they brought in a new director to help with the action. Perhaps it made sense that Baker would be joined by Chang Cheh in direction (albeit un-credited on screen); while this may not be the best introduction to him, he was described in his time as "The Godfather of Hong Kong Cinema", inspiring future directors like John Woo and Quentin Tarantino with films such as One-Armed Swordsman (1967), the first hit of a handful in a prolific career of wuxia movies. The two studios collaborated on one other film together in Hong Kong: Shatter (1975), which also starred Cushing.
When it came time for an American release, it was called "The 7 Brothers Meet Dracula" and featured looped dialogue (cutting whole scenes out and moving the prologue around) and scenes that changed an 85 minute movie into a 79 minute one (of course, I am watching the non-edited movie) - thankfully one can watch the version as intended. At any rate, this is the ninth and final film from Hammer in their Dracula series, and it is one of only two to not feature Christopher Lee (the other was The Brides of Dracula (1960), which had Cushing for the second of five appearances as Van Helsing). After a series of scripts that had seen him go from being guilt-tripped into doing movies because of the threat of folks losing their jobs to seeing the series go into self-parody with confusion, it is fitting that Lee did get to see the end of the series with a script that has even less for the character to do than usual. No, really: he shows up for less than five minutes in the whole movie, and the man playing Dracula is even dubbed (remember, in this film he assumes the form of a desperate priest who has seven "golden" vampires at his side after escaping Transylvania, which was like prison because...?). If you are wondering just what is different about "Golden vampires", well, they wear silly masks while tying women to platforms to drain blood into a pot as they galivant with swords and medallions (also, the battle is actually against six vampires, since one is killed in a dialogue-less scene right near the beginning). So what is the result of an international hodgepodge of The Magnificent Seven with kung fu and vampires? Well, it makes for a very curious failure, but a failure is still a failure, no matter how much kung fu, vampires, violence, and an assortment of flesh there is. Cushing at least gives it the old college try with dignity in the face of narrative gobbledygook, and at least it can be said that he does what is needed in usual decency (granted, not enough to save the movie, but still). Stewart does not fare as well, mostly seeming bored out of element, whether when trying to flail in romance or flail as the non-kung fu presence in the film (well, Ege is there too, but she just has to play to the glamour part in these films). Chiang does fine with the kung fu elements for a film that really tries to coast on folks going from place to place to fight, which means he makes a casual follow without much support (the siblings are there just to attack folks). Dracula is really not much of a focus here when there's the trouble of an obvious dub, and while Keyser is a fair voice, the makeup put on Forbes-Robertson in those brief moments is hysterical, and the fact that the last fight in the movie between the lead and the adversary ends in less than two minutes makes this laughably insulting. Honestly, the fights and the gore probably are the only things worth getting into, since the pace of the film plods along with no real amount of stakes to go around; the vampires don't pose much of a threat beyond chuckles, and the main folks seem better suited for a real kung fu movie than this. As a whole, folks who want to see where the seams finally ripped off for Hammer or folks who dig camp are the ones who will care enough to possibly seek it out, and I guess that is better than nothing. For horror, it isn't a true winner, but it could win out for the schlock at heart.
Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.
Next Time: Prom Night (1980)
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