The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires (1974 Hammer Film)

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Two of my favorite movie studios got together in 1974.  Hammer Studios and Shaw Brothers Studio hacked  and kicked each other in the face to create one of the greatest cult movies ever.  The Legend of the 7Golden Vampires.  In North American it was called The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula.  It has a third, lesser known name, of The Seven Brothers and Their One Sister Meet Draula.

Hammer films are famous for portraying Dracula as actor Christopher Lee.  This is the first Hammer film where Lee does not play the count.  Two actors play Dracula in this campy classic.  One for the actor, John Forbes-Robertson.  The other for the voice, David de Keyser.  This is also the last time legend Peter Cushing plays the role of Van Helsing.

This movie had two of everything.The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires also had two directors, bother veterans in their respective dramas.  Roy Ward Baker directed several other Hammer films and Chang Cheh was a prolific action director in Hong Kong.  However, only Baker was given any credit.  It actually had three directors, Gordon Hessler was supposed to directed the film but left.  There were two teams (British and Chinese) and had to work past their cultural differences as well

Several cultural nuances exist in the film as well.  In many Chinese films vampires hop and bounce around.  In some scenes of this movie you will see them hopping about.  Also, in the North American version editors removed twenty minutes of footage and soundtrack from the final release.  There are a few loops of scenes to fill in running time.

This is a great film.  Not the best Hammer or Shaw film but it’s enjoyable.  Enjoy the show!

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