The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974)

_**Hammer & Drac go chopsocky**_ While lecturing in China in 1904, Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) learns of a village where vampirism has broken out and investigates it with his son (Robin Stewart) & team (David Chiang, Julie Ege and Szu Shih). It turns out that Dracula is hanging out there disguised as a Taoist high priest. “The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires” (1974) was Hammer’s final Dracula film wherein producers decided to experiment by hooking up with Shaw Brothers Studio in Hong Kong for a mixed-genre flick that meshes Hammer’s Gothic horror with the kung fu craze of the early 70s. Hammer was already experimenting at the time by setting the previous two installments in the modern day. Whilst this is the least of the series, it can be somewhat entertaining if you roll with the comic book cheesiness and the martial arts fighting sequences, which resemble choreographed stage dances more than combat, sorta reminiscent of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video (lol). Highlights include the spirit of high adventure, the presence of Stewart as Van Helsing’s son, the beauty of Julie Ege & Szu Shih, the over-the-top energy and (dubbed) John Forbes-Robertson as Dracula, who looks like Christopher Lee from a distance. But I didn’t find myself caring much about the characters and the story isn’t very compelling despite loads of action. The movie bombed at the box office. Perhaps if they would’ve titled it “Dracula and the 7 Golden Vampires” (as it was in Hong Kong and Singapore) it would’ve drawn a bigger audience due to name recognition. For those interested, Hammer did nine Dracula-themed films from 1958 to 1974 as follows: Horror of Dracula (1958); The Brides of Dracula (1960); Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966); Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968); Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970); Scars of Dracula (1970); Dracula AD 1972 (1972); The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973); and The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires. Lee played Dracula in all of them except “Brides” and “7 Golden Vampires” while Peter Cushing appears in five of them as a Van Helsing. The film runs 1 hour, 29 minutes, and was shot entirely in Hong Kong. GRADE: C