The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires is a 1974 horror film produced by Hammer Studios and Shaw Brothers Studio. It was released in North America in an edited version as The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula, and alternatively known as The Seven Brothers And Their One Sister Meet Dracula.
This is the only film in the The Dracula Cycle that does not bring back Christopher Lee as Dracula
Plot[]
Professor Lawrence Van Helsing gives a lecture in 1904 at a Chongqing (Chungking) university on Chinese vampire legend. He speaks of an unknown rural village that has been terrorized by vampires for many years. After the lecture, a student (David Chiang) informs him that the legend is true and that he knows the location of the village.
He then asks Professor Van Helsing if he would be willing to travel to the village and destroy the vampire menace. Van Helsing agrees and embarks with his son, the student and his seven kung-fu trained siblings on a dangerous journey funded by a wealthy widow (Julie Ege).
Van Helsing and his party realize, however, that the Seven Golden Vampires, who are the ones wreaking havoc on the village, are actually acting under the guidance of Count Dracula himself, masquerading as a mad Taoist monk.
Cast[]
- Peter Cushing as Professor Van Helsing
- John Forbes-Robertson as Count Dracula
- David de Keyser as the voice of Count Dracula (uncredited)
- Robin Stewart as Leyland Van Helsing
- Julie Ege as Vanessa Buren
- Robert Hanna as British Consul
- David Chiang as Hsi Ching/Hsi Tien-en
- Shih Szu as Mai Kwei
- Chan Shen as Kah the High Priest/Count Dracula's host
- Lau Kar-wing as Hsi Kwei (archer)
- Huang Pei-Chih as Hsi Po-Kwei (spearman)
- Wang Chiang as Hsi San (twin swordsman)
- Feng Ko-An as an assassin
- Hsu Hsia as an assassin
Production[]
Both Roy Ward Baker, a British director who had helmed several previous Hammer films, and Chang Cheh, a veteran Hong Kong action director, worked on the movie, though only Baker is credited.
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires was a co-production with Hong Kong's Shaw Studio, made in the hope of garnering some of the kung fu movie market share.
The movie was released with various titles in different locations, including The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula and Dracula and the Seven Golden Vampires. During some scenes involving roving gangs of undead, several vampires can be seen hopping up and down, as vampires tend to do in Chinese vampire films.
The North American release version trims twenty minutes of the film's footage and soundtrack and loops several remaining scenes to fill the running time.