THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES (1974)
Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Duration: 83 Minutes/81 Minutes
Rating: Unrated
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Roy Ward Baker
Cast: Peter Cushing, Julie Ege, David Chiang, Robin Stewart, Szu Shih
Synopsis: Professor Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) and Count Dracula (John Forbes-Robinson) meet again in this spectacular kung fu horror thriller set in the village of Ping Kuei. After learning about the seven golden vampires of the village, Hsi Ching (David Chiang), Vanessa Buren (Julie Ege) and Mai Kwei (Szu Shih) offer to guide Van Helsing and his son to Ping Kuei to free it from the curse of Count Dracula.
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974) is a Hammer meets Hong Kong film co-produced by Hammer Films and Shaw Brothers (Black Magic 2), and directed by Hammer horror royalty Roy Ward Baker (The Vampire Lovers). The film would prove to be the last of Hammer's Dracula films, and what a weird way to go out, opening in the yesteryear 1804 with a Chinese monk named Kah (Chan Shen) travelling to Transylvania to implore Count Dracula (James Forbes-Robertson, Lifeforce) to return with him to China and resurrect the dreaded 7 Golden Vampires, undead princes who once ruled over the land. The bloodsucker refuses to do the monk's bidding, instead possessing the body of Kah and he himself travelling back to China to resurrect the legendary Chinese blood-drinkers to do his own bidding.
A hundred or so years later we catch up with infamous vampire hunter Van Helsing (Peter Cushing, Corruption) who is in China giving a lecture about vampires to a group of non-believing academics, with the exception of a lone villager named Hsi Ching (David Chiang) whose grandfather long ago destroyed one of the 7 Golden Vampires by removing a bit of golden, bat-shaped bling from the bloodsucker. He presents the relic to Van Helsing as proof of the vampire's existence, recruiting him to accompany him along with his six brothers and sister, all of whom are highly trained weapons experts, back to their native village to exterminate the vampire threat for good.
Along for the ride are Van Helsing's son Leyland (Robin Stewart, Pacific Banana) and a wealthy blonde widow named Vanessa Buren (Julie Ege, The Final Programme), the latter of whom is financing the sojourn. What ensues is an enthralling bit of Gothic-tinged kung-fu fun that is garishly lit with hard colored lighting and delightfully low-budget, showcasing some truly cruddy looking vampires that look like zombies wearing golden-masks. Adding to the camp factor is James Forbes-Robertson who is the only actor other than Christopher Lee (Prince of Darkness) to play Count Dracula, and he's bloody awful. A pasty looking blood-drinker with overly-red lips in what looks to be poorly applied white-face make-up, it sure looks bad but it makes for a good chuckle. Thankfully Cushing is his reliably charming self, and it's good to have at least one proper vestige of Hammer horror present here.
The Shaw Brothers choreographed kung-fu action is all good fun, we get loads of cool weapons fighting with the sound of clanking steel against steel, and some bloody violence, including a throat rip followed by the the victor wiping the blood from his hands onto the shirt of the loser before dropping his body to the ground, that's a cool move! It's a fun mash-up for sure, combining the more Hammer-esque Gothic elements with action-oriented fight sequences, it's a very entertaining watch, and if I am being honest more so than either of the late-era Hammer entries Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972) and The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973).
Audio/Video: The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory with a new 2K scan of unspecified 'original film elements', framed in 1080p HD widescreen (2.35:1). The transfer not pristine but it is a sight better than previously available versions, with a visible fine grain field that tends to be a bit noisy during the darker scenes. Colors are robust for the most part, in some scenes looking a bit to vivid to be natural to my eyes, but overall I found this viewing perfectly fine, with only a bit of dirt, debris and minor blemishes to contend with.
Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono with optional English subtitles. I wouldn't say it was crisp by any means, but it's serviceable. There's some pops and hiss throughout, but the campy dialogue and amped-up score from James Bernard (The Curse of Frankenstein) sound good, with the canned dubbing and kung-fu elements bringing a lot of charm.
Extras begin with an informative commentary from Author/Film Historian Bruce G. Hallenbeck who offers plenty of production stories and anecdotes about the film, he's seemingly more knowledgeable about the Hammer side of things. More to the Shaw Brothers side of things we have a 20-min interview with Hong Kong Film Expert Rick Baker (not to be confused with special Make-Up FX legend of the same name) who is an enthusiastic fan of the genre, speaking about his discovery of the film, his love of kung-fu cinema, and going into details about the film, including the uncredited action-direction of screenwriter/director Chang Cheh.
We also get a 7-min interview with actor David Chiang who speaks about his time working on the film, what he learned from the Peter Cushing and the Western film crew. There's also the alternate US cut of the film, The 7 Brothers Meet Dracula, which runs a few minutes shorter and has been re-edited, this version includes some standard definition inserts throughout.
The disc is buttoned-up with an image gallery of posters, stills, lobby cards plus a TV spot and two trailers for the film. The single-disc release comes housed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of reversible artwork.
Special Features:
-NEW 2K Scan Of The Original Film Elements
- NEW Audio Commentary With Author/Film Historian Bruce G. Hallenbeck
- NEW When Hammer Met Shaw – An Interview With Actor David Chiang (7 min)
- NEW Kung Fear – An Interview With Hong Kong Film Expert Rick Baker (20 min)
- Alternate U.S. Theatrical Version – The 7 Brothers Meet Dracula (In HD With Some Standard Definition Inserts)
- The 7 Brothers Meet Dracula Trailer (3 min)
- Theatrical Trailer (3 min)
- TV Spot (1 min)
- Still Gallery
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974) might be the strangest of all the Hammer films, the whole black belt meets black magic mash-up in incredibly entertaining, it has plenty of flaws, including a pair of ill-conceived love stories, but lacking entertainment value is not one of them. The new Blu-ray presentation from Scream Factory is pleasing and the extras are solid, another cool Hammer horror entry on Blu-ray from Scream Factory!
