Film Review
By jumping on the band wagon of the short-lived craze for Kung Fu in
the mid-1970s Hammer Films hoped to achieve at least a postponement of
the inevitable as the company slid ever closer towards
insolvency whilst the British film industry went into a seemingly
irreversible decline.
The Legend of the
7 Golden Vampires is Hammer's last flirtation with vampirism, an
enthusiastic but pretty shambolic attempt to marry Gothic horror (which
had given the company a healthy income stream for over a decade
following the success of
Dracula (1957)) with
the sexy new phenomenon of martial arts. It's as crazy as its
sounds and the film is one of Hammer's weirdest. If only a little
more care had been given to the script it might even have been one of
the company's better later offerings.
Despite the scrappiness of its premise,
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires
has much to commend it. Peter Cushing is back, as compelling as
ever, as vampire hunter Van Helsing. The martial arts action
scenes are superbly well choreographed, the work of veteran Hong Kong
director Chang Cheh. Roy Ward Baker directs the rest of the film
with his usual flair for visual drama. The production design is,
overall, excellent. The film's one major let down is its script,
which is marred by uneven pacing and fails to make any of the
characters (other than Cushing's) remotely likeable or
convincing.
Without strong, sympathetic characters to drive the narrative the film
just becomes a series of grand set-piece events, impressive in
themselves but not enough to make this a rewarding piece of
cinema. Cushing aside, the cast is a pretty lame ensemble,
although it is hard to know whether it is the lack of acting talent or
lamentably poor script that is to blame. John Forbes-Robertson's Dracula is
a poor substitute for Christopher Lee's vampiric count and the ease
with which Peter Cushing polishes him off (just by picking up a stray
piece of metal and sticking it in him) lacks, shall we say, a certain
finesse.
The Legend of the 7
Golden Vampires is worth watching for its sheer mad novelty
value, but it is, tragically, just one more missed opportunity from a
company that just couldn't keep up with the times.
© James Travers 2014
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Next Roy Ward Baker film:
The Monster Club (1980)
Film Synopsis
Transylvania 1804. Kah, a Chinese monk, revives the spirit of
Count Dracula so that he may resurrect the Seven Golden Vampires in his
home country. Dracula agrees, providing he can take over Kah's
body. A hundred years on, Professor Van Helsing is in China,
hoping to muster support for his efforts to find a village which is
reputedly terrorised by vampires. A student named Hsi Ching
agrees to guide Van Helsing on his expedition, revealing he is the
grandson of a farmer who once slew one of the seven vampires.
With Hsi Ching's band of kung fu warriors to protect him, Van Helsing
need have no fear - until he confronts his nemesis for one final
battle...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.