The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires

The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires
British film poster
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	七金屍
Simplified Chinese	七金尸
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Qī jīn shī Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Chat1 gam1 si1
Directed by	Roy Ward Baker Chang Cheh[2]
Screenplay by	Don Houghton[2]
Based on	Count Dracula and Professor Van Helsing by Bram Stoker
Produced by	Don Houghton Vee King Shaw[1]
Starring	Peter Cushing David Chiang Julie Ege Robin Stewart
Cinematography	John Wilcox Roy Ford[2]
Edited by	Chris Barnes[1]
Music by	James Bernard[2]
Production companies	Hammer Film Productions Shaw Brothers Studio[1]
Distributed by	Columbia-Warner Distributors (United Kingdom)[1]
Release dates	11 July 1974 (1974-07-11) (Hong Kong) 29 August 1974 (1974-08-29) (London) 6 October 1974 (1974-10-06) (United Kingdom)
Countries	United Kingdom Hong Kong[1]

The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (Chinese: 七金屍) is a 1974 martial arts horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker. The film opens in 1804, when seven vampires clad in gold masks are resurrected by Count Dracula (played by John Forbes-Robertson). A century later, Professor Van Helsing (Peter Cushing), known in the world for his exploits with Dracula, is recruited by a man and his seven siblings after giving a lecture at a Chinese university to take on the vampires. The film is a British-Hong Kong co-production between Hammer Film Productions and Shaw Brothers Studio.^[1]

The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires was shot between 22 October and 11 December 1973, at Shaw Brothers Studios in Hong Kong, where Chang Cheh was hired to direct further martial arts scenes for the film's release in the East. The film was first released in Hong Kong and then in the United Kingdom with a shorter runtime. On its release in the United States, the film was truncated further and titled The 7 Brothers Meet Dracula. The film was a financial failure.

Baker said that The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires was a "Terrible picture, but some of the Chinese were very nice. The leading man was David Chang, a nice man. The kung-fu people were alright. They went a bit berserk but I left that alone. The understanding was that they would do the kung-fu stuff and I would do the rest of it, which suited me no end I can tell you."^[3]