Tuesday, June 9, 2009

1974 - LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES features cameo by Count Dracula looking like a cheap whore

Dracula is barely in this Hammer film about Professor Van Helsing hunting Chinese vampires in China. He was apparently stuck in at the beginning and the end of the movie as a sop to the audience, who were probably confused about the mixing of the vampire and kung fu film genres. To further confuse the audience Dracula is made up to look like a drag queen. The movie has Peter Cushing as Professor Van Helsing who is in China lecturing when he is approached by a man who asks his help in ridding his village of vampires. The man has a family of siblings who are trained in kung fu and along with Van Helsing and his wimp of a son, they travel across China beating up the golden vampires. The kung fu action is the old style stuff where the fighters can't leap through the air defying gravity but it's still good. The movie is an exploitation piece for the most part. There is a incredibly stupid scene where Chinese woman are sacrificed to the golden vampires. The sacrifice involves having the women run around topless and has nothing to do with anything.
The movie also has a Norwegian "actress" named Julie Ege, who has a very large bosom. Her performance consists of cowering in terror every time the vampires attack and slowly peeling her clothes off. Apparently these were the roles she usually got in Britain, and she ended up quitting the movie business, went back to Norway and retrained as a nurse which she unsurprisingly told people was more personally rewarding for her. If you're looking for cheese cake pictures of her sorry you'll have to google her. Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, is entertaining junk that is worth watching because Peter Cushing is in it but it you are want to see a good film with vampires and kung fu, then check out Mr. Vampire.

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