Starring Peter Cushing, David Chiang, Julie Ege, Robin Stewart and John Forbes-Robertson
Written by Don Houghton and directed by Roy Ward Baker and Chang Cheh
What would you say Hammer's DRACULA films have been missing so far? If you said martial arts, you're in luck, because that's just what Hammer's last attempt at a DRACULA flick is -- a collaboration between Hammer and the Shaw Bros. studio on the first Dracula martial arts flick.
Christopher Lee does not return as the count, and John Forbes-Robertson is not a great replacement -- though filling Lee's fangs seems almost impossible. Luckily, Dracula's not in the movie much, as he almost immediately transforms himself into Kah, a Taoist monk and high priest of the temple of the seven golden vampires in China.
You'd think with Dracula's aversion to all things religious he'd have a problem transforming into a monk, or going to a temple. But maybe he's only allergic to Western religion. Who knows.
I guess the only guy who would know is Professor Van Helsing who just so happens to be lecturing at Chungking university in China! In the course of his lecture he mentions a vampire being destroyed by touching a jade Buddha, so I guess they can be done in by Eastern religion after all.
One of Van Helsing's students enlists Van Helsing to travel to a remote village and take care of the local vampire problem. One thing leads to another and it isn't long before Van Helsing and his martial arts crew are kung fu fighting the seven golden vampires, their army of undead and eventually, Dracula himself.
The final showdown between Van Helsing and Dracula lacks a little gravity because Cushing's there and Lee isn't. Still, you can't blame Lee for skipping this one. Watching it unfold, you do begin to wonder what anyone involved was thinking. I don't think it's necessarily impossible to make a great kung fu Dracula movie. This just doesn't happen to be it.
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