Chang Cheh directed the fight scenes in Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires

[Stephe]

I don't know whether this is considered old news or not, but

I just found out that Chang Cheh directed the fight scenes in

Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, and that they were choreographed

by Liu Chia-liang (or Liu Chia-liang and Tong Gai/Tang Chia, if

the Hong Kong Movie Database is correct).

I found a quote online in an excerpt from the book Roy Ward

Baker by Geoff Mayer that mentions the Chang Cheh and Liu

Chia-liang connection, but most intriguing is the following quote:

Chang Cheh also filmed additional martial arts scenes for

a 110-minute 'Far East' version."

According to the Hong Kong Movie Database, the film was

called Dracula and the 7 Golden Vampires in Hong Kong. I wonder

what the running time of that version is? Could it be 110 mins.?

I have the Image DVD, and it has both Legend of the 7 Golden

Vampires (89 mins.) and the American truncated version The Seven

Brothers Meet Dracula (75 mins.) on it.

I haven't read the page of The Hammer Story that the quote

in Roy Ward Baker was derived from. Anybody here read it? Does

it give any clues about the 110 minute version?

I made a page at http://changcheh.0catch.com/vampires.htm ,

and made an entry at http://changcheh.0catch.com/chchfilm.htm for

the film.

[venoms5]

I don't know whether this is considered old news or not, but

I just found out that Chang Cheh directed the fight scenes in

Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, and that they were choreographed

by Liu Chia-liang (or Liu Chia-liang and Tong Gai/Tang Chia, if

the Hong Kong Movie Database is correct).

I found a quote online in an excerpt from the book Roy Ward

Baker by Geoff Mayer that mentions the Chang Cheh and Liu

Chia-liang connection, but most intriguing is the following quote:

Chang Cheh also filmed additional martial arts scenes for

a 110-minute 'Far East' version."

According to the Hong Kong Movie Database, the film was

called Dracula and the 7 Golden Vampires in Hong Kong. I wonder

what the running time of that version is? Could it be 110 mins.?

I have the Image DVD, and it has both Legend of the 7 Golden

Vampires (89 mins.) and the American truncated version The Seven

Brothers Meet Dracula (75 mins.) on it.

I haven't read the page of The Hammer Story that the quote

in Roy Ward Baker was derived from. Anybody here read it? Does

it give any clues about the 110 minute version?

I made a page at http://changcheh.0catch.com/vampires.htm ,

and made an entry at http://changcheh.0catch.com/chchfilm.htm for

the film.

The book you mention is available at amazon for $22 plus shipping. Curiously, there's no mention of shooting any footage for this movie in Cheh's memoirs, nor is their mention of it THE HAMMER STORY, ENGLISH GOTHIC, HAMMER: THE ELSTREE YEARS, or several other books covering the making of the movie. The Elstree book has tons of info about shooting this picture, some of which I've posted verbatim below from one valuable source in particular...

In HAMMER FILMS: THE ELSTREE YEARS, Baker has this to say regarding the movie...

"As far as the kung fu was concerned, I said I'm going to film it with my unit. You can arrange the fights, sure, but the way they are covered and presented will be my way of doing it, as it is my picture. I'm directing the picture. There is no point in being here if someone else is going to do five big numbers. And the result is that those Kung Fu sequences are more effective than the average Chinese picture, because they've been better photographed and they've been better directed and the camera being in the right place at the right moment, and the cuts are set to a pattern. They hadn't thought of that-they wouldn't even admit it. Their idea is everybody mills around for twenty minutes with three different cameras and people waving hands and they throw it all into the cutting room and the editor sticks it together as best he can. That's roughly the way it goes except for one or two set pieces, which will be in the middle somewhere."

That excerpt was from LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS #4 page 55. This next one addresses the supposed participation of Chang Cheh...

Further tensions grew on 31 October, when Shaw, having viewed the first rough cut of Baker's Kung Fu sequences, demanded that they be re-shot by his own team led by Tang Chia and Liu Chia Liang.

The above bit is taken from the book, THE HAMMER STORY 1997 page 165. Then there's this bit that comes from the book quoted by the above poster...

Baker explains: "At one stage of the game, apparently the producers thought that the Chinese were going to take over the whole thing with another director and cameraman lined up for it. The whole thing would have looked completely different. They were going to use different cameras and cameramen. They never had cameramen, they had lighting gaffers. They did manage to shoot one or two minutes of night scenes for me and it was so underexposed they had to send it back to Tokyo to be reprocessed."

All these quotes are taken verbatim from HAMMER: THE ELSTREE YEARS. There's lots more regarding the making of GOLDEN VAMPIRES and also its box office reception, although no numbers are given. It opened in England August 29th of 1974 after doing very well in Singapore. It went into general release in the UK on October 6 of that year and was the third top grossing film in the top ten for that week. After the disappointing returns of DRACULA AD 1972, Warner Brothers, nervous over whether or not to release SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA, ultimately sold GOLDEN VAMPIRES to American International and Cannon, but eventually found a home with Dynamite Films where it was summarily butchered into the incomprehensible mess that is THE SEVEN BROTHERS MEET DRACULA, or, as the trailer points out, THE SEVEN BROTHERS "and their one sister" MEET DRACULA

[David Rees]

I have always heard rumours of a longer HK edit but never found proof.

In the doc Fists Of Fire there is a brief clip of Lau Kar Leung directing a scene....

[vengeanceofhumanlanterns]

Baker's first quote in venoms5 post (if this is what he actually said) shows mis-perceptive ignorance of chinese filming. As we've seen so many films by Chang Cheh and Liu Chia Liang. It becomes quite apparent Baker is self satisfied and arrogant. The fight scenes are not so memorable and hand to hand dueling on the sand, as Jackie Chan complained of in Cannonball Run, is much more difficult to execute. Baker's ignorance of shooting martial arts film's and his unwillingness to seek guidance (if any of these "quotes" are indeed fact) only go to show why the film is so wanting in quality. This movie should have been much more of a classic. I own it, seen it a number of times over the years, and never revisit it. It's too bad because it's great hearing David Chiang speak english in this film and he does a fine job with his role paired up with the legendary, Peter Cushing. what a waste of overall talent. Thank you, Baker. If of course these quotes have anything to do with reality. I think my Anchor Bay DVD has a commentary. I'll have to check it out.

[venoms5]

Baker's first quote in venoms5 post (if this is what he actually said) shows mis-perceptive ignorance of chinese filming. As we've seen so many films by Chang Cheh and Liu Chia Liang. It becomes quite apparent Baker is self satisfied and arrogant. The fight scenes are not so memorable and hand to hand dueling on the sand, as Jackie Chan complained of in Cannonball Run, is much more difficult to execute. Baker's ignorance of shooting martial arts film's and his unwillingness to seek guidance (if any of these "quotes" are indeed fact) only go to show why the film is so wanting in quality. This movie should have been much more of a classic. I own it, seen it a number of times over the years, and never revisit it. It's too bad because it's great hearing David Chiang speak english in this film and he does a fine job with his role paired up with the legendary, Peter Cushing. what a waste of overall talent. Thank you, Baker. If of course these quotes have anything to do with reality. I think my Anchor Bay DVD has a commentary. I'll have to check it out.

????

I'm unclear here. Is this above post to suggest I HAVE MADE THIS UP? There's other interviews with cast members and technicians and some of them, including Julie Ege speak of a lot of racism on set towards the Chinese filmmakers. Also, everything they did was the exact opposite of the way the British technicians were used to doing things which added to the tensions on set. Such as in HK they did not shoot with live sound and the studios were not sound proof. The actors had to contend with lots of outside noises and people talking while the shoot was going on. There's much more from Baker regarding the film and some of it good, too.

There's no ignorance here, they were all unprepared for the culture conflict in making movies over there and this is stated and has been stated many times over the years. Nothing new at all there.

[Guest Markgway]

"And the result is that those Kung Fu sequences are more effective than the average Chinese picture, because they've been better photographed and they've been better directed and the camera being in the right place at the right moment, and the cuts are set to a pattern. They hadn't thought of that-they wouldn't even admit it. Their idea is everybody mills around for twenty minutes with three different cameras and people waving hands and they throw it all into the cutting room and the editor sticks it together as best he can."

Really? I mean, really?

Who knew that Roy Ward Baker saved the movie from those horrible hacks Liu Chia Liang and Chang Cheh. I wish his genius had graced all Shaw Bros movies....

[vengeanceofhumanlanterns]

I'm referring to Baker's alleged quotes (unless I were to hear him say so myself, got it.) not your proof of sources. It's not an attack on you, brother, but definitely on Baker, if what I'm reading is true.

[venoms5]

I'm referring to Baker's alleged quotes (unless I were to hear him say so myself, got it.) not your proof of sources. It's not an attack on you, brother, but definitely on Baker, if what I'm reading is true.

I see. The reason I posted that particular quote was in reference to the notion that Chang Cheh had something to do with this movie. That quote correlates with the ones posted below it. It wasn't to put Roy Ward Baker in a negative light.

Baker had some very nice things to say about the production, mostly about David Chiang. The production seemingly left a bad taste in people's mouths at the time simply because neither side took the time to familiarize themselves with the difference in their styles of filmmaking. That Baker LSOH quote was from '78. Having seen a more recent interview with the man, he doesn't seem to have the same degree of animosity towards the picture.

ELSTREE YEARS covers this production (and the others) far more in depth than any other publication I've seen. They also list what was cut from the films that were deemed questionable by the censor as well as many behind the scenes shots such as Chiang and Cushing and the director working with the actors.

[vengeanceofhumanlanterns]

There's no ignorance here, they were all unprepared for the culture conflict in making movies over there and this is stated and has been stated many times over the years. Nothing new at all there.

[vengeanceofhumanlanterns]

Almost forgot, that Far East version would be something special, if it's out there.

[venoms5]

There's no ignorance here, they were all unprepared for the culture conflict in making movies over there and this is stated and has been stated many times over the years. Nothing new at all there.

So verbatim proposes, Baker and Chang Cheh were thrown together on this project, rushed through it, Baker brushed off any suggestions by Chang Cheh and Liu Chia Liang as though they were silly novices, (by his own comments) because he was better at shooting a martial arts film. If this wasn't his only film with martial arts in it, what, would there have been one more he may have filmed? Whilst Chang Cheh submerged his whole life into making these films and Liu Chia Liang as well. That's self-satisfied ignorance. If that film out did any of the finer of the Shaws releases... we'd all know about it. To people who know what he's talking about Baker sounds like an ass. If top dog Baker had a clue and was a man of learning from others, he would've worked with Liu Chia Liang and Chang Cheh, but instead insists, even long after the fact he knew better than people far more experienced in this type of film making. It's too bad. There should've been a little more understanding involved with such a classic combination. I'm sure he had his nice things to say as well, but the few quotes you laid on us, put him in a very bad light. The film's still worth owning.

[vengeanceofhumanlanterns]

Sorry dude, just thought I read his name in conjunction with this thread a few times. Baker just pisses me off. That's all.

[Guest Markgway]

I found a quote online in an excerpt from the book Roy Ward

Baker by Geoff Mayer that mentions the Chang Cheh and Liu

Chia-liang connection, but most intriguing is the following quote:

Chang Cheh also filmed additional martial arts scenes for

a 110-minute 'Far East' version."

This is what Vegeance is referring to...

[Killer Meteor]

I always felt Chang Cheh had a hand in the film; the idea of a white woman being David Chiang's undoing...

[Fang Shih-yu]

So no contemporary accounts in Hong Kong newspapers or movie magazines have been brought to light about about the movie's HK release? These items could mention something about the running time for the (presumed) HK/"Far East" version.... If only this film had been among those acquired by Celestial, maybe the mystery over this "extended cut" would've been solved by now!

[venoms5]

This is what Vegeance is referring to...

THE ELSTREE YEARS quotes from that same exact book which I posted more than once already. There is no mention of Chang Cheh anywhere, yet Shaw's proposed reshooting of the action scenes by Liu Chia Liang IS mentioned. However, a Chinese assistant director named Erh Feng is listed in ELSTREE YEARS among the credits for this movie. No Chang Cheh. The author, Kinsey, was allowed access to Hammer notes no one else had seen at the time including letters sent to the BBFC regarding cuts, letters from Carreras regarding the various productions, what was cut, scenes that were dropped, etc...

The same thing was said of Lucio Fulci that he co-directed A BULLET FOR SANDOVAL with Julio Buchs and that turned out to be a rumor.

If by chance Cheh had anything to do with this movie, it was after the fact, but even still, you would think it would be mentioned in his memoirs considering EVERYTHING the man did, no matter how small is included there. Also, where the hell would 20 more minutes of fight scenes go? Not saying it isn't true, I just don't believe it.

Also of note is an excerpt from an interview with Carreras who had a terrible time during the making the movie, but had nothing but good to say about the Shaw's. After the fact, he thought the kung fu sequences were far better than the Dracula segments and initially made a cut of the film without Dracula, but put those sequences back in when the film ran too short. That last bit may have been what stirred the long running notion that the film originally began as a vampire movie sans Dracula's involvement, but due to the Shaw's insistence, they put him back in because the character was supposedly popular there. There's a good six pages or more on the making of the movie in this book as well as some nice pics of Chiang and Cushing behind the scenes and Baker directing David Chiang with the Chinese crew around him.

[Fang Shih-yu]

...There is no mention of Chang Cheh anywhere, yet Shaw's proposed reshooting of the action scenes by Liu Chia Liang IS mentioned. However, a Chinese assistant director named Erh Feng is listed in ELSTREE YEARS among the credits for this movie. No Chang Cheh...

Maybe this film was Lau Kar Leung's true first attempt at directing (with assistance from Erh Feng); it could be the catylst that eventually made Leung leave Chang Cheh to direct his own movies. You never know....

[KyFi]

A few nice minutes of behind the scenes filming of 7 Golden Vampires starting at the 4:00 mark:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBCMZd6gUew

[peringaten]

Maybe this film was Lau Kar Leung's true first attempt at directing (with assistance from Erh Feng); it could be the catylst that eventually made Leung leave Chang Cheh to direct his own movies. You never know....

LKL directed Breakout From Oppression aka Deadly Strike in '73.

[Fang Shih-yu]

LKL directed Breakout From Oppression aka Deadly Strike in '73.

Thank you for the correction!... By taking a quick read about it, it seems like BFO isn't thought of in a positive light, and more than a few DVD versions of it (via "public domain" prints) are available! What's the movie like? At the very least, is the fight choreography good?

[Guest Markgway]

Don't watch BFO expecting the usual LKL standard; it's rubbish. He co-directed with Gordon Liu and Yang Fan (at least that's what the credits say...)

The Dracula segments of LEGEND are the weakest part of the film; John Forbes Robertson is no Christopher Lee. It does seem from the finished product that no one quite knew what movie they were making. If a Mandarin version exists I'd really like to see it.

[peringaten]

Breakout is an absolutely terrible film overall, diabolically bad even, mosty Gordon running around fields like they didn't know what to film & had no budget... but as an exercise in putting hung gar & southern kung fu choreo on screen for my tastes in places it's a triumph exercise. It's not flashy at all, but there's some proper stuff in there, you won't find better from '73. It's like a prep exercise for the stuff LKL would go on to choreo with Chang Cheh in the Shaolin Cycle films; with Gordon knowing his stuff some of it's punchier even. Shame about the movie generally though.

Here's a clip of one decent print about, not necessarily a best bit:

[Fang Shih-yu]

Breakout is an absolutely terrible film overall, diabolically bad even...Here's a clip of one decent print about, not necessarily a best bit...

Thanks for linking a Mandarin widescreen clip of this! Heavy Chang Cheh influences just drip off the fragment. This does feel like it was a quickly done venture, and LKL would like to wish it had never happened! It's definitely a warmup that leads to Heroes Two and beyond. Is this version of the movie available on DVD?

[peringaten]

I don't know about wishing it never happened, but it's definitely a learning curve/litmus test of a flick, and in that sense valuable. That print is off the Chinese DVD (the cover gives nothing away) that was once available here: http://www.yesasia.com/global/deadly-strike-dvd-china-version/1004008822-0-0-0-en/info.html although it says out of stock at mo on that site... maybe elsewhere has it.

[Stephe]

These pics are from https://www.facebook.com/groups/MightyShawBrothersVault/permalink/2926711220893376/ which was posted by Kyle Fiske to the Mighty Shaw Brothers Vault Facebook group on November 21, 2020, at 5:33 PM:

The pics are of pages from the Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires Scrapbook by Wayne Kinsey
https://peverilpublishing.co.uk/the-legend-of-the-7-golden-vampires-scrapbook/

Edited November 25, 2020 by Stephe
added attribution