Frankenstein Created Woman/The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires

Frankenstein Created Woman is one of the better of Hammer's Frankenstein sequels, an efficient programmer that sees Peter Cushing's Baron trapping the soul of his guillotined assistant and putting it in the body of his disfigured girlfriend, only for the wronged boy to use her to kill those who really done the crime he was executed for. There's more build-up than payoff, but its very sedateness (indeed, almost cosiness) is part of the pleasure, and it's hard not to warm to the Baron's arrogance and aloofness, whether it be reading in the witness box or casually answering a policeman's "Do you take us for fools?" with a simple "Yes." Still, it is remarkable just how well preserved that severed head is after six months...

The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires is a much less successful hybrid combining Hammer horror and mid-70s chop socky movie as Dracula (not Christopher Lee but an inadequate John Forbes Robertson), for reasons never really explained, possesses the body of a Chinese bad guy to control six golden vampires while Cushing's Van Helsing, on a far from successful Chinese lecture tour, finds himself teaming up with seven brothers and their one sister to rid a remote Chinese village of yada yada yada.. "Black belt against black magic" screams the trailer, and while it's not as poor as I recalled, the only things going for it are a few okay action scenes and a magnificent display of bosom heaving from Julie Ege in one particularly memorable shot. Actors: Peter Cushing, Susan Denberg, Thorley Walters, Robert Morris, Duncan Lamont Directors: Cheh Chang, Roy Ward Baker, Terence Fisher Writers: Don Houghton, Anthony Hinds, Bram Stoker Producers: Anthony Nelson Keys, Don Houghton Format: Color, NTSC, Widescreen Language: English Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.) Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Number of discs: 2 Rated: R Restricted Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay DVD Release Date: July 27, 2004 Run Time: 182 minutes