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Emperor of the North Pole (1973)
Based on Jack London story
The credits of Aldrich's Emperor of the North don't mention the fact that it is an adaptation of Jack London's story 'The Road'.
The Road is a long short story/short novel, based on London's own experiences as a young man, riding the rails as a hobo. Most importantly, the central conflict between Borgnine's Shack and Marvin's A Number One, and the methods both use to overcome their enemy are very closely based on the Jack London story, in which a group of hobo's set out to ride the train on which a particularly brutal shack, or railway guard works.
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974)
Maoist Joke
I first saw Hammer's Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires when it came out in the Seventies, and have always believed that the scriptwriter based the whole idea on the history of the Chinese revolution. (Although of course, in part it's also a distant cousin of the Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven, with preyed-on villagers seeking assistance from outside/foreign experts).
Why? Well, the Chinese peasants in the movie fall prey to a bunch of Chinese vampires, whose evil activities are guided by the European vampire, Count Dracula (for this read local Chinese feudal lords, capitalists etc. in the service of Western Imperialism).
In spite of courageous efforts, the peasants are unable to combat this vampire alliance, and turn to the great expert on vampirism and how to fight it, Von Helsing, a Western intellectual (Karl Marx). The alliance of Western theory (Von Helsing/Marxism) and Chinese peasant practice eventually overcome the domination of the bloodsucking local allies of Count Dracula (the seven golden vampires/Kuomintang), and peace and prosperity is restored (victory of Mao and the Chinese Communist Party).
I am pretty sure that this must at least have been a conscious parallel in the mind of the scriptwriter, but have no way of knowing to what extent he meant it as a joke.
Has anyone else ever commented on this interesting parallel between Hammer horror and 20th century Chinese history? Did the film makers or scriptwriter ever spill the beans on this?