IMDb reviews From IMDb
★ 6 / 10
***Serious 60’s ‘B’ Western chronicling Dracula’s visit to
Wuchak
***Serious 60’s ‘B’ Western chronicling Dracula’s visit to the Southwest*** The diabolic Count (John Carradine) travels to the Southwest in the late 1800s and…
***Serious 60’s ‘B’ Western chronicling Dracula’s visit to the Southwest***
The diabolic Count (John Carradine) travels to the Southwest in the late 1800s and masquerades as the uncle of a beautiful girl that the vampire wants to make his wife (Melinda Casey). But her beau, Billy the Kid (Chuck Courtney), gains increasing evidence of the true identity of her “uncle.”
The mere title “Billy the Kid Versus Dracula” (1966) spurs giggles, which isn’t helped by the cheesy looking bat in the opening scene, not to mention the hokey credits. If you can get past these drawbacks, the movie’s well done for a ‘B’ Western: It has an interesting story & characters and a quality cast that takes the material seriously.
The concept isn’t that laughable when you consider that Bram Stoker’s book debuted in 1897 and the fact that vampires are immortal unless destroyed. Since Dracula visited England in the novel, far from his native Transylvania, why not the American Southwest at some point? It also helps to understand both Dracula and Billy the Kid as cultural archetypes, mythical figures that can manifest in an infinite number of interpretations and reinterpretations. Just as there are many ways to play Robin Hood or James Bond, so there are myriad ways to depict Billy the Kid or Dracula. They can be whatever the creators want them to be.
Someone pointed out the seeming contradiction of bullets not hurting Dracula while a gun to the face does. On the surface this seems like an inconsistency, yet it can be explained if you read between the lines: Dr. Henrietta Hull in the flick explains that vampires are "undead" and sorta like ghosts that can morph into bats or manifest seemingly out of nowhere (which is illustrated several times in the movie). But they have to 'solidify' to function in the natural realm wherein people are able to touch them, like Betty (Melinda Casey). So, when the gun is thrown at the vampire he was caught off guard and evidently failed to de-solidify in time.
Another possibility is that the vampire is vulnerable to silver and Billy's gun was silver-plated. But, if vampires are weakened by silver, why did the Count set up operations in a silver mine? Because it had been defunct for years and any remaining silver would be deep within the earth far away from where Drac would conduct his diabolic ceremony. He needed the mine for this unholy ritual because it was located in the bowels of the earth, completely cutting him off from the weakening power of the sun, as well as unwanted interruptions from potential interlopers.
Speaking of the sun, in Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula COULD operate during daylight hours, but it wasn’t preferable and direct exposure to the sun severely weakened his supernatural powers, yet it couldn’t kill him.
The film runs 1 hour, 13 minutes, and was shot at Ray Corrigan Ranch, Simi Valley, California, with studio work done in Hollywood.
GRADE: B-
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★ 3 / 10
Not nearly as horrible as you might anticipate,...but this still isn't to say it's good!
planktonrules
With a title like this movie has, it's obvious that the film's creators had no great pretense--they KNEW they weren't making Shakespeare! However, despite the…
With a title like this movie has, it's obvious that the film's creators had no great pretense--they KNEW they weren't making Shakespeare! However, despite the stupid title and a very low budget, the film isn't quite as bad as it sounds. It really isn't good, but at least the actors and director tried to make a film that is reasonably watchable, as they played it straight throughout--as if they expected people to actually watch and respect a film called BILLY THE KID VERSUS Dracula.John Carradine plays the Count, though it seems that the writer had never seen a vampire movie before, since so much in this film violates popular vampire lore. For example, here Dracula walks around during the daytime, does not sleep in a coffin, his face magically lights up in red when he's hypnotizing people and wolves-bane drives him away--as if he's the wolf-man! And, as far as acting goes, Carradine was the worst of the actors in the film--looking more like the Devil and over-acting throughout. The Dracula he plays in this film is considerably different than the one he more subtly played in HOUSE OF Dracula and HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN. While the cape and top hat and bright red bow might have fit into these two earlier vampire films, here he just looks pretty stupid out West--especially when no one even questioned this flamboyant attire.As for the plot, the old vampire shows up, inexplicably, in the West and meets up with an amazingly civil and law-abiding Billy the Kid. Mr. The Kid is in love with a cute lady but she is also the focus of Dracula's lust. In the end, they battle it out (of course) in a rather limp conclusion--it's one of the most anti-climatic ends in monster history.All in all, this is a bad movie but not the type that you'd enjoy watching (like PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE). It's more the type that just makes your brain hurt due to its ineptness and dull script.
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★ 3 / 10
"Oh God! The vampire test"
bgh48
This is uttered by Virginia Christine (the alluring Anaka in 1945's THE MUMMY'S CURSE) when Melina Plowman tells her that her "uncle" casts no reflection in…
This is uttered by Virginia Christine (the alluring Anaka in 1945's THE MUMMY'S CURSE) when Melina Plowman tells her that her "uncle" casts no reflection in the mirror. Another pithy line of dialogue, one you'd never expect the legendary vampire to make, is (to his "niece") "Marry a notorious gunslinger? I won't hear of it!" Carradine as Dracula comes across as merely a crochety, vaguely sinister, eccentric uncle with an elitist attitude against immigrants. The actor frankly seems in his, uh, cups, but do you blame him? On the other hand, Chuck Courtney brings a surprising believablity and bantamweight handsomeness and likability to Billy the Kid; he looks somewhat like Audie Murphy, which also helps. Melinda Plowman as Dracula's object of lust, looks like one of those Noxema girls from the 1960's t.v. ads for that skin cream. The strings on the shlocky flapping rubber bat are clearly visible, oh, what joy! Right from someplace like "Eddie's House of Horrors" on Hollywood Boulevard, probably where they also got that shiny big red bow for Dracula.Another source of delight is the wide eyed, dopey, open mouthed look of stupefaction and wonder on the young German girl's face as she realizes who Carradine is. The old female doc is played straight, and there is something appealing about the dusty, Hollywood/old Wild West 101 atmosphere, with its pleasantly juvenile shootin', fightin' and ranchin' atmosphere, oddly made more pleasant by the juxtaposition of the silly and cheesy vampire-comes-to-town-to-stir-up-the-locals story. This movie is best enjoyed either in a "matinee" time frame, say around 2 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon, or at 2 a.m. that same night.
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3.9/10
2.5K
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This movie was a JOKE. Curse of the Undead (1959) is much better and it also involves cowboys.