Billy the Kid Versus Dracula

If you're looking for a good Horror-Western then you've come to the wrong place. However, if you are an afficianado of stiff, stagey, stodgy drive-in material then there is much here to entertain. John Carradine hams it up royally, rolling his eyes and barking his lines like he's a silent film star who's just been told he's got to make the transition to talkies...and he gives it everything he's got as he prowls about the Wild West resplendent in top-hat and cape. His face glows red every time he spots a girl he fancies; he even has a red-duvet on the vampire double bed he keeps in the abandoned silver mine that is his lair, should he get lucky, which seems unlikely seeing as he looks older even than the undeadest undead man. Watch out for B-Western legends Harry Carey Jnr. and Roy Barcroft, enjoy the wholesome sixties-chick heroine, ignore the tired convolusions of the plot, try and forget that the whole thing is entirely devoid of creepy atmosphere. Good fun for cheese fans.

This was filmed back to back with "Jessie James Meets Frankensteins Daughter" in the same Simi Valley ranch by William Beaudine who use to be a very capable director. I think this is just campy fun to watch! The story starts out with Dracula (John Carradine) on a stagecoach and he see's a picture of a young girl and is instantly attracted to her. That night Dracula kills a young Indian girl and the rest of the Indians attack the Stagecoach and kill everyone on board. Dracula assumes the identity of a Mr. Underhill and goes to meet his niece who has never met him. The niece is Betty Bentley (Melinda Plowman) and the ranch that her family owns has a foreman named William Bonney (Chuck Courtney) and the two of them are in love and want to get married. Dracula arrives and he introduces himself as Betty's uncle and he takes charge of the ranch. He also starts to make plans on making Betty his bride! An immigrant couple recognize him as a vampire because he had killed their daughter and now they try and warn Betty and William. This film plays as a regular vampire story and not as camp but with the low budget and a script that isn't careful about vampire do's and dont's it can't help but become camp. Carradine was pretty old in 1966 and he appears frail so when there are scenes that require physical effort a stand-in was used. Take a good look when Dracula is supposedly carrying Betty, you can't see his face. Carradine dyed his hair black for this role to try and look younger. I also liked Plowman in this film, she was a steady television actress during the 50's and 60's and she was extremely beautiful to look at. I personally could understand why Dracula was so infatuated with her. I probably would have done the same thing if I was in his shoes! If anyone knows whatever happened to Melinda Plowman please let me know. The ending was pretty shabby when Billy the Kid throws a gun at Dracula and knocks him out! And then uses a railroad spike. Everyone knows it has to be a wooden spike! But you have to expect these inconsistencies from these films. Thats part of their charm! Also, for you trivia buffs out there...Olive Carey plays Dr. Hull and Carey is the mother of Harry Carey jr. who also appears in this film as the wagon master! Silly and inconsistent film is actually fun to watch. I think it lives up to its incredible title. Look out for those rubber bats on a string!

Yeah, it's nutty, with an accentless Dracula popping up in the old west like the ultimate dirty old man, leering at and biting the neck of just about every nubile young woman who wanders by. Somehow, Drac ends up at the very ranch where Billy the Kid has gotten a job in an attempt to hang up his bad guy ways. Whew. Still in all, you get a lot of the always wonderful John Carradine, playing Dracula yet again, and even better, his main nemesis isn't actually Billy the Kid, but instead Mrs. Olsen from the long ago Folger's coffee commercials!!! She is an immigrant Swedish/German woman who knows Dracula's real agenda, and is much more of a thorn in his side than the mostly ineffectual cowboy hero. So there you go--you old monster movie buffs should definitely check this one out!

Billy the Kid Versus Dracula (1966)

*** (out of 4)

Billy the Kid (Chuck Courtney) has settled down and is now working on a ranch where he has fallen in love with its owner Elizabeth (Melinda Plowman). Her uncle (John Carradine) shows up to pay her a visit and soon Billy realizes that he's really COunt Dracula.

If you go into a movie called BILLY THE KID VERSUS Dracula and take it serious then you really need to take a long, deep look at your life and wonder why you take things so seriously. THis here was obviously meant to be camp and with WIlliam Beaudine behind the camera they managed to get the movie in the can in five days. Who would have thought that all these decades later that the film would still have a nice little following among bad movie lovers?

For my money this here is one of the greatest bad movies ever made and it's entertainment value is pretty much off the charts. The only bad movie that comes closer to such entertainment is PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE so these two really are the kings of their sub- genre. What makes this film so entertaining is the fact that everyone is taking it pretty serious. The cast are all extremely serious and they're treating these events as if they were in a serious drama.

The one exception is Carradine who appears to know this is pure camp. He's simply wonderful here and you can't help but call this a great comic performance. I mean, look at an early scene where he's in a bar and a girl with her parents have accused him of being a vampire. He says "a vampire" and take a look at his eyes as he says the line. Pure camp. The actor was a very smart man and a terrific actor who took roles like this to take care of his children. It's clear he knew he was making a low-budget horror movie and he's just making it fun.

Beaudine actually makes this look like an actual Western and the film comes off as a real production and not just some cheap film. I'd also argue that the entire film is just about as entertaining as something like this could get. The horror elements are all rather silly as is everything else about the film but it has a certain innocent charm that really comes across.

This film has a lot to offer for those of us who love bad movies. The rubber battery-operated bat, the horrible dialogue and irritating characters (especially the German/Austrian immigrant lady), and especially the obscure placement in time of the film: the 1800s town set; Billy's 70s style ranch house--complete with bead curtain!; even the hallway above the early 1900s saloon which I think was a hallway at the movie studio. John Carradine, following his scripted eye cues very closely ("open eyes real wide"), gives hickeys and utilizes his amazing ability to stop the film and move off-camera. Chuck Courtney wears the same shirt throughout the entire film (costume budget woes, I imagine) and manages to knock out Dracula by tossing his gun at him! Oh yeah, and Carradine's red-faced "I'm horny!" look is priceless, even without the red flashlight. A true gem.