Billy the Kid vs. Dracula

Rating:
Summary: From Transylvania To The Wild West!
Review: John Carradine reprises the role of Dracula, and Chuck Courtney plays Billy the Kid, in this classic horror-Western movie. Describing John Carradine's performance as over the top would be an understatement. When he looks at a picture of the woman he wants to be his mate, his eyes practically pop out of his head. When he finally meets her, pretending to be her uncle, he puts his arm around her and leers at her lasciviously. I almost expected him to attack her in front of company. Don't you just hate it when a relative tries to put the bite on you? Billy the Kid is very subdued by comparison. He has given up his outlaw ways, is working as a foreman at a ranch, and is planning to marry the woman that Dracula wants for his mate. At one point in the film, Billy gets in a fight with another ranch hand and gets his butt kicked. Later, he shoots the guy in self defense and is jailed for it. Billy is broken out of jail by an elderly woman doctor who snatches the gun away from the Sheriff! In the final showdown between Billy and Dracula, Billy empties his six-shooter into the vampire. Dracula can't be hurt by mere bullets, and Billy gets beat up again for his actions. The Sheriff arrives and also shoots the vampire, with no harmful effects. Billy wakes up, grabs the gun from the Sheriff and throws it at Dracula. That never works in the movies, but then again, there's a first time for everything! This bargain basement, no special effects film would have been perfect for Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Rating:
Summary: From Transylvania To The Wild West!
Review: John Carradine reprises the role of Dracula, and Chuck Courtney plays Billy the Kid, in this classic horror-Western movie. Describing John Carradine's performance as over the top would be an understatement. When he looks at a picture of the woman he wants to be his mate, his eyes practically pop out of his head. When he finally meets her, pretending to be her uncle, he puts his arm around her and leers at her lasciviously. I almost expected him to attack her in front of company. Don't you just hate it when a relative tries to put the bite on you? Billy the Kid is very subdued by comparison. He has given up his outlaw ways, is working as a foreman at a ranch, and is planning to marry the woman that Dracula wants for his mate. At one point in the film, Billy gets in a fight with another ranch hand and gets his butt kicked. Later, he shoots the guy in self defense and is jailed for it. Billy is broken out of jail by an elderly woman doctor who snatches the gun away from the Sheriff! In the final showdown between Billy and Dracula, Billy empties his six-shooter into the vampire. Dracula can't be hurt by mere bullets, and Billy gets beat up again for his actions. The Sheriff arrives and also shoots the vampire, with no harmful effects. Billy wakes up, grabs the gun from the Sheriff and throws it at Dracula. That never works in the movies, but then again, there's a first time for everything! This bargain basement, no special effects film would have been perfect for Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Rating:
Summary: This is a poor bootleg DVD-R, avoid it.
Review: The film is horrible but fun, and I recommend MGM's VHS version but the DVD pictured here is an unlicensed, bootleg DVD-R of poor quality. The tape is MUCH better. I'd like to see a legitmate release from MGMs Midnight Movie series!

Rating:
Summary: buyer beware
Review: This DVD isn't very good. I like the movie, but this DVD could have been better. It has that DVD-R feel to it;no extras, no widescreen, no subtitles, no language-options, no commentaries, no trailer... just looks like an old VHS tape was transfered to DVD. The version AMC plays looks a lot better. The first 4-5 minutes won't play. The last minute or so is missing (they cut the words "the end"). This must be an, uh, "unofficial" DVD. I hope to see a much-better copy someday, but until then I'll keep this one. I will say the color-sleeve is beautifully designed.

Rating:
Summary: There is a Reason John Carradine Called This His Worst Film
Review: What's that smell, you ask? It very easily could be this piece of cheese. John Carradine frequently referred to this as his worst movie, and although it is very poor in all ways, it is at least watchable unlike many of his other films such as 'The Astro-Zombies', or his very worst, the appalling 'Frankenstein Island' (in which he only plays a shrieking apparition.) Therefore, on balance, I have to respectfully disagree with John.

In this film, such as it is, John plays Count Dracula who makes an appearance in the old west at a ranch supervised by Billy the Kid. Dracula spends a good part of the film as a bat flying around on a string wearing a top hat. When he is in his vampire form as John Carradine, he goes by the name 'Mr. Underhill' and also wears a top hat and a very creepy beard similar to the one sported by 'Him' on 'The Powerpuff Girls.' John, never a handsome man, has on this ridiculous red makeup and fake mustache and beard set which reminds me more of a wacky European dictator from the 1920's than Count Dracula. There is also a German couple who advance the plot by first spotting the vampire for who he really is. They then take to hanging wolfsbane everywhere (I'm no expert, but I thought that protected against werewolves, but I digress.) The old woman "doctor" finally performs the mirror test on John; when he can't see his reflection he growls like a wounded badger, as he knows that the game is up. Shatner has nothing on Carradine in this movie. At any rate, John poses as the uncle of Betty, Billy's love interest, and bites a couple of women and kills some sheep (offscreen) in his bat form. All this leads up to Dracula trying to make Betty his vampire bride, which Billy with the help of the Sheriff and a local doctor try to prevent. I won't give away the ending, but I will say that Billy needs to be briefed on how to use a gun, as his technique proves a bit novel in the fateful encounter.

Some reviewers evidently had difficulties with their DVDs. Mine worked fine, played the movie from start to finish without difficulty, and even showed a couple of shorts at the beginning, including one of Julie Andrews explaining the then new MPAA symbol that predated the rating system.

This movie is not as wholly wretched as you might think from the title, and so for that I deducted two stars. I expect anything with John Carradine to stink, and given John's own repulsion with this film, I thought it would be the true bottom of the barrel. It isn't; there are many, many worse John Carradine vehicles to explore. This one is pretty tame and inoffensive, but mostly just plodding and boring.