Billy the Kid vs. Dracula

An amusing so-bad-it's good Western/Horror 60's film. The title says it all. Dracula (played by who appears to a one thousand year old John Carradine) pretends to be a pretty ranch owner's uncle in order to claim her as his latest bride. He's opposed by her boyfriend Billy the Kid, the local female doctor, and Scandinavian immigrants who lost their daughter to Mr. Undead. Silly at times, funny sometimes, not to be taken seriously at all. Just enjoy it for what it is, a stinker that's an amusing time-passer. The Kino Lorber Blu-Ray is the one to get. Not too many extras but the picture is clear and the color is rich and vivid. Excellently re-mastered. Miles better than the simply awful Cheezy Films DVD. Recommended for fans of this genre.

Saw this at a drive-in theater in the 60's. Love John Carradine and the move to the old West was an interesting twist. This Blu-Ray is great. Widescreen, restored. Never looked better on video. A proud addition to my collection. If you like the show, buy this disc. You'll be happy you did.

This review is for the Blu-Ray edition of 'Billy the Kid vs. Dracula' released by Kino Lorber in 2019.BLU-RAY: The picture is not close to perfect but it's not bad either. I'm giving it a 6/10. There are imperfections throughout but they are minor. The movie doesn't have "looks as if it were shot yesterday" look but the picture is for the most part, fairly sharp. There are a few short parts that are a bit rough. It looks as if the original elements were in decent shape and they didn't bother to clean up the minor imperfections. The colors look decent enough. If you want a nice picture of this movie, this is as good as it's going to get. It is shown in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio.EXTRA'S: The extra's are slim. They are:-Audio Commentary by film historians Lee Gambin and John Harrison - These two commentators are very enthusiastic about this movie, to say the least! They talk so fast, I felt like saying "Take a breath"! They pack a lot of information into this commentary. However, they do spend a lot of time going off on tangents and telling stories that don't have much to do with this particular movie. I suppose there isn't boat loads of information available.-Trailers-SubtitlesPLOT/SUMMARY: Mary Bentley is travelling in a stagecoach with her brother, James Underhill. They also have as their companions, a liquor salesman and Dracula. Dracula killed a gypsy girl shortly before joining them. Mary and James are the owns of the Double-Bar B ranch. While they are travelling, Mary shows a picture of her beautiful niece, Betsy, to Dracula. It's love at first sight for Dracula. The stagecoach stops at an inn. While they are there, Dracula kills an Indian girl. The Indians discover the body and attack the stagecoach. They kill everyone, except for Dracula, of course. Dracula takes Underhill's wallet and assumes his identity. He turns back into a bat and travels to town before any news of the stagecoach attack occurs.In town, Dracula introduces himself as James Underhill. It so happens that Billy 'The Kid' is working for the Ranch. He is trying to reform his ways and is on the down low. He has fallen in love with Betsy. Word gets to town about the stagecoach. Also, the gypsies, whose daughter was killed by Dracula, show up in town. Dracula spends the rest of this movie hiding his true identity and plotting to make Betsy his bride. It's up to Billy 'The Kid' to stop him.PRODUCTION: This movie was made in 1966 and was released by Embassy Pictures.-This movie was directed by William Beaudine and was announced as going into production at the same time as 'Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter'.WHO WAS WILLIAM BEAUDINE?:The director, William Beaudine, was one of the most prolific director's in history. Beaudine started as an actor in 1909. He was the assistant to the director of 'The Birth of a Nation'. He got his first directing job in 1915 by directing a short called 'Almost a King'. He continued making shorts until 1922 when he began directing feature films. Beaudine was usually called in to make 'B' movies and was well known for getting pictures done at or under budget. He even earned the name 'One Shot' for his economical approach as he often chose to not re-shoot scenes that had been messed up. He had been making movies almost non-stop for 50 years when he made this movie along with it's spiritual companion piece, 'Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter'. He was near the end of his career when he made these two movies. These are the last two theatrical movies that he made. He continued his career for a few more years in television. He would pass away at the age of 78 in 1970. HOW MANY TIMES DID JOHN CARRADINE PLAY DRACULA?: I am not a fan of John Carradine. I know he is a cult favorite because of the many horror and science fiction films he appeared in. Let's face it, he did it for the money. He himself said this many times and he was not proud of, nor did he want to be known for, being a horror/sci-fi actor. That said, Carradine appeared as Dracula in at least 3 films. The best known films are:'House of Frankenstein''House of Dracula''Billy the Kid vs. Dracula'In addition, he appeared is several other films with the name 'Dracula' in the title and other vampire films.COMMENTS: "DON'T WORRY, NOBODY WILL NOTICE!": The director, William Beaudine, was famous for not wasting time with more than one take. If he wasn't going to do any re-shoots, he could have at least given a bit more effort to editing. Right at the start, we see the gypsy girl sleeping with Dracula's bloody fang marks on her neck before Dracula even attacks! A bit later, after the stage coach attack, if you look through the window of the stagecoach, you can see a member of the crew, in plain clothes, just standing there. Several times, Dracula turns into a bat without actually changing into a bat. He sort of just disappears and sometimes just reappears. "No need to worry about getting that 'bat-on-a-string' in there, who's going to notice?" ARE THERE ANY SEQUELS OR FILMS SIMILAR TO THIS ONE?: There is another movie combing western outlaws with monsters. That movie is called 'Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter'. It's actually Frankenstein's 'Granddaughter' that Jesse James meets. A SAD DEATH: Is it me or is this the worst death that Dracula has ever had? How pathetic was his demise? Dracula has had some pretty lame death's over the years. This is largely because writers of Dracula movies would try to come up with a way other than the stake through the heart method to keep things interesting. Of course, Dracula is supposed to be immortal, so these other methods are often pretty lame. I mean, a gun to the head? Not a bullet, mind you, we are talking, a 'thrown' gun to the head. So basically, bullets... "No problem". Bullets can't hurt Dracula. But whack him in the head and it's all over. I couldn't believe how lame that was. In a way, it reminded me of watching a professional fighter taunting his opponent by sticking his mug out and then getting knocked out. "AT LEAST THEY DID SOMETHING DIFFERENT...": Dracula leaves 'four' fang marks. I don't think I've seen this before. At first I thought it was dumb, but after thinking about, I thought that it's not a bad idea. OTHER COMMENTS:-The bat on a string looks terrible and is used throughout.-John Carradine considered 'Billy the Kid vs. Dracula' the worst movie he ever made.-The day time doesn't seem to bother Dracula even though he makes a point of not being disturbed while he is in his room during the day.-What exactly was that bat flying out of the cave? Was it supposed to be Dracula's spirit? If so, why was always, his regular form before?CONCLUSIONS: This is an very odd movie that is strictly for 'cult' movie fans. It's certainly not a good movie. This is a bad movie no matter how you look at it. Even if you got rid of the supernatural elements, it would still be a terrible movie.If you are buying this for the picture, you will probably be happy with it. Even though it's not spectacular, it's still looks nice and is definitely much better than my standard DVD copy. There isn't much added value to the release in the way of extra's. It's not something I would recommend to anybody other than fans of old and bad 'B' movies.RATINGS:Picture: 6/10 or 3 stars - It's good enough for Blu-Ray.Extra's: 4/10 or 2 stars - I give two stars no matter what for audio commentary, trailer and subtitles.Acting: 3/10 - It's terrible. I'm leaving it at that.Plot: 3/10 or 1 1/2 stars - Let's face it. This is not good.Overall: 5/10 or 2 1/2 stars. I'm generously rounding up to 3 stars just because they made it available.

This is one of those bad old horror movies that are fun to watch once in awhile, just for fun. Yes, it's really a poor movie, but has an interesting storyline placing Dracula (who can now travel around in broad daylight?) in the old west and facing a very handsome 20-30 something Billy The Kid who has a good reputation - nothing like the real Billy The Kid who was unattractive and a multiple murderer, who was ultimately killed by Pat Garrett when he was age 21.Putting the depiction of Billy the Kid in this movie aside, the prior DVD release of this movie was very poor. This new DVD release - also on BluRay - is much better. The picture is still a little grainy, but again, it's a big improvement.

Recommendation:1. Watch Bela Lugosi's 1931 Dracula.2. Drink beer.3. Watch this.4. Careful with the timing on the beer -- it might spray out your nose.

Campy but good

Excellent quality VHS. Better picture and color quality than the DVD copies around!

With a title like Billy The Kid Versus Dracula, you know it has to be low budget western/horror fun. A perfect double bill with Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter.