REVIEW: Billy the Kid Vs. Dracula

Growing up, I learned many things, among them that John Carradine never met scenery he couldn’t chew and that his Billy the Kid vs. Dracula is one of the all-time bad movies. It’s also fallen into the public domain, so multiple versions can be found for sale. Joining the collection is this new 50th-anniversary Blu-ray from Shoreline Entertainment, which comes with just the film and nothing celebratory.

Carrdine has said on more than one occasion, “I have worked in a dozen of the greatest, and I have worked in a dozen of the worst. I only regret Billy the Kid Versus Dracula. Otherwise, I regret nothing.”

Carradine is actually a fine actor with the right material. I recently observed him in his earlier Captains Courageous. But, as a working man, supporting a family (including several who became actors themselves), he took whatever job he could get. That said, maybe it was director William “One-Shot” Beaduine or the script by Jack Lewis, although credited to Carl K. Hittleman, who did nothing with the part.

There’s nothing wrong with a vampire, even Dracula, operating in the Old West, but the cherry-picking of the lore is a disservice to what has come before. He’s a bat and bites pretty women and is susceptible to the crucifix and wolfsbane, but little else. Carradine had previously worn the fangs in House of Frankenstein (1944) and House of Dracula (1945) and did a far more credible job. Here, he doesn’t even attempt to project the old-world European charm he once had.

For reasons unknown, Dracula is traveling the American frontier in the late 19^th century and finds a portrait of Betty Bentley (Melinda Plowman) so captivating that he decides to make her his next bride. He kills her relatives, with whom he had been sharing a stagecoach, and impersonates her uncle. An older couple, also newly in town, recognize the charismatic figure and do everything they can to protect Betty after Dracula has claimed their own daughter (although killed, she doesn’t rise as a vampire).

Betty’s fiancée just happens to be the notorious Billy the Kid (Chuck Courtney), trying to find peace working the Bentley Ranch. However, when Dracula makes his move, you can be sure there will be gunplay, fangs, and more. The finale is set in a silver mine so one might expect the ore to play a factor in the climax, but that’s not the case.

Courtney is a fine stuntman and a stiff as an actor, more familiar to viewers as Dan Reid, the title character’s nephew on The Lone Ranger. The rest of the cast are character actors recognizable from other productions in the 1950s and 60s.

Shot in eight days, it has a rushed, sloppy feel. Stereotypes masquerade as characters, and the dialogue is about as perfunctory as you can get.

No details on how the transfer was made, but the 1080p is serviceable with adequate audio. Lacking any special features, this is as bare-bones a disc as it is a horror film. Keno has a superior Blu-ray edition, released in 2019, complete with audio commentary.