Movie Night: Billy the Kid versus Dracula.

Review #463: Billy the Kid versus Dracula.

Cast
Chuck Courtney (William 'Billy the Kid' Bonney), John Carradine (Count Dracula), Melinda Plowman (Betty Bentley), Virginia Christine (Eva Oster), Walter Janovitz (Franz Oster), and Bing Russell (Dan Thorpe) Directed by William Beaudine.

Review
Originally released on a double bill with another horror film (Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter), the film is a sloppy mess from beginning to end, starting with the hokey, if not drunkenly written premise of Billy the Kid in a horror film. The fake bat I can understand, Dracula (1931) has the same thing, I guess real bats couldn't be used due to having to train them. Courtney isn't too terrible, though I can't say too much for the supporting cast, but at least John Carradine is okay, though his "hypnotic stare" isn't as scary as say, Bela Lugosi, though Carradine also played Dracula in Universal's sequels twenty years prior. The climax of the film is either really, really stupid, or just plain perplexing, and since the film is over 45 years old, I figure I can spoil it: Billy the Kid throws his gun at Dracula, knocking him out as he then stakes him. I don't know if you can actually throw your weapon at someone that actually hurts, essentially the equivalent is throwing a rope at someone and expecting them to be tied up. If you want to watch a probably better Billy the Kid film, I'd stick to Young Guns, but oh well.

Overall, I give it 2 out of 10 stars.