A full 20 years after essaying the role of Dracula in Universal’s classic monster mashes THE HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1944) and its quick follow-up HOUSE OF DRACULA (1945), legendary thesp John Carradine reprises the role in this low rent horror/western hybrid which makes its Blu-ray debut courtesy of Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

After a stagecoach is massacred by Indians, the vampire king Dracula (John Carradine, BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR) assumes the identity of Mr. Underhill who perished in the attack along with his sister. He then pretends to be the uncle of Elisabeth “Betty” Plowman (TV actress and future TV stage manager Melinda Casey), an 18-year-old ranch owner who happens to be engaged to the reformed outlaw “Billy the Kid” (35-year-old Chuck Courtney, TEENAGE MONSTER), who now goes by the name William Bonney and is also the foreman of the ranch. Dracula gushes over his motherless supposed niece, constantly reminding her how beautiful she is, and muscles in as her overprotective legal guardian: his true intention is to make her his vampire bride. A timid immigrant couple, Eva Oster (Virginia Christine, THE MUMMY’S CURSE) and Franz Oster (Walter Janovitz, TORN CURTAIN) just lost their daughter to Dracula (in the form of a pesky vampire bat), and as they believe Betty’s pompous uncle to be a vampire, they warn her, enforcing the girl to hang strings of wolfbane that look like plastic party decor. A booze-swigging lady doctor (Olive Carey, THE SEARCHERS) shocks Dracula by showing him his non-reflection in a bedroom mirror (a good effect spoiled by Carradine’s unintentionally hilarious physical growling reaction) and blue-eyed blond Billy has to escape his jail cell (after shooting a trouble-making rival wiseass in self defense) to save hypnotized Betty from Dracula’s clutches, as he carries her off into a cavernous abandoned silver mine.

Shot in 1965 as a bonafide “quickie”, BILLY THE KID VS. DRACULA was produced back-to-back with its companion monster/western mash-up JESSE JAMES MEETS FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER as the final two feature films of veteran director William “One Shot” Beaudine. Although Beaudine directed over 250(!) films since the silent era, these are the two he's often remembered for, as you'll rarely see a bio of the man without them listed. Beaudine also gave us a number of East Side Kids/Bowery Boys comedies, some Lugosi B-level chillers, Bruce Lee on American TV, and 175 westerns. Pushing 60 at the time, Carradine plays the fangless vampire king with a top hat and goatee (and the ability to appear and reappear courtesy of the simplest in-camera effect), making him at times resembling an undernourished Devil, and it wouldn’t be the last time he would play the durable character. After the opening credits, we witness a close-up of Dracula yawning and patting his open mouth, and that pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the movie: perhaps Carradine is just bored with the proceedings or the actor was just playing the character as being tired of walking the earth (he certainly is adamant about not being disturbed during his afternoon siesta). At any rate, this is the one film that Carradine used to single out in interviews and talk show appearances as the one he regretted doing and the worst he’d ever made. This is most likely that he could easily recall the campy title; it’s certainly not the worst, as this man also worked for such directors as Jerry Warren (THE INCREDIBLE PETRIFIED WORLD), Al Adamson (BLOOD OF DRACULA’S CASTLE), Ted V. Mikels (THE ASTRO-ZOMBIES) and David L. Hewitt (THE WIZARD OF MARS).

Running a swift-enough 73 minutes, BILLY THE KID VS DRACULA was shot on the extreme cheap, relying mostly on familiar standing Western movie sets (namely the Corriganville Movie Ranch), and a good amount of stock footage, so most of the time it resembles an episodic Western TV program (producer Carroll Chase was the man behind the long-running cowboy series “Sugarfoot”). Although shot in the error of Hammer gothics and the European horror explosion, the film is less of a horror than a western, but does offer some bloody vampire bites and a floppy bat that at times resembles a dark flying chicken (in an extremely lazy bit of editing, a short-sleeved crew member — presumably the one controlling the bat — can be seen through the stagecoach’s open windows as Dracula moves about in the foreground). But again, this is certainly not Carradine’s worst (or most regrettable) horror film and can be entertaining on the guilty pleasure level. Also in the cast is Charlita (from Beaudine’s BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA) as a vampire-bitten Indian maiden, Marjorie Bennett (WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?) as Betty’s doomed mother, George Cisar (Sgt. Mooney on the “Dennis The Menace” series) as boozy booze sailsman, and busy TV actor Richard Reeves (TARGET EARTH) as the friendly barman. The film is also loaded with familiar western character actors including Bing Russell (THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN), Roy Barcroft (THE SPOILERS), William Forrest (THE HORSE SOLDIERS), Leonard P. Geer (SEMINOLE UPRISING) and Harry Carey Jr. (THE SEARCHERS). The music is composed by Raoul Kraushaar, who didn’t do too many other horror films, but did score JESSE JAMES MEETS FRANKENSTEIN’S DAUGHTER, as well as BACK FROM THE DEAD and THE UNKNOWN TERROR, which were released together as a double bill by 20th Century-Fox.

BILLY THE KID VS. DRACULA (along with JESSE JAMES MEETS FRANKENSTEIN’S DAUGHTER) was released theatrically by Embassy Pictures, and then in 1986, it was issued on VHS from Embassy Home Entertainment. This VHS tape was the source for the Cheezy Flicks bootleg DVD-R, with the film now being one of a number of Embassy titles held by StudioCanal, as licensed by Kino Lorber for this Blu-ray. Seeing the film in its proper 1.85:1 aspect ratio results in a definite reappraisal of it, and although its shoestring production values will be ever apparent, the 1080p HD transfer brings out a pleasing image of beautiful colors and better appreciation of the few occasions when gel lighting is on display, during some of Dracula’s wide-eyed facial close-ups. There are only some scattered blemishes on the otherwise pristine element source, which boasts impressive detail, maintains some deep black levels, and a decent amount of natural grain. The English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track has clear dialogue and is mixed nicely with the effects and music score. Optional English subtitles are included. Anyone hoping that Kino Lorber will release JESSE JAMES MEETS FRANKENSTEIN’S DAUGHTER on Blu-ray, it won’t happen: MGM has (or had) rights to that one and they last released it on VHS under the “Midnite Movies” banner, but as the film is also assumed to be public domain, a number of budget DVD releases have popped up over the years.