Early Sunday morning, not sure of the time but I think around 2 am. I've never seen these but I've heard about them and they sound popcorn worthy.
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Early Sunday morning, not sure of the time but I think around 2 am. I've never seen these but I've heard about them and they sound popcorn worthy.
You need to be a member of Captain Comics to add comments!
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Thanks Mark! I always wanted to see them!
As it happens, I just watched BILLY THE KID VERSUS DRACULA again 2 weeks ago. This is actually a generally well-made, fun movie. The director did about 300 films between features & TV episodes, many of them westerns, so the western aspects are well-done. The lead actor, I found out, had previously played Dan Reid (John's nephew) on several episodes of THE LONE RANGER. His girlfriend in the film's a real cutie. But the woman doctor almost steals the film. She's the obligatory "Van Helsing" who, while she doesn't believe in the supernatural (at first) does have books on the subject with needed info. I love the scene when Billy's in jail for killing a an, the doctor knows he has to be free to save his girlfriend, so she just grabs the shefiff's revolver and tosses to Billy in his cell. The tone of the picture is not that far removed from the DOCTOR WHO story, "The Gunfighters", which was made the same year!
If there's any criticism of the film, I'd aim it squarely at John Carridine, who seemed to go in with an attitude of utter comtempt for the material, and a determination to let everyone know ON CAMERA what he thought of the movie. As a result, he does the only REALLY BAD acting in the whole film-- from beginning to end! It's mind-boggling.
By the way, I liked how someone at the IMDB site pointed out that complaints about "day for night" shots, which are more like "day for day" here, are invalid, as in the Bram Stoker novel DRACULA, the vampire could walk about in broad daylight. He was just powerless during the day. The "tradition" of sunlight destroying vampires apparently started in the silent German film NOSFERATU. On the other hand, the vampire is never once referred to as "Dracula", so there's no real evidence that he was anything other than some random vampire.
I saw and reviewed them a couple years back. I was surprised that though they largely shared the same producer, writer and director, the DRACULA film was a pleasant time-waster, and the FRANKENSTEIN was a "horror" in a bad way.
I think I remember John Caradine playing a vampire of sorts on McCloud once.
If anyone doesn't know, Carradine played Dracula in the Universal movies House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula in the 40s. The IMDB tells me he also played the role on TV in the 50s on TV and in a 1979 horror comedy.
I’ve never seen Billy the Kid Meets Dracula, but I have Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter on VHS. I re-watch it every time I make my way through the Universal Studios canon (of which I consider it an “unofficial” or “apocryphal” submission). It’s delightfully cheesy.
There's a line in HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN which I always find interesting. The travelling carnival barker promotes that they have "the skeleton of THE ORIGINAL Count Dracula!" When Boris karloff pulls the stake out of the skeleton, it reforms as John Carridine.
Now, allegedly, the skeleton was found in the ruins of Castle Dracula in Transylvania. But, in the Universal movies, Dracula was killed with a stake in the heart in DRACULA (1931), in Carfax Abbey, on the outskirts of London!
The climax of the sequel-- like the original novel-- did take place in Castle Dracula, but, Dracula himself did not appear in the film DRACULA'S DAUGHTER (even though, before countless rewrites, he was supposed to-- otherwise, why did they pay Bela Lugosi on retainer MORE money for the film than he got for the earlier film, which he was the star of?).
However, curiously, Lon Chaney Jr. starred in SON OF DRACULA, which came out before HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN. The entire fim takes place in America, and Chaney spends most of the film masquerading as "Count Alucard".
Several questions come to mind. Was Chaney's character A "Count Dracula", or THE Count Dracula? Also, was the sideshow barker wrong, and the coffin with Dracula's skeleton actually found in Carfax Abbey n England? (Perhaps saying it came from Transylvania just sounded cooler.)
Personally, I've come to feel that, as far as continuity goes, SON OF DRACULA actually makes more sense if you watch it after ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN. In the A&C movie, he comes to America, while in SON, he's already in America.
Also, in the BILLY THE KID film, Carridine is never once referred to as "Dracula". Was he, or was he just a random vampire, and it sounded cooler to call him "Dracula" in the film title?
Surprisingly, the film with the tighest series continuity is the A&C film. Both Frankenstein & Dracula were destroyed in the same house in HOUSE OF DRACULA, and The Wolfman was there. So they could have been discovered together. In HOD, Dracula showed an interest in science, which could have inspired his action in the next film. While Larry Talbot was cured in HOD, the source of his cure was destroyed when the fire burned down the house. That's why he's The Wolfman again. Also, we saw The Monster speak in GHOST OF FRAKENSTEIN, after Ygor's brain was transplanted into it. He speaks again in the A&C film. (Similarly, in the Bobby "Boris" Pickett novelty song "Monster Mash", "Dr. Frankenstein" (who sounds like Boris Karloff) refers to "Ygor" (and it's the MONSTER's voice who responds!). Further, Carridine twice uses the alias "Baron Latos", and in the A&C film, Lugosi uses the alias "Dr. Latos".
You know... if the western was part of the same series, chances are, it would take place before the events in the 1931 film DRACULA.
If I remember correctly in Daughter of Dracula they open with Lilith (?) burning her father's body. In the book he was killed just short of reaching Castle Dracula.
I suppose Dracula's revival in House of Frankenstein was the first time a vampire came back to unlife due to his stake having been removed (but there was a fair amount of 19th century and pulp vampire fiction, so it's possible the idea had appeared before).
"Countess Marya Zeleska" (Gloria Holden).
That film had my favorite female in all the Universal horror movies-- Marguerite Churchill as Janet. I felt sorry for her, though... I see a BAD marriage ahead for her if she stuck with Otto Kruger's character.
We never got to see how Dracula (or whoever-- heh) came back at the beginning of SON OF DRACULA, HOUSE OF DRACULA or ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN, although, I strongly suspect in the A&C story, that "Sandra" (the scientist) had something to do with it. I think there's a whole backstory to that film that audiences never got to see. It continues to amaze me over the years how a comedy film done by the people involved with A&C paid more attention to the writing & continuity and character than most of the strictly "monster" sequels.
They loved to come up with elaborate ways to bring Dracula back in the Hammer series, although pulling a stake out of a skeleton was never an option. He usually turned to ashes, bones included!