Blood of Dracula's Castle

Okay I'm going to say something that I can rarely said to have ever willingly said, this is a watchable Al Adamson movie. Adamson was a bad filmmaker from the late 1960's and early 1970's who churned out a great deal of really bad, and not in a fun sort of way, films. A good many of them had John Carradine, which is apropos of nothing but its just the way things are. Most are so bad you'd want to pluck your eyes out rather than watch them. A few a precious few are awful but watchable in that bad but good way. This is one of those bad but good sort of films. Actually its bad but watchable which is a different kettle of fish. I don't know why this film kind of works in a 3am late late show way but it does. The plot has a couple inheriting a castle from a 108 year old uncle. The castle was and is being rented by a nice old couple who are really Dracula and his bride. Carradine is the butler who along with a 7 foot tall hunchback keep women chained in the basement for the vampires blood needs. Just as the couple decide to go to the castle to pitch the tenants Dracula has their werewolf buddy sprung from an insane asylum so that he can get them better blood. Jaw dropping silliness ensues. I think this film works on any level because I think its suppose to be funny. I don't think the humor works as intended but it does give this mess watchable quality, especially if you're into movies that are so bad they are good

Dracula isn't going by "Dracula" these days, and his castle isn't really his, it's rented, and it isn't really a castle, but just resembles one. And while there is blood, remarkably Dracula is now so leisure-class that he has servants extract blood with needles from his victims and serve it to him (and his wife) in wine glasses.

A young photographer and his model fiancé take some photos at Marineland (are walruses and seals sexy?). He inherits a "castle" from a 108-year-old relative. They decide they'll live and work out of the castle without having seen it, and that they'll have to evict the old couple who'd been renting it.

Meanwhile, at the castle, mute hunchbacked servant Mango (!?) and genteel butler (and moon god Luna cultist) George are acquiring female "guests" to chain in the basement to keep a ready supply for their vampire bosses. The vampires realize they'll have to get the young couple to let them stay in the castle one way or another.

Also showing up is the vampires' friend Johnny, a homicidal maniac. Just on his way to the castle, he kills four people, and that's when he's on his best behavior! Repeatedly, it is said that he's worse when there's a full moon. He's not a werewolf, though.

It's a pretty silly movie, but it's not awful.

Blood of Dracula's Castle (1969)

** (out of 4)

Let me start off by saying the horror dork inside of me almost shed a tear when I received this screener and realized that this Al Adamson film was included. Back when I was around ten or so I had the pleasure of my dad buying me Adamson's Blood of Ghastly Horror and Dracula vs. Frankenstein, both which lived up to their reputation of being among the worst films ever made. However, they fell into that "so bad they're good" category so I set out to locate this flick. After five years of searching I finally found a copy at a mom and pop store and they took pity on me and gave me the tape for free. Went on, put it in the VCR, the film started and smoke came from my VCR, which was eating my tape. My young heart was broken but I kept on until nearly ten years later when the postman dropped this disc off at my house.

Okay, enough dork talk and on to the movie….

A young couple inherits an old castle and to their shock they soon learn that Count Dracula and his wife are living there. With the assistance of a hunchback and caretaker (John Carradine), the Count and his wife keep the basement full of women so that the blood supply is never low. The young couple wants them out of the castle but Dracula will do whatever it takes to remain there even if it means making the new couple partners.

After a while I soon realized that Blood of Dracula's Castle is to Al Adamson what Jail Bait was to Ed Wood and that is the director's best made film, which means we aren't going to get as many laughs that we might expect. I was also disappointed to see John Carradine wasn't making a return to Dracula but even with that the film is campy enough to enjoy on many levels but just don't expect the goodness of say Dracula vs. Frankenstein.

The biggest flaw with the film is that Dracula and his wife just aren't very interesting and they're overshadowed by Carradine, the hunchback assistant and the werewolf, who never actually transforms. Perhaps Adamson was wanting to make a straight and serious film and while doing that, this one here comes off a bit boring and never reaches its potential of becoming an outrageously funny film. The silly music score and wooden acting brings some charm and minor laughs as done Carradine who chews up the scenery like he always does. But again, what in the hell was Adamson thinking not using the great as Dracula? It's also interesting to note that the cinematographer was Laszlo Kovacs who would later go on to do Easy Rider, Targets, Paper Moon, Shampoo and more recently doing a couple Sandra Bullock films.

Yet another shlockfest on good ole Millcreek's 200 drive in cult cinema box set.

What is there to say. Mr and Mrs. Dracula kidnap young ladies for their blood. With the help on a butler, a psychopath and friendly old Mango.

Enter a photographer and his fiancé model who inherit the castle in which the vampires live.

Not much to get excited about here. The song at the beginning is catchy and it is well made but that is about all.

I didn't regret watching it.

1966's "Blood of Dracula's Castle" was not Al Adamson's debut behind the camera but was the first to achieve wide distribution, picked up in early 1969 by Crown International Pictures with Cameron Mitchell's "Nightmare in Wax" since both were attached to producer Rex Carlton, a May 1968 suicide (both duly included among the 16 Crown titles in Gold Key's Scream Theater television package). Losing this potential money spinner was enough for Adamson and new partner Samuel M. Sherman to form their own company, Independent-International Pictures Corporation, at just the right moment when his unissued backlog already included "Five Bloody Graves," "Blood of Ghastly Horror," "Horror of the Blood Monsters," "Hell's Bloody Devils," and his most recent opus "Satan's Sadists," successes that launched both men into a decade long career of pure hustling showmanship. This was the director's very first collaboration with John Carradine (6 more to follow), its completion in Aug. 1966 confirmed by a shot of the date on a telegram, well before the November shoot for its theatrical cofeature. Promotional gimmicks would abound to lower costs, such as hiring Colonel Harland Sanders for a cameo to provide free chicken for one film shoot, Marineland receiving an early plug here, following the lengthy opening drive featuring session player and recording artist Gil Bernal rendering "The Next Train Out" a year before receiving an Academy Award nomination for his theme from Universal's 1967 release "Banning." The real coup on this picture was securing permission to use a genuine desert location 70 miles north of Hollywood owned by Walter Gaynor, Shea's Castle or Sky Castle still located in Lancaster with its own airstrip for small planes (built in 1924, it remains a private residence). Sherman was delighted to secure the services of top billed Carradine (interiors filmed at the same Ray Dorn studios where he had just finished "Gallery of Horror"), then dismayed to find him cast as butler George rather than Dracula, played by a decidedly unmenacing Alex D'Arcy, Paula Raymond ("The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms," "Hand of Death") replacing Jayne Mansfield as the Countess, Rex Carlton's feeble script allowing for little but camp performances. Robert Dix's psychotic excon was the subject for new additions shot only for the expanded TV version, 7 minutes of silent footage accompanied only by electronic music and heavy breathing, endless outdoor running as his character suddenly becomes a werewolf in cheap Don Post head mask that could be worn by anyone, a lone female extra to be chased if not chaste. With over 17 minutes screen time, Carradine brings an enviable level of seriousness to the silliness, though not above a sardonic remark here and there, essentially present for exposition and the need to provide nubile female sacrifices to 'the great god Luna of the moon,' severely depleting the stock of human blood in the dungeon as the girls get to check in yet never check out. There's the germ of a good idea floating around with vampires growing accustomed to modern life by having their nourishing blood served up in a glass, a cozy domesticity perhaps inspired by THE MUNSTERS, in which Carradine twice played the role of Fred Gwynne's employer at the mortuary of Gateman, Goodbury and Graves.