Blood of Dracula's Castle

Like many of the movies I've been writing reviews for, Blood of Dracula's Castle is part of a twelve movie boxed set from Mill Creek, a company that deals in very cheap (and sometimes public domain) films. The transfer isn't great. In fact, when I first started watching this, the screen was so completely covered with green lines (from wear) that it reminded me of The Matrix. Personally, though, I believe this adds to the aesthetic of the movie; something about the apparent age of the film makes it that much more enjoyable to watch.

In some ways, this movie reminds me a bit of a 60's version of The Addams Family, as it features a sophisticated, middle-aged couple that lives in a rented castle and are quite open about their vampirism (or their being "the living dead," to be grammatically correct). In addition to a standard manservant (George, played by the great John Carradine), they also keep around an orange-skinned feral guy named Mango around, who roams the surrounding wilderness, hunting and capturing the bikini-clad young women who, for some reason, seem to be in abundant supply in this area. The young hotties are collected and contained in a dungeon, where they are harvested for their blood. Occasionally the charming vampire couple also let Mango have one of the babes for his own purposes, which are thankfully never shown or fully described. They also have a younger friend, Johnny, who is an open and quite charming serial killer who goes nuts when the moon is full.

Enter into the picture a young couple, the incredibly condescending Glen and his fiancé Liz. They enter the scene because Glen has inherited the castle from some relative, and the two stumble around in a manner not unlike Scooby-Doo and the gang, slowly discovering the danger that surrounds them. It's actually very cute, in a campy sort of way. The dialog between the spooky castle residents and the innocent young couple is so corny, it could have been penned by Ed Wood himself.

Okay, so the whole premise of this flick doesn't make a lick of sense. And the print the DVD was made from is terrible. And the crazy man-beast that everyone keeps talking about is named after a tropical fruit which does, of course, prevent him from ever being taken as a serious threat to anyone. It doesn't matter. What matters is this is good, cheesy fun for the whole family, if your whole family is plenty drunk.

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.

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

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.

This movie opens with a woman (Vicki Volante, a Joan Baez lookalike) driving along listening to her car radio. The song, "The Next Train Out" is so catchy I went around singing it for days after I had first seen this movie. Amazingly John Carradine does not play Count Dracula, even though he had recently done the role in "One Shot" Beaudine's BILLY THE KID VS. Dracula in 1966; he is George the family butler. Dracula is played by Egyptian actor Alex D'Arcy whom you can also see in HORRORS OF SPIDER ISLAND and FANNY HILL. Countess Dracula is Paula Raymond who costarred in BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS and the newly rediscovered HAND OF DEATH. It seems everyone has relationship problems eventually and after 400+ years Dracula has been reduced to the henpecked husband of a domineering wife! (Hmmmm, maybe that is why John did not want to play The Count this time.)

Hiding behind the names Count and Countess Townsend the vampires live in a castle in the Arizona desert. Victims (all of them female of course) are brought to them by their cretinous henchman Mango (just where do movie villains go to finds all these hunchbacked lumbering brutes that scary movies seem to abound in?) and drained of their blood by George. They drink blood from martini glasses and wonder if they will ever be accepted in polite society. The Draculas have also got religion in this film. Thanks to George they are devoted worshipers of the Great God Luna and occasionally burn a victim alive at the stake as a sacrifice to him(her? it?).

When the new owner of the castle (Gene O'Shane) turns up with his fiancée (Barbara Bishop) the Unholy Three (I'm not counting Mango among the conspirators) try to get him to sell the castle. When he refuses all Heck breaks loose . . . well, as much as director Al Adamson's budget will allow!

Watch for Robert Dix, son of silent film leading man Richard Dix, playing family friend Johnny. He is usually a likable guy but when the moon turns full he becomes a psycho killer. TV prints splice in a quick shot of some guy wearing a Don Post werewolf mask in an attempt to make the plot more interesting but theatrical prints do not have this embelishment. Robert also appears in FORBIDDEN PLANET and FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER.

63 year old John Carradine looks younger than his years with his hair dyed black once again. He even does his own stunts for his death scene. Speaking of death scenes, Mango (Ray Young) goes through enough to kill 10 men; shot, hit with an axe and set on fire he just keeps coming back! Whew!

Is this film a classic? Gosh no! But it IS a lot of fun! Just seeing Long John stomping around a dusty old castle like it was still the 1940's at Universal makes it worthwhile. Besides, you just might find yourself singing along with "The Next Train Out" after more than one viewing.