Blood of Dracula's Castle (1969)

Overrated and overhyped

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

A Masterpiece!

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Glen Cannon (Gene Otis Shayne) is a photographer, Liz Arden (Jennifer Bishop) his model girlfriend. Glen receives word that he has an inherited a desert castle. They travel to the place to look it over and meet the long time occupants: a couple named the "Townsends", Charles (Alexander D'Arcy), and his wife the Countess (Paula Raymond). These two like their drinks fresh, red, and drained from the bodies of nubile young women, whom they keep chained up in their cellar. Also on the premises are a dedicated butler, George (John Carradine), and a big ugly brute named Mango (Ray Young). And on the way there is Johnny (Robert Dix), a young friend of the sophisticated old couple who grows hair and fangs every full moon."Blood of Dracula's Castle" is mildly amusing as far as this kind of schlock goes. Director Al Adamson churned out a lot of low budget genre efforts like this one, and they never really get any better in quality, but they're always entertaining in a blatantly silly way. The actors perform with their best poker faces, never winking at the audience and taking this low rent material as seriously as it can be taken. As one can see, the screenwriter, Rex Carlton, was throwing all kinds of ideas at the wall to see what would stick, and the movie delivers in a purely dumb, exploitative way. Johnny, in particular, just can't help himself. Even when the law is pursuing him and nipping at his heels, he stops long enough to drown a buxom young babe. It's also a hoot to watch Mango in action, as it doesn't matter what you do to him. Set him on fire, shoot him multiple times, he just keeps coming.The ladies on hand - also among them is Vicki Volante as unlucky motorist Ann - are very attractive. Carradine is a welcome presence as always. D'Arcy is an especially entertaining villain because he's just so damn pleasant and cheerful. The same goes for the generally upbeat Dix. John 'Bud' Cardos rounds out the assortment of Adamson regulars as an ill fated prison guard.This is definitely good for some laughs if one wants to have a "bad movie night".Five out of 10.

When photographer Glen Cannon (Gene O'Shane) inherits an old castle, he decides to move in, along with his wife-to-be, bikini model Liz Arden (Barbara Bishop). Unfortunately, the property is currently occupied by Mr. & Mrs. Dracula (Alexander D'Arcy and Paula Raymond), their loyal butler George (John Carradine), a hulking caretaker called Mango (Ray Young), and an escaped killer named Johnny (Robert Dix), who may or may not be a werewolf—and they don't want to leave (not surprising considering the trouble they've gone to stocking their cellar with sexy young women as unwilling blood donors).Located in the middle of the Californian desert lies Shea's Castle, a faux-medieval monstrosity constructed in 1924 by a developer with far more cash than class; an unbelievably kitschy creation, the building proves the ideal locale for Blood of Dracula's Castle (1969), a tacky and tasteless piece of schlock from z-movie director Al Adamson that boasts an awful script, hammy performances, and dreadful dialogue, but which possesses a goofy charm that makes it hard to dismiss entirely.However, despite Adamson's rather tongue-in-cheek approach to the majority of the morbidity, and a general lack of concern for logic (the castle, surrounded by desert, is only a stone's throw from a beach!), there is also a noticeably mean streak that delivers several unexpectedly nasty moments, a few characters meeting surprisingly cruel fates, something that qualifies the film as more of a genuine horror experience than one might reasonably expect.

You can't expect much out of those combo packs of public domain movies that were generally crap when originally released and still crap decades later when repackaged. The quality of the transfer to DVD is very bad, mine had vertical green lines dancing across the screen. As expected the acting and effects are what you would expect for a b- movie. Yes Dracula and his bride are in the movie but they have no fangs and look like they are going to an eternal dinner party. Man-go, who subs as an Igor type character, the butler- menacingly named George and a psycho named Johnny are the real mayhem makers abducting young women for their blood. I thought the heroes (a smart aleck photographer and his model squeeze) were duds and didn't really escape the clutches of a lame band of villains.

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.