Blood of Dracula's Castle (1969) User Reviews

Fun-filled schlocksterpiece

[capkronos · 4/10 · 12 December 2005]

Considered the worst vampire movie ever made by many (nah!), this Al Adamson bomb is nonetheless chock full of laughs and tacky entertainment value. Mr. and Mrs. Dracula (Egyptian born schlock star Alexander D'Arcy and Paula Raymond) disguise themselves as the Count and Countess Townsend and are living it up in Falcon Rock; RENTING a secluded castle located in the middle of what appears to be a desert (a great place to avoid the sunlight, eh?). The castle comes complete with the usuals... lavish rooms, coffin-filled bedroom chamber, candles, a large dungeon, a pool table (?!) and two faithful employees who have to do ALL the dirty work as the bloodsucking duo lounge around spouting their insipid dialog. The two servants are a hulking, facially-scarred, hunchback retard named Mango (Ray Young) and a slack-eyed butler named George (John Carradine), who worships the "great God Luna." Mango kidnaps beautiful girls (because, of course, the blood of 'beautiful young women' always tastes the best), takes them to the dungeon and chains them to the wall as a sort-of personal live-in blood bank. George uses a huge syringe to extract blood from victims and serves it up as cocktails to Dracula and wife.

The most recent addition to the harem is Ann (Vicki Volante, a star of many other Adamson movies), who has a bad habit of passing out whenever the going gets tough... a problem that got her dumb ass abducted in the first damn place. She screams her head off when a rat gets within ten feet of her, has a tarantula crawl on her dress and may end up being the chief sacrifice to Carradine's Moon Cult (yes, there is also some kind of black magic mumbo jumbo going on here). There are a few other prisoners as well; two or three other ladies in ripped-up dresses whose expressions never change despite what is going on around them. When one of those ladies is all used up, Mango is given permission to drag her off into a dark corner of the dungeon (hmm... For what, I wonder?) This comfy living situation is threatened when the owner of the castle dies, leaving the place to a favorite nephew (Gene O'Shane), who wants to boot them out and move in there with his fast-track fiancé Liz Arden (Barbara Bishop). Liz is a model and aspiring "Universal Magazine" cover girl, who will end up having more problems to deal with than being upstaged in her saggy bikini bottoms by dolphins, seals and a flipper-chewing walrus while at Sea World.

And as if that isn't enough... There's this family friend named Johnny Davenport (Robert Dix), who has just bought his way out of prison. Get this... A guard accepts five thousand dollars to let Johnny out. But to make it look more convincing, the guard actually turns around and allows this convicted mass murderer to knock him unconscious! So, not surprisingly, instead of just laying him out, Johnny just beats the guy to death before taking off! BEFORE even making it to the castle, Johnny has a fun-filled day of murder and mayhem. He's chased by a posse with dogs, drowns a woman in a polka-dot bikini under a waterfall, bashes an old man over the head with a rock, shoots a hitchhiker in the face with a rifle and wrecks a stolen car over a cliff. And all this before he even arrives in the castle. There is mention of Johnny being a werewolf, but there are no make-up effects to convey it.

When Liz and Glen arrive at the castle, they sleep in separate bedrooms. And when she hears one of the women downstairs screaming, he comforts her by saying "I think it's probably someone using an electric tooth brush that just got short circuited." (??) After an encounter with Mango, the two find themselves prisoners in the dungeon as well, but they manage to escape after being forced to perform in a black magic ceremony. During a struggle with Johnny over the gun, Glen aims the gun way off target, but ends up pulling the trigger and shooting Johnny in the stomach. Carradine falls down a flight of stairs and attacks with a whip. Will Liz, Glen and the imprisoned lovelies escape with their lives? Does this entire film seem like an odd extended dirty metaphor for the joys of S&M? Also in the cast are future director John "Bud" Cardos (who was also the production manager) and Ken/Kenny/Kent Osborne (who also did the make-up). It was shot by "Leslie" (Lazslo) Kovacs, who also worked with Ray Dennis Steckler before becoming a respected Hollywood cinematographer, so you know this movie looks pretty good. Gil Bernal performs the non-hit single "The Next Train Out." I've seen the production year on this film frequently listed as 1967, but according to the original credits it is 1969.

Not the "worst vampire movie ever made..." It's Grade A schlock! But going by the rules of normal film review, I am unable to award this one any better than 3/10. General entertainment value is around 7/10.

"You Have Had the Misfortune of Encountering Mango"

[BaronBl00d · 4/10 · 12 November 2005]

No doubt about it. This film is very bad - very, very bad. But it, as other viewers have noted, is also a very watchable and fun bad movie. Alex D'Arcy and Paula Raymond play Count and Countess Dracula. They live in a castle in the middle of the Californian desert where their servants collect wandering beauties for the blood they can supply the vampires and as eventual sacrifices for the god Luna or Mango, a hideously deformed hunchbacked mute, to use in his bed. I'm sure either way they are crushed - or fired up at the very least. John Carradine lends his name cachet as George the family retainer, and for Carradine he gives a restrained performance mostly. He spouts lines with the best making the most out of any old tripe. D'Arcy looks way too sensitive and weak to play Dracula. He almost appears to lisp. Raymond isn't much better as both look like they just got back from watching polo. Along for the ride in the family way is Johnny, played by Robert Dix the son of Richard Dix, who just escapes from prison and enjoys killing anything that moves. Just getting to the castle he kills one guard, a beauty swimming by herself in a stream, shoots a man trying to hitch a ride, and then drives a car over a deep cavern cliff with its owner recovering from a blow in the backseat. He says several times in the movie that when the moon comes out he gets a desire to kill...hmmmm. Anyway, this film is a real hoot for fans of le bad cinema. It has hokey dialog like Carradine's opening line to a girl being carried in on the back of Mango from the opening sequence(with a very catchy tune playing as another reviewer noted). He looks deadly serious and then says, "You have had the misfortune of encountering Mango." He then takes a blood sample. She looks disinterested and then, as if on cue, breaks down. At least she had her looks going for her. The two main leads are played by...like it really matters. One is a beautiful woman with her dolt of a fiancée seeing the castle as property they just inherited. You can guess where the story goes from there. Some bright spots of incompetence or interest include the death scene for Mango - wow! I never thought he would die. Johnny gleefully laughing as he murders. The chained blood bank in the basement. Ms. Bishop in a two-piece at Sea World. Carradine spouting his loyalty to the moon god Luna. And my favourite - the end of D'Arcy and Raymond in what has to be the most passive end to Count Dracula. This film, as I said before, is very bad, but if you like fun bad movies then this one is for you. It was directed by Al Adamson, and almost all his movies are real bad but almost all are very enjoyable. That cannot be said for everyone to be sure.

It's Creepy and It's Kooky

[Navajas · 5/10 · 9 October 2010]

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.

I Do Love A Good Stinky Cheese

[Scott_Mercer · 1 November 2004]

A stinky, horrible, ghastly piece of cheese! (To quote the gnome statue in those television commercials for an intenet travel site.) Now that this horror is available for cheap-o prices, I would recommend it for bad film fans. Bad acting, cheap sets and leaden pacing abound. John Carradine is always fun to watch, no matter how bad the movie he is in, and he did many, many stinkers of Z-grade budgets. Probably my favorite part is the gratuitous opening scene which shows nice footage of Marineland in Los Angeles (Rancho Palos Verdes, I believe) closed and torn down decades ago. There was also some nice cinematography; I noted the scene where the robed, torch-bearing figures trudge across the beach in the moonlight. Nice image.

This film had exteriors shot mainly at Scotty's Castle (I think) in Death Valley, hundreds of miles from the ocean. But, through the magic of editing, it appears to be about a mile from the beach!

This movie is part of the Horrible Horrors Volume 2 Box Set from Rhino, eight bad horror movies for only $25 retail (about $18 street!)! Worth the freight for fans of cheesy, crusty, musty, dusty, horror flicks.

silly fangless 1960s Dracula movie

[FieCrier · 3/10 · 12 July 2005]

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.

Lifestyles of the rich and undead

[cerealmon · 4/10 · 20 July 2019]

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.

A rare watchable Al Adamson film

[dbborroughs · 3/10 · 18 August 2007]

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

3rd rate horror movie that is somehow strangely watchable.

[lemon_magic · 4/10 · 21 October 2010]

So there I am, watching the opening moments of what obviously is going to be a clunky mish-mash of horror movie clichés (complete with John Carradine), when the Count finally makes an appearance, and Oh My God, it's "Bob Boxbody", (Alex D'Arcy) the actor from "Horrors Of Spider Island" (thanks to Mike Nelson and the robots from MST3K)!! And there's "Johnny", the poor guy from some crappy Frankenstein film, and of course, John Carridine himself.

Here's the kind of movie it is: for almost the entire duration of the movie, there are three women chained up on the wall in the "dungeon" and two of them (the extras) never get a single line, poor things. They're just there as window dressing. (Actually, I tell a lie - one of them gets to yell "LOOK OUT" to the hero at the climactic struggle near the end. She's terrible.)

And yet, in spite of the whole "women in chains" and "vampires feasting on the blood of young virgins" theme, and in spite of the fact that the movie wastes nearly 10 minutes watching Johnny kill various people as he evades a manhunt after his escape from prison,the movie is somehow bemused and kind of softened and gentle around the edges. I think this is mostly because the Count and his bride are depicted her as being quite genteel and decorous in their habits, and so there is less of the usual sense of relish and glee in the suffering of the young victims that most movies of this type rely on. Instead,it's all got a feeling of "Well, sorry about this, but we need our morning livener, after all. George, would you do the honors?"

It also helps that the heroic young couple who get caught up in the events in the castle are likable and attractive in a grainy 70 film stock kind of way.There are even some amusing war-of-the-sexes lines of dialog scattered here and there. And while the couple may be pretty dumb, they are portrayed as being happy and proud to be with each other.

Anyway, if you watch this one hoping to be frightened, or titillated, you'll probably be disappointed. But there are worse ways to warm up for Halloween.

rigor mortis sets in

[jonathan-577 · 2/10 · 7 June 2007]

It's funny. Either this movie comes in waves or it was a victim of some serious mood swings on my behalf. For the entire first act it's all blah, blah, blah, and Siue made me turn it off after twenty minutes because nothing was happening. I put it on again when I got home, and suddenly the endless dialogue was entertainingly goofball, the plot started to move a bit, and the general air of regional-theatre rigor mortis took on a certain charm. Then suddenly it looks like things are going to get ugly and sadistic a la Herschel Gordon Lewis, and I got icked out watching it. Then of course, the stupid ending. Highly recommended to Ted V. Mikels fans.

Dracula the Diva

[bensonmum2 · 4/10 · 29 July 2005]

• A young couple is overjoyed to discover they've inherited a castle and plan to move in right away. But first, they'll have to evict the elderly couple who have been renting the place for 60 years. What the young couple doesn't know is that this is no ordinary elderly couple. It's actually Count and Countess Dracula.

• How can a movie with Dracula, a giant hunchback named Mango (no, not that Mango), a serial killer named Johnny who is especially vicious when the moon is full, a crazed butler named George (played by John Carradine) who rants on and on about the Great God Luna, a dungeon full of women chained to the walls, and ceremonial sacrifices be bad? Well, this is Al Adamson we're talking about, so of course it's bad. For the most part it's just a hodge-podge of unrelated ideas thrown together whether it makes any sense or not. There's too much going on.

• And take the decision to have the Count and Countess Dracula behave like wannabe divas. In Blood of Dracula's Castle, Dracula can't even be bothered to get his own blood. He has George and Mango draw the blood from the women in the dungeon with a syringe and serve it to him and the Mrs. in wine glasses. What is this, Lifestyles of the Rich and Dead?

• Almost every aspect of Blood of Dracula's Castle is bad. The acting is horrendous. Alexander D'Arcy is the worst Dracula I believe I've ever seen. Name anyone else who ever played Dracula and I assure you they were more convincing. Also, the movie is a technical mess. The editing is incredibly sloppy. The girls in the dungeon are kidnapped in a lush forest. Yet every shot of the castle shows it to be in the middle of a vast desert. How is that possible? The sets are cheap. In one scene George is closing the lid of a coffin and it almost falls off. The continuity is terrible. Shoes appear and disappear from one scene to the next. And it goes on and on and on...

• With all that being said, the movie is not without a certain charm and some funny moments. Whether the movie was meant to be intentionally funny or not, it is. Much of it is entertaining in that "so bad it's good" sort of way. If you're into cheese filled 70s movies, you might some entertainment in this one.

Gothic horror, Californian style.

[BA_Harrison · 5/10 · 10 February 2013]

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.

Classic Americana

[Steve_Nyland · 9/10 · 21 November 2009]

My overblown rating for this is due to nostalgia value: this is one of the first horror movies I can ever remember seeing and is close to my heart in a way that is more fitting for a record album than a movie. I've gotten to know every cadence and beat, line of dialog, musical cue and gesture. This film has been a part of my life, thanks in part by how clever local TV programming directors back in the 1970s would often produce their own weekly Creature Feature Monster Movie Matinée horror movie block.

For some reason this one got around a bit more than others, I was familiar with it from a very young age and we'd get it two or three times a year, right along with "The Black Cat" (1934), "Conqueror Worm" (1968), "Count Dracula" (1970). This one was the vampire movies with the big hunchback, and my greatest intrigue as a kid was to wonder just what was inside of Mango's little house underneath the paper mache stairs. I still wonder about it sometimes.

The film is a classic study of American kitsch, so delightfully out of step with the Haight-Ashbury influenced psychedelia years during which it was produced (1967) and ultimately released (1969) to what must have been baffled audiences. Al Adamson movies are always a matter of acquired taste but I know people who remember seeing this film whenever describing the scene where the guy pushes the car over the cliff and walks away munching on a sandwich.

Its somewhat ineptly made but all of it endearing, right down to the confusing issue of whether Robert Dix's Johnny is a werewolf or not. He is in the expanded television print* and I remember seeing it once or twice, though as far as I am concerned its even more fun with him just being a maniac who gets riled up during the full moon.

And this is John Carradine as I will always remember him, George the Butler, a practicing Satanist (or whatever he practices) who brings his employers chilled Bloody Mary's with real blood promptly at 4:30, and never forgets the need to reward Mango for bringing them fresh girls. The rewarding Mango scene is the highlight of the movie for me. You can't help but wonder what he'd do to a girl if he got one, and it ain't pretty.

The movie deserves a better reputation than its gotten. It's not THAT bad, and there's some actual talent involved with the production in the form of cinematographer Lazlo Kovaks and "Star Trek" contributor Jerome Wexler amongst the production staff. They even shot some of the outdoor sequences by the same rock where Captain Kirk fought the Gorn. Golly!

One curious thing that always impressed me about the movie is how it makes this little community of monsters living in the desert just south of Malibu seem so normal and contented. Sure, Mango is a big shuffling grunting cannibalistic muto, but by golly he has a place here in this household and people who care about him. By contrast, the young couple who inherit the castle come across as shrill, shallow, narcissistic idiots who wish to heartlessly break up the happy nucleus. It appears that what Mr. Adamson was saying is that the monsters are us.

9/10

Dracula, the henpecked husband.

[reptilicus · 6/10 · 29 December 2004]

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.

Watchable If You Like The Older B-Style Horror Films

[Rainey-Dawn · 5/10 · 17 April 2016]

This is by far not the worst vampire or Dracula movie on the market but it is nowhere near the best - it's middle ground at best. It's not a film I would recommend to vampire and horror movie fans but it is not one I would say it's just so awful that you should stay clear of - I'll tell you it's so-so or okay.

John Carradine had a fairly decent role as George - the butler. He got ample screen time which I really like. The character George is the butler and caretaker of Count Dracula aka Count Townsend and his Countess. George was saved by the Count from hanging and is forever the Count's loyal servant.

The Count and his bride has come across a newer, less vile way to drink the blood of their victims - which they prefer. The young women being held hostage are drained via needle so the Count and his bride drink the blood as human drink wine.

There is a very violent criminal named Johnny who escapes prison and runs to see his old "pal" George and the Count. He joins them in helping to get fresh blood (victims) for the Count and his bride.

The is also a very strange man in the castle that helps the Count named Mango. He is there to help make sacrifices to the evil God Luna.

Enter Glen and Liz enter, the story becomes kinda boring and draggy but they will "save the day".

Overall an OK watch - not a film that is memorable, impressionable but kinda campy fun in its way.

5/10

D'ARCY and RAYMOND, CARRADINE looking like death

[silentgmusic · 29 August 2002]

Anyone looking for a fittingly horrendous Al Adamson film, look no further. While this film is not the usual paste-up job that Adamson specialized in, BLOOD OF DRACULA'S CASTLE is pure bad cinema, which is Adamson's true field.

D'Arcy and Raymond play Mr. and Mrs. Dracula, looking stiff and embarrassed (who can blame them?) The Draculas feed on the blood of the young women they have chained in their dungeon (including Adamson regular Vicki Volante). Carradine plays the Dracula's butler, a wasted opportunity for this horror screen legend to do his Dracula bit (get the pun?) A psycho shows up at the castle, and a stupid couple stay there.

BLOOD is boring, with only a few laughs produced from the bad acting and flimsy-looking props. Adamson made more hilarious films than this (like DRACULA VS FRANKENSTEIN), and it was unintentional (of course). Adamson, however, deserves the credit to having gotten anything on film for the tight budgets he was given.

Still, BLOOD is bad, and more mediocre than entertaining.

Vampires with pretty girls in the dungeon.

[michaelRokeefe · 3/10 · 30 June 2012]

Very low-budget horror film directed by Al Adamson. This familiar story revolves around a playboy photographer Glen Cannon(Gene O'Shane),who inherits a castle in the middle of a California desert. When he and his photogenic fiancée Liz(Barbara Bishop)travel to claim the property, they find the current residents are Count Charles Townsend(Alexander D'Arcy), alias Count Dracula and his vampire bride(Paula Raymond). As Glen and Liz spend the night they realize something is amiss...abducted teenage girls chained in the dungeon in order to provide sustenance for the Count and Countess. Veteran actor John Carradine plays George the butler. A bit eerie. but very little gore or scares. Also in the cast: Robert Dix, Ray Young and Vicki Volante.

John Carradine's first collaboration with director Al Adamson

[kevinolzak · 3/10 · 30 December 2020]

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.

Bad, Dull and Dreary

[Space_Mafune · 3/10 · 8 December 2003]

In order to provide blood for a vampire couple, an evil butler named George (John Carradine) has his monstrous henchman Mango (Ray Young) abduct young girls and chain them up in the cellar! Eventually this bizarre family of freaks are joined by a serial killer named Johnny (Robert Dix) who they are sure will spice things up around the place.

A young engaged couple are unlucky enough to inherit the castle this bunch of psychotic weirdos inhabit and wind up prisoners as well.

I'm not to going to lie to you. This is a BAD movie with BAD in capitalization. It's dull, dreary, poorly acted and written and has what are probably the two most ineffective vampires in history (even though one is supposed to Count Dracula?!).

So why do I have this in my collection. Well it's a guilty pleasure of mine that I have a weakness for bad movies and well this I recorded out of curiosity due to Al Adamson's involvement with it..most bad movie fans will know who Adamson is (the man who directed DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN amongst others). Even in terms of Adamson's offerings, this is poor in comparison. John Carradine never had it so bad and seems embarrassed in this film.

Still I keep it in my collection bizarrely enough digging it out to watch on occasion. I really have no idea why beyond saying perhaps it's due to the weirdness of this movie.

Blood of Dracula's Castle

[Scarecrow-88 · 3/10 · 2 November 2009]

A photographer, Glen Cannon(Gene Otis Shayne) learns that his recently deceased uncle left him a California desert castle so he and fiancé model, Liz(Jennifer Bishop) take a trip there to check it out. A vampire couple, Count and Countess Townsend(Alexander D'Arcy & Paula Raymond) make their residence there and have a fresh supply of victims in the dungeon of the castle, chained to the walls by their massive dumb brute slave, Mango(Ray Young) and evil butler, George(John Carradine). Soon joining this wicked brood is a psychopath, Johnny(Robert Dix), having escaped from prison, who believes he kills at the urging of the full moon. Sufficed to say, Glen and Liz are in for a rude awakening when they visit, planning to break the news to the current residents that they will be occupying the castle once married..let's just say that the Townsends have other plans.

Well, the story is coherent and the script(..penned by Rex Carlton, who not long after committed suicide)tongue-in-cheek(..and, to the cast's credit, well veterans Carradine, D'Arcy & Raymond, anyway, they quite understand what kind of hokey material they're dealing with). The castle sets(..particularly the walls)are crummy, but the exterior California location is rather attractive. While you will read about how this film was shot by well respected cinematographer László Kovács, there's really nothing much here, except a moody nighttime sequence where the Townsends and George sacrifice a female motorist, whose car broke down, to their moon god, Luna, by burning her alive while tied to a stake. I found most of this movie rather plodding and dull, accompanied by an overbearing score which attempts to ape the classic Universal pictures. B-movie director, John Bud Cardos(Mutant)was production manager and had a brief cameo of a prison guard pummeled to death by Johnny. Dix relishes his part as the nutjob with a devilish grin, with one memorable scene where he sends a stolen car(..containing the driver he knocked unconscious with a large stone)over a mountainous cliff while gleefully laughing as the man trapped inside screams in horror. There's this completely obligatory scene where Dix murders a girl in a bikini, by drowning her near a waterfall, while running from police and their hunting dogs. Hilarious effects mishap at the end where an ax is buried into the back of a villain and it's visible that the weapon is stuck into a plank-board just hidden on the inside of the person's shirt. I'm guessing Dracula's name was merely used to distribute the movie into more drive-ins. My favorite scene is early on as the Townsends and George celebrate "good blood" from a recently kidnapped victim.

At the Very Least, Needs a Better Transfer

[gavin6942 · 3/10 · 18 October 2010]

A young couple inherits an old castle but finds it already inhabited by a crusty butler, an obsessed killer and a couple of vampires, who kidnap and sacrifice young girls in order to live on.

The Mill Creek version has absolutely one of the worst prints possible... finding a better one would improve this film fivefold. It might still be campy, but at least it would be watchable.

It starts out happy, silly, with 1960s music, at some place called Marineland... just sort of doesn't set the mood at all. And despite some half-baked attempts to claim otherwise, this film has nothing to do with Dracula. And then there's either the interesting or silly idea that blood is "vintage" wine.

Director Al Adamson is known for his "grade z" exploitation films, using actors who once had real careers (in this case, John Carradine). He also reuses footage, and I'm not surprised at all if that was done here (though it would be minor).

The police dogs chasing the killer... when does it ever get to the point? That dragged on for a while... and the film finally picks up a bit in the third act. But by then, there's no saving it.

My Review Of "Blood Of Dracula's Castle"

[ASouthernHorrorFan · 3/10 · 7 May 2014]

"Blood Of Dracula's Castle" is a 1969 film from Crown International Pictures directed by Al Adamson, and Jean Hewitt. The story takes place at the castle of Count and Countess Townsend, really Count Dracula and his wife. They lure a young women to their home for a continued blood supply. When a young man inherits the castle and appears with his young girlfriend the Count and Countess set out to chase away the couple.

The story of "Blood Of Dracula's Castle" is a bit of a train wreck with very little true attention paid to detail as the story falls apart. John Carradine, Paula Raymond, Alexander D'Arcy, Robert Dix, Gene Otis Shayne, Jennifer Bishop and Ray Young all star in the film which gives a nice nostalgia for some of us when watching "Blood Of Dracula's Castle" but not enough to really warrant any fan's of Dracula's to embrace the film completely. Dracula and his wife are practically neutered and remind me of the time the Flintstone's met Count Dracula. The addition of Mango, and a homicidal maniac to the film should have brought with them more blood but the only red that flows in this film mostly languishes in the glasses of Count and Countess Townsend. All this makes for a dull viewing experience.

The effects and soundtrack for "Blood Of Dracula's Castle" are also neutered in this one. For a film that claims to be exploitation horror I found no real show of exploitation save the bevvy of beauties chained to the castle wall. The deaths are almost none-existent and for the most part implied so I don't get the exploitative aspect branded to this film. The sound is very 1969 cheap-o that screams love-me-late-night- horror-host so there is no real reason to even bother with addressing that element of "Blood Of Dracula". Embrace this one if you wanna, I justify having it by my unending love of even crappy old movies and John Carradine. New horror fans just no that this is a 1969 Hammer film wanna be so don't expect much of anything here.

Enjoyable Grade Z clunker

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 6 August 2012]

Photographer Glen Cannon (amiable Gene Otis Shayne) and model Liz Arden (gorgeous brunette hottie Jennifer Bishop) are a young couple who inherit an old castle. They discover much to their horror that the place is already inhabited by crazy butler George (the ubiquitous John Carrandine in peak gloriously cranky form), classy vampire couple Count Dracula (suave Alexander D'Arcy) and Countess Townsend (elegant Paula Raymond), escaped lunatic Johnny (an amusingly unhinged portrayal by Robert Dix), who's really a werewolf (!); and grunting simpleton hunchback Mango (hulking behemoth Ray Young), who kidnaps young gals for the monsters to sacrifice so they can all live forever. Boy, does this hysterically cruddy clinker possess all the right wrong stuff to qualify as a real four-star stinkeroonie: the hopelessly ham-fisted (mis)directed by the notorious Al Adamson, a seriously confused and meandering narrative, the hilariously atrocious acting, a talky script, the rusty tin-eared dialogue ("I Love you dearly, dear"), the complete absence of any tension and creepy atmosphere, a plodding place, the tacky (far from) special effects, the roaring stock film library score, the clumsy attempts at humor, and the limply staged less-than-thrilling grand finale all give this perfectly putrid picture a certain endearingly kitschy charm. Laszlo Kovacs' vibrant color cinematography makes this movie look much better than it deserves. The groovy opening credits theme song "The Next Train Out" hits the swinging spot. A real schlocky hoot.

Blood Of Dracula's Castle

[a_baron · 6/10 · 8 October 2017]

There are castles in the United States, but not many, and even fewer that are homes to vampires, in this case The Vampire himself. There is a bit of a twist here because Count Dracula - who is using a different name - has a wife. They are living happily undead forever after until they experience a major glitch; they don't actually own their castle, and when the elderly owner dies, he leaves it to his nephew, a photographer whose future wife insists on living there, and that in spite of the isolation, apart from the bats in the attic and the rats in the cellar.

There are also three mortal bad guys in the shape of the faithful butler, the servant, and an escaped psychopath who murders no fewer than three people on his way to the castle to meet up with the undead who had promised him eternal life. Then there is the little matter of the shackled damsels keeping the rats company in the cellar. Oh yeah, and vampires worship the Moon.

There were snatches of humour early on, and the film would have played out better as a black comedy, but if you don't take it too seriously, there are worse things to do on a Tuesday night, like watching UK soap operas.

Not 100% terrible.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 26 July 2021]

"Blood of Dracula's Castle" is a terrible movie. But, for an Al Adamson film, it really is amazingly good! After all, he's the same auteur who brought the world crap like "Dracula Versus Frankenstein", "Blood of Ghastly Horror", "Horror of the Blood Monsters", and "Hell's Bloody Devils"...all films which I rated a 1 some time ago! I enjoy laughing at Adamson's films, so when I found "Blood of Dracula's Castle", I decided to give it a watch...although I actually ended up seeing "Dracula's Castle"...which included a bit of additional footage...sort of like a Director's Cut!

A man inherits a castle in California and learns that there are renters there. The renters turn out to be Mr. And Mrs. Dracula and they hang out there with their bloodthirsty staff, including the butler (John Carradine) who procures them young women so that they might drink their blood. They also have a visitor, a wolfman who LIKES killing...even when he's not in wolfman form. When the Draculas learn that they have a new landlord, they decide to kill him and his girlfriend.

Although the acting isn't great and the music, at times, annoying, this is practically Oscar-worthy compared to the films I mentioned above. At least this one isn't 100% terrible....just mostly terrible.

Fair

[Michael_Elliott · 14 March 2008]

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.