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.
