BILLY THE KID VS. DRACULA (1966)

     I have been convinced for quite a while that many exploitation filmmakers come up with the title for the movie first and work their way up from that.
     The film title: BILLY THE KID VS DRACULA makes you want to see the film. Even tho you are sure it's going to be a bad movie.
     John Carradine the greatest actor to make 3rd rate movies stars in this movie as Dracula. Carradine in an interview said he felt this was the worst film he ever made. Carradine had played Dracula before in the movies HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1944) and HOUSE OF DRACULA (1945). Carradine gave the crappy movie it's only source of class.
     In this movie Dracula is in the old west and posing as the uncle of a young woman who is inheriting a ranch. Her boyfriend Billy the Kid wrecks Dracula's plans.
     My favorite part is the scene where Billy the Kid shoots Dracula and the vampire just stands there. Then Billy throws his gun at Dracula and knocks him out long enough to stake him with a knife rather than the classic wooden stake. (In the novel DRACULA the vampire is killed with a knife in the heart at the novel's end)
    The film is very low budget and shot pretty much like a B western from the 40's even tho it was filmed in 1966.
     The film was released in a double bill with JESSE JAMES MEETS FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER. That film was slightly better made.

Yes this is a real movie.

SCI FI DINE IN THEATER

     About ten years ago I went to DISNEYWORLD and one of the things I enjoyed there was a restaurant called the SCI FI DINE IN THEATER.

     The dining room was done in the style of an drive in movie theater. I am old enough to remember those.
     The tables were all booths shaped like old cars from the 50's and they faced a large movie screen that played scenes and trailers for old sci fi B movies.

CREEPY DOUBLE FEATURE

     Halloween is almost here and I wanted to suggest a creepy double feature for watching in a dark room on that night. Both movies can be downloaded from The Internet Archives for free. www.archive.org/
     The two movies are: CARNIVAL OF SOULS and DAUGHTER OF HORROR. Both are eerie black and white movies that will remind you of  the old TWILIGHT ZONE TV show.
     CARNIVAL OF SOULS tells the story of an woman who survives a car crash and move to a new town where is is fallowed around by a ghostly pale face man.
     DAUGHTER OF HORROR  was first released under the title DEMENTIA. It was an arty movie without dialogue on it's first release. The DAUGHTER OF HORROR release has narration. In this film a woman encounters many weird people one night including Bruno VeSota as a gross fat man and Angelo Rositto. It is rumored that VeSota ghost directed some of the movie. VeSota also directed THE BRAIN EATERS and INVASION OF THE STAR CREATURES.

SEX MADNESS - A VD HORROR MOVIE FROM THE 30'S

     I first encounter the movie SEX MADNESS on the old NIGHT FLIGHT TV show on the USA network back when it was an interesting cable network. You can now find the film on the INTERNET ARCHIVES and on YOU TUBE with little trouble.
     This film was shot in the early 30's in the days before penicillin was invented and VD was hard to treat. There was many untreated people back then who went blind or suffer brain damage.
     The film opens with with a very old man reading the newspaper and saying to his very old wife that he wished the police would do something about the displays of sex. He is talking about the burlesque show of the time. Their son walks in (They must of had him in their late 40's) and tell them that he's going on a date.
     Else where in an office an stereotype lesbian in a suit jacket and tie makes the moves on her co worker and they decide to go to the burlesque show that night.
     The movie then switches to the burlesque show. A bunch of women in tight shorts are dancing. Watching them is the girls from the office. They decide to stay the night together. The son from the open scene goes to a hotel with his girlfriend and a sleazy looking man who watched the show murders a little girl.
     The rest of the film has nothing to do with these people. The film now fallows a dancer from the burlesque show. She has VD and is seeing a doctor who is helping her. But she wants to go home and married her boyfriend. She goes to quack who sells her a fake cure and she gets married.
     Soon after getting married and having a baby things go bad. Her husband is losing his sight and the baby becomes sick. The family doctor in his office tells them that they have VD and demands that the husband admits that he is the cause. The wife breaks down and admits that she is the one who infected them.
     The VD horror films of vintage exploitation movies era are a lot like the AIDS dramas we have now. Since there is no cure there is a sense of doom in the movies. Just like in the early AIDS era when there was no treatments and no one was living very long.
     A lot of people who considered themselves moral attacked the victims of AIDS when if first started killing people saying it was their own fault for their life styles. The same thing happen back in the VD days. People would insist that VD was the results of what they believed was a bad life style and that 'nice' people did not get sick like that.
     Of course there is still people who think that way. Maybe heart attacks are the results of their lifestyle.
     SEX MADNESS is a crudely shot movie with low productions values. I'm sure it played in many grind house movie theaters until penicillin came along.







    

OTELLO AND THE ROBOT- A SCI FI MANUSCRIPT. Novel and Ebook

     Once in a while I think I'm a writer. I just put out on Lulu.com the novel OTELLO AND THE ROBOT: A SCI FI MANUSCRIPT. The novel tells the story of a slacker who leads an aimless life and who is working on a novel about a woman named Otello who meets a robot with no name.
     You can check out a few pages of the novel by going to www.lulu.com/aronaamora - I also have a couple of other books and another novel: I LED ONE LIFE.
     Lulu.com is a publish on demand service and the novel can by bought in paperback form or as a PDF ebook for download.

This is the PDF ebook edition- The print edition as another cover.

    

THE CREATURE OF DESTRUCTION

     The CREATURE OF DESTRUCTION was one of the cheap horror movies made by Larry Buchanan for AIP-TV. It was a color remake of the B movie THE SHE CREATURE.
     The highlight of THE SHE CREATURE was the great costume for the monster which was made by Paul Blaisdell a B movie costume maker who made monsters for the films: INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN, VOODOO WOMAN, THE DAY THE WORLD DIED, IT CONQUERED THE WORLD and had a cameo in the movie THE GHOST OF DRAGSTRIP HOLLOW as a bitter monster movie suit maker. That last film role became true a few years later.
     The monster suit in the CREATURE OF DESTRUCTION looked like a rubber diver suit with scales and a silly looking monster mask with ping pong ball eyes and fangs. It looked like a cheap Halloween mask. This suit was also used in the movie IT'S ALIVE also by Buchanan.

THE EYE CREATURES

     THE EYE CREATURES (1966) was a color remake of the 1950's sci fi comedy INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN. Shot on 16mm THE EYE CREATURES was released as part of a TV package by AIP TV.
     The space invaders of THE EYE CREATURES were men in lumpy suits who wear head masks that featured a bunch of ping pong ball eyes and large open unmoving mouths. Some of the actor did not wear whole alien suits. They wear black tights and monster masks. I guess director Larry Buchanan thought no one would notice.
     This film would be featured on MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000.