“Batman Dracula” was created in 1964 and was produced and directed by Andy Warhol. It is an American silent black and white superhero fan film. Warhol made the movie without the permission of the owner of the Batman character, DC Comics. Warhol created the film as homage to the character.
The film stars Jack Smith who plays both millionaire Bruce Wayne/Batman and Count Dracula.
The film was never really meant to be shown and was never fully edited or released. Warhol would occasionally show parts of it at “The Factory”, Warhol’s studio. After his death in 1987 there have been several special screenings of the available footage at various art houses, although DC comics may have put a stop to that.
The film is considered by some to be a mostly lost film, others dispute that. No one really knows if a full copy of the film exists or even what the film's actual running time is supposed to be. I’ve seen where the film is supposed to be 120 minutes long, but some believe it runs a little less than an hour. Rumor has it Warhol devoted seven hours of film stock to the project. Most of what is available are clips, and they are the same clips. The most I’ve found was a really bad 36-minute version that is most likely a cobbled together bootleg copy of snippets that are repeated over and over. I’m not sure if that was Warhol’s intension or if it looks that way because whoever put the 36-minute version together only had ten minutes of footage and therefore improvised. Most of the clips I’ve seen are equally bad. In addition, there are those that maintain that the film was never actually finished. Music by The Velvet Underground and Nico was added later to the 36-minute version.
Mostly it’s a bunch of people tripping and dancing. There may also be some writhing going on as well. A lot of scenes are superimposed, faded and out of focus. There’s no plot, just a lot of nothing which seems to be Warhol’s standard operating procedure. The only conformity I could figure out is that the sections where people are dancing are the Batman parts and the sections with the cat are the Dracula parts. None of the actual interaction between Batman and Dracula is in the film I have. You can purchase this bootleg copy but what you’re going to get is what I have. I’m sure there’s more out there, but anything more is not readily available. Perhaps there are private screening rooms somewhere that have more.
The film was shot with a 16mm Bolex camera. A Bolex camera is a Swiss manufactured manual spring-wound camera, similar to how a clock is powered. They were designed for silent films but have been used by laymen as well as professional filmmakers, such as Spike Lee and Steven Spielberg, to give certain scenes an amateur look.
Warhol made a lot of quirky experimental films. This was one of them. With so much of the film missing, it’s a little difficult to understand or enjoy. Is it worth it? Not really. It’s basically a hot mess. It’s a rabbit hole not worth going down, at least at this point. If in the future a real release of the actual footage is done it may be worth it. Watch it at your own risk.