The Mystery in Dracula's Castle is a 1973 American television film produced by Walt Disney Productions. Directed by Robert Totten, it originally aired in two parts on NBC's The Wonderful World of Disney on January 7 and January 14, 1973.
The screenplay was written by Sue Milburn, who won the Walt Disney Filmwriting Award while a junior at New York University. The award included $2,500 and ten weeks of employment at the Disney studio in Burbank, where she worked on the script with producer Bill Anderson.
The plot follows brothers Alfie and Leonard Booth, who are making a horror movie while vacationing in a coastal community. They choose an abandoned lighthouse as a filming location, unaware that jewel thieves are using it as a hideout.
The premiere broadcast of Part 1 ranked fifth among U.S. television programs for the week of January 1–7, 1973, while Part 2 ranked fourth for the week of January 8–14 with a 28.4 Nielsen rating and 44 percent audience share. The second part aired immediately following Super Bowl VII on NBC. A 1973 novelization of the film, The Mystery in Dracula's Castle, written by Vic Crume, was published by Scholastic Book Services.
Film critic Kim Newman later reviewed the film on his website, discussing its children's adventure story, horror-film references and the boys' attempts to make their own monster movie. Retrospective reviews from Horror and Sons and MonsterHunter Movie Reviews also discussed the film's mixture of family adventure, mystery and horror-film imagery.
The production was Robert Totten's final project for Disney. His earlier work for the studio included Ride a Northbound Horse, The Wild Country and Michael O'Hara the Fourth.
The film also featured Higgins as Watson, the stray dog who joins the boys and later became best known for playing the title role in Benji.
Cast Mariette Hartley as Marsha Booth Johnny Whitaker as Alfie John Fiedler as Bill Wasdahl Mills Watson as Noah Baxter Clu Gulager as Keith Raynor James Callahan as the Sheriff Scott Kolden as Leonard Peter Renaday as the Detective Higgins as Watson Maggie Wellman as Jean Wyndham Jean-Michel Michenaud as Morgan Link Wyler as Patrolman Ben Wrigley as the Grave Robber
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