During an interview, Christopher Lee expressed his well-known frustration with this film: "I was a pantomime villain. Everything was over the top, especially the giant bat whose electrically motored wings flapped with slow deliberation as if it were doing morning exercises."
Neither Warner Brothers nor any of the other American major studios wanted to deal with Sir James Carreras, Founding Chairman of Hammer Film Productions anymore, so the budgets were cut to $200,000, as the decline in Hammer movies had begun with the loss of large-scale American distribution.
This is Michael Ripper's third consecutive appearance in a Hammer "Dracula" film, given that he previously played Max in Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968) and Inspector Cobb in Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970). He is the only actor other than Christopher Lee to appear in all three films. He also played a coachman in The Brides of Dracula (1960), in which Lee did not appear.
Dennis Waterman was Hammer Productions' choice. Director Roy Ward Baker has said in interviews he thought Waterman was badly miscast.
John Forbes-Robertson was considered for the role of Dracula before Christopher Lee was persuaded to return. Forbes-Robertson later played Dracula in The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974), the only Hammer film to feature an actor other than Lee in the role.
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