Christopher Lee found himself getting increasingly dismayed and disillusioned that Dracula's portrayal was moving increasingly away from the source material, calling this movie "a mixture of Howard Hughes and Dr. No" in a 1994 interview.
Christopher Lee later claimed that, for his death scene, he had to tear his way through actual hawthorn bushes, shedding real blood on the sharp thorns.
This was Christopher Lee's final appearance as Count Dracula in the Hammer "Dracula" films. However, he reprised his role in the French comedy Dracula père et fils (1976).