For their first production in colour Berman & Baker commissioned regular Hammer screenwriter Jimmy Sangster to write this blatant copy minus Hammer's taste and restraint.
After a prologue set in Transylvania in 1874 the action transfers to Carlstadt six years later (illustrated by the model of Shakespearean London from 'Henry V'). Sangster was plainly familiar with 'Nosferatu' as the hero's arrival at Donald Wolfit's asylum is straight out of it; down to the hunchbacked stagecoach driver.
After a prologue set in Transylvania in 1874 the action transfers to Carlstadt six years later (illustrated by the model of Shakespearean London from 'Henry V'). Sangster was plainly familiar with 'Nosferatu' as the hero's arrival at Donald Wolfit's asylum is straight out of it; down to the hunchbacked stagecoach driver.