Don't forget, for years it wasn't just frowned upon to be homosexual in England, it was flat-out illegal. Sure, there were gay bars and such, going back to, and further than, the time of Oscar Wilde--and look what happened to him. But it's true that in England, and in the U.S., people in show biz were not as judgmental about gays as was the general public in those days, not to mention tthe law. John Gielgud was arrested for homosexual acts in the early 1950s and was convinced his career was over, but he survived the scandal--which was partially hushed up--and went on to become one of the busiest great actors on and off the screen, still acting just weeks before he died. Maybe it's like when Robert Mitchum was arrested for smoking marijuana: it didn't bother the public because that seemed to fit with Mitchum's image just fine. Maybe th general public tends to suspect that most actors are gay.

David Peel was actually much older than he looks in BRIDES--he was, if IMDb is to be relieved, 49 when it was shot, but he does look positively boyish. One of the creepiest aspects of Meinster is that he so clearly loves being a vampire. Lee's Count Dracula seemed to regard being a vampire as a kind of melancholy duty--except in HORROR OF DRACULA.