Writer Gregory William Mank (who had access to the shooting script for his book "Hollywood Cauldron") disputes these claims, asserting that the original cut was only 75 minutes (the reports of an 80+ minute run time being the result of a misprint) and that most of the cuts were either exposition or comedy. He further asserts that the alleged incest subplot was never in the shooting script and never filmed, though he acknowledges that it was likely hinted at in the original scenario for the film written by Guy Endore. This claim is backed up by Borland, who points out that the studio would never have allowed such content to be filmed. Lugosi biographer Arthur Lennig asserts that Endore did originally intend an incest backstory, but that it was removed by the studio before the shooting script was written, though he goes on to claim that a cut line of dialogue indicates that Count Mora shot himself after strangling his daughter.