Starring:
Max Schreck as Orlok Gustav von Wangenheim
as Hutter Greta Schröder as Ellen Hutter Alexander Granach as Knock John Gottowt as Professor Bulwer
Director F.W. Murnau made this adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula
without the proper copyright permission. There were vague attempts to
get around copyright law, such as changing the names of the lead
characters and some minor shifts in story line from the Dracula
novel, but Stoker's widow Florence would have none of it.
She sued, and eventually won. The outcome of the lawsuit was that every
copy of the film was to be destroyed. Well, that obviously didn't
happen. In fact, some of the older copies of Nosferatu
(before
the DVD was re-mastered and released again in 2000 at 81 minute
runtime) don't even use the changed names, but refer to "Dracula",
"Harker" and "Dr. Van Helsing" just as Stoker's novel had.
My personal copy uses the original names and runs for a full 92
minutes. Not sure how I ended up with that one, but I like it.
In this story Hutter (Gustav von
Wangenheim) receives word from his
very creepy and spider-eating boss Knock (Alexander Granach) that he
should travel to a far away land to sell a large piece of real estate
to Orlock (Max Schreck). Hutter is very excited and laughs
heartily - he laughs heartily a lot in this film - and sets
out for a journey lasting several months.
As Hutter travels he encounters many townspeople, all of whom are of
course horrified
that he would approach the lair of Count Dracula...uh, I mean Orlock.
They do convince him to wait until daylight, as the "phantoms" are at
their strongest at night. A couple of quirky things
happen prior to Hutter meeting the vampire for the first time:
• A wierd-looking zebra/jackle
looking dog scares the horses away
• Hutter climbs into a jacked-up 4-foot-high bed for the night
• Hutter reads in "The book of the Vampires" to never speak
'the
name Nosferatu aloud'...and then proceeds to hurl the book to the
ground with (too much) gusto before laughing heartily again
• Hutter wakes up the next morning, laughing, and ties his
nightshirt around his body like a toga.
Now it is
time for Hutter to meet Orlock for the first time. This is no
classy Count. Orlock is played by Max Schreck much differently than the
refined vampires we've come to know. Orlock is creepy. He is bald, has
rat-like teeth, a strange-shaped head and long spindly hands with
two-inch fingernails. I think that Shreck's version of the prince of
darkness will remain one of the most frightening visuals
in horror movie history.
For the purposes of setting realistic expectations in case you have not
seen Nosferatu
before, movies made in 1922 did not have any sound. The actors from
this era of film-making were primarily stage actors, so their
performances are "larger than life". It is these
elements that add to the fear-factor and brilliance of Nosferatu.
Orlock is ugly, stiff and overdone. He is dramatic and sinister, and he
is, well, death itself. Wherever Orlock goes there are shrieks
of "Plague" and death abounds.
How, then, does Orlock bring Hutter's wife
Ellen into a trance? Why is
it that people are drawn to him, in spite of his obvious lack of
recognizable charms? This, too, is why this is so scary. Orlock is a terrible
evil that you cannot tear yourself away from. That's the
genius.
For its time, Nosferatu
is rich in special effects as well. Orlock levitates from his coffin,
appears as a transparent image and disappears before your very eyes.
His coffin unwraps and opens itself through use of stop-action
photography.
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Release:
1922
Now it is
time for Hutter to meet Orlock for the first time. This is no
classy Count. Orlock is played by Max Schreck much differently than the
refined vampires we've come to know. Orlock is creepy. He is bald, has
rat-like teeth, a strange-shaped head and long spindly hands with
two-inch fingernails. I think that Shreck's version of the prince of
darkness will remain one of the most frightening visuals
in horror movie history.
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