Nosferatu, The Vampire
Rated: NRSynopsis: One of the great show-stealing performances in movie history can be found in Nosferatu, F. W. Murnau’s 1925 silent version of the Dracula legend. An unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s famous novel, Nosferatu tells the story of a young newlywed who is forced to leave his bride and travel to Transylvania to broker a real estate deal with a mysterious count (Max Schreck). While the well-known story is told with some elegance in Nosferatu, it hardly seems to matter once Schreck appears onscreen: his portrayal of Count Orlok (not Count Dracula in this version — the names were changed after Stoker’s widow filed suit) has to be seen to be believed. Rail-thin, with wide, blackened eyes, wild eyebrows, long fingers, and stooped shoulders, Schreck’s ratlike vampire (there’s no bat iconography in this version) is over-the-top from the outset — and this is before he uncovers his bald head to reveal pointy ears. The Count’s shadow looks even better, and Murnau exploits this in expressionistic silhouettes that appear in scene after scene — cast on walls and down corridors and then, as a topper, on the white nightgown of a female victim. This remarkable performance was itself the subject of 2000′s Shadow of the Vampire, with Willem Dafoe portraying Schreck to John Malkovich’s Murnau. Klaus Kinski reprised Schreck’s portrayal of the count in Werner Herzog’s 1979 Nosferatu remake, but the remarkable original is simply a must-see. Gregory BairdF. W. Murnau’s landmark vampire film Nosferatu isn’t merely a variation on Bram Stoker’s Dracula: it’s a direct steal, so much so that Stoker’s widow went to court, demanding in vain that the Murnau film be suppressed and destroyed. The character names have been changed to protect the guilty (in the original German prints, at least), but devotees of Stoker will have little trouble recognizing their Dracula counterparts. The film begins in the Carpathian mountains, where real estate agent Hutter (Gustav von Wagenheim) has arrived to close a sale with the reclusive Herr Orlok (Max Schreck). Despite the feverish warnings of the local peasants, Hutter insists upon completing his journey to Orlok’s sinister castle. While enjoying his host’s hospitality, Hutter accidently cuts his finger-whereupon Orlok tips his hand by staring intently at the bloody digit, licking his lips. Hutter catches on that Orlok is no ordinary mortal when he witnesses the vampiric nobleman loading himself into a coffin in preparation for his journey to Bremen. By the time the ship bearing Orlok arrives at its destination, the captain and crew have all been killed-and partially devoured. There follows a wave of mysterious deaths in Bremen, which the local authorities attribute to a plague of some sort. But Ellen, Hutter’s wife, knows better. Armed with the knowledge that a vampire will perish upon exposure to the rays of the sun, Ellen offers herself to Orlok, deliberately keeping him “entertained” until sunrise. At the cost of h
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