F. 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 her own life, Ellen ends Orlok's reign of terror
once and for all. Rumors still persist that Max Schreck, the actor
playing Nosferatu, was actually another, better-known performer in
disguise. Whatever the case, Schreck's natural countenance was buried
under one of the most repulsive facial makeups in cinema history-one
that was copied to even greater effect by Klaus Kinski in Werner
Herzog's 1979 remake - Nosferatu the Vampyre.
