For those of you who may not know, “Nosferatue” was a 1922 silent German movie, the first Dracula flick. Sadly, the makers failed to actually get the legal rights to film the story from Bram Stokers estate, so there were some serious legal troubles. The planned fix was to change the character from “Count Dracula” to “Count Orlok,” a simple enough trick when all they needed to do was change some title cards. But the law came down against the studio and they were ordered to destroy all prints. Fortunately, this effort was unsuccessful.
“Nosferatu” also has the distinction of featuring the creepiest movie vampire, bar none. The actor, Max Schreck, manages to portray a truly vile monster, quite unlike the later “suave” vampires inaugurated by Bela Lugosi.
As a silent film, it has to stand on its visuals. This might make it a tad challenging for Kids These Days with their iPads and YouTubes and Walkmen and such to maintain interest and focus. Fortunately, someone has decided to add foley sound effects to a truncated 4-minute version of the film. I’ll let you judge whether this adds to the drama or not…
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