Nosferatu

The spooky and iconic imagery survives in 1922's NOSFERATU despite a century of wear, various attempts at restoration, and even an order for its destruction.   Screenwriter Henrik Galeen concocted an unauthorized version of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, intended for German audiences.  The Stoker estate sued and won, and the courts decreed incineration of all prints.  Of course, some remained intact and over the years film buffs have claimed this to be a horror classic.  Certainly influential.  Many viewers will undoubtedly find it too primitive for maximum impact.  I would agree that it is not at all scary, but I'm rarely scared during movies anyway.  Perhaps if I saw this in a dark cinema filled with questionable types who sported Nosferatu-like talons back in the day I might have had some concerns.....

Count Orlok (Max Schreck) is interested in purchasing a house directly across from that of a young realtor from Wisborg named Thomas Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim).  Hutter's boss, Herr Knock (Alexander Granach), dispatches him to Transylvania to close the deal.  Orlok's a hideous looking kerl who sucks Hutter's bloody thumb after he accidentally cuts himself.  The Count ain't subtle, remaking that Hutter's wife has a lovely neck when he catches a photograph.  It doesn't take the alarmed man long to figure out that his host is a vampire.

Soon, Orlok loads his coffin aboard a ship bound for Wisborg.  He will bring a plague of death to the crew and eventually his new town, where Hutter's wife Ellen (Greta Schroder) anxiously awaits her husband's return, suffering nightmares and trances in the meanwhile.  Can Orlok be stopped?

Murnau achieves some vivid atmosphere in NOSFERATU, mainly when Schreck crosses rooms and ascends staircases, his shadow a perfect image of death.  Some find this film best to have on in the background, with the occasional glance at its frame skipped imagery.  I was generally engrossed and even felt the film hit a stride here and there (especially when the film cuts to some professors and their students), though often the drama did stop short of complete involvement. 

The version I was saw was released by Kino Lorber, with newly designed dialogue cards and pink, green, yellow, and blue tints to various scenes.

There are several contradictory interpretations of the film.  Some believe it is anti-Semitic, starting with Orlock's outrageously prominent proboscis.  Others, recalling that Murnau was gay, don't feel someone outside the mainstream would create a hateful tract against other outsiders. Maybe the director was trying to say something about the closeted?  You see what you want to, I guess.  

Either way, NOSFERATU is a vital piece of history, a genre groundbreaker that is educational at the very least.