Nosferatu

Nosferatu (1922) is an unauthorised adaptation of Dracula that a court ordered destroyed. The story is Stoker's novel: a property clerk is sent to a distant castle, the count there turns out to be a vampire, and he travels to the city by ship. The names are changed: Dracula becomes Count Orlok, Harker becomes Hutter. The studio never acquired the rights. The film opened in Berlin on 4 March 1922 and Bram Stoker's widow Florence learned of it after the premiere. She sued. Judgment came in July 1925: copyright had been infringed and every copy was to be destroyed. The production company had gone bankrupt during the case and had nothing to pay with; the negatives were handed over and the copies destroyed. The order could not be carried out, because prints had already been distributed to other countries. Those survived and reached America years later. The film we watch today comes from stray copies of a film the court erased. Murnau's vampire is unlike every vampire since: not attractive, rat like, with long nails and no hair. The design stands against the courtly aristocrat image of Dracula. The idea that sunlight kills a vampire is not in the novel; it entered through this film and became a rule afterwards. The shadow sequences, particularly the hand on the staircase, are among the most copied images of German expressionism. It is silent. It runs 94 minutes. Good for: film history, horror classics, and expressionism. Less good for: the rhythm of silent film takes getting used to and it does not frighten now.