Ruth Landshoff, Greta Schröder, and Georg H. Schnell in Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922)

n o s f e r a t u: a s y m p h o n y o f h o r r o r, 1922 🎬 dir. f. w. murnau 'Ellen Reads the Book That Hutter Found'

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What is Nosferatu (1922) about?

Summary: "In this highly influential silent horror film, the mysterious Count Orlok (Max Schreck) summons Thomas Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim) to his remote Transylvanian castle in the mountains. The eerie Orlok seeks to buy a house near Hutter and his wife, Ellen (Greta Schroeder). After Orlok reveals his vampire nature, Hutter struggles to escape the castle, knowing that Ellen is in grave danger. Meanwhile Orlok's servant, Knock (Alexander Granach), prepares for his master to arrive at his new home." Source: Rotten Tomatoes

Source: Nosferatu (1922)

Cast:

Max Schreck - Count Orlock

Greta Schröder - Ellen Hutter

Alexander Granach - Knock

Gustav von Wangenheim - Thomas Hutter

Additional information: Nosferatu is considered the oldest surviving adaptation of Dracula. There is going to be a new Nosferatu movie coming out next year in 2024.

What is Dracula (1931) about?

Summary: "The dashing, mysterious Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi), after hypnotizing a British soldier, Renfield (Dwight Frye), into his mindless slave, travels to London and takes up residence in an old castle. Soon Dracula begins to wreak havoc, sucking the blood of young women and turning them into vampires. When he sets his sights on Mina (Helen Chandler), the daughter of a prominent doctor, vampire-hunter Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan) is enlisted to put a stop to the count's never-ending bloodlust." Source: Rotten Tomatoes

Source: Dracula (1931)

Cast:

Bela Lugosi - Count Dracula

David Manners - Jonathan Harker

Helen Chandler - Mina Harker

Dwight Frye - Renfield

Edward Van Sloan - Van Helsing

Additional information: Bela Lugosi's performance as Dracula is one of the most, if not most, famous adaptations.

Nosferatu

Summary: Vampire Count Orlok (Max Schrek) becomes fascinated with and pursues Ellen Hutter (Greta Schröder), the wife of estate agent Thomas Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim), causing chaos in his wake.

Essential piece of film history that still (mostly) holds up. Maybe less effective today than it was 102 years ago.

Rating: 3.5/5

Photo credit: An Lanntair

Nosferatu (1922)

Greta Schröder

Lily-Rose Depp in Robert Eggers’ first look 'Nosferatu' (2024)

Isabelle Adjani in Werner Herzog's 'Nosferatu the Vampyre' (1979)

Greta Schröder in F. W. Murnau gothic masterpiece 'Nosferatu' (1922)

For #womenshistorymonth a look at some of the most important women in the history of The Phantom of the Opera.

Number 2. Greta Schröder

Most people think that the 1922 Hollywood version of The Phantom of the Opera was the very first adaptation of the Leroux novel.

But the very first adaptation was a German theatre production from Germany Das Gespenst im Opernhaus created by a woman named Greta Schröder (actress and author) which was turned into a movie in 1916.

The film is now believed to be a lost film. No copies, photographs or even a poster of the film remain, except for a few articles in German magazines. From these cuttings it is gathered that the adaptation might have been one of the more faithful.

Dread by the Decade: Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens

👻 My Kofi ❤️

Source Material: Dracula by Bram Stoker English Title: Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror Year: 1922 Genre: Vampires Rating: Unrated (Suggested: PG) Country of Origin: Germany Language: Silent Runtime: 1 hour 20 minutes

Director: F. W. Murnau Cinematographers: Fritz Arno Wagner, Günther Krampf Writer: Henrik Galeen Cast: Max Schreck, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schröder

Plot: A solicitor suspects his new client is not what he seems.

Review: I have loved this movie since I was a child. An amazing piece of German expressionism, it captures Dracula's overall themes and horror brilliantly.

Overall Rating: 5/5

Story: 4/5 - Though it cut much of its source material's story line and characters, the plot is still rich and transfixing.

Performances: 4/5 - Shreck shines as the ominous Count Orlok, and the rest of the cast is charming.

Cinematography: 4.5/5 - The work of Wagner and Albin Grau--the film’s producer and artistic designer--is bold and inventive, and they did it all with one camera.

Editing: 4/5

Music: 4/5 - Eerie, beautifully building the atmosphere and tension.

Effects: 4/5 - Some solid stop motion and superimposition.

Sets: 4.5/5 - Fantastic! Much of the film was shot on location in Germany and Slovakia, and the built sets are very detailed.

Costumes & Make-Up: 4.5/5 - The make-up for Orlok is, in my opinion, disturbing even by today's standards.

Max Schreck in Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau, 1922)

Cast: Max Schreck, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schröder, Alexander Granach, Georg H. Schnell, Ruth Landshoff, John Gottowt, Gustav Botz. Screenplay: Henrik Galeen, based on a novel by Bram Stoker. Cinematography:  Fritz Arno Wanger, Günther Krampf. Art direction: Albin Grau. 

As Bram Stoker first described him, Count Dracula was by no means hideous. Creepy, yes, but with his long white mustache, his aquiline nose, and his "extraordinary pallor," he must have been at least striking to see. Most of the incarnations of Count Dracula on screen have been more or less attractive men: Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Jack Palance, Frank Langella, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, among many others. And lately, since Anne Rice's novels and Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Angel (David Boreanaz) and Spike (James Marsters), the tendency has been to portray vampires as hot young dudes like the ones seen on the CW's The Vampire Diaries and The Originals. Vampires have been getting more human. But not the very first version of Dracula portrayed on screen: With his steady glare, his beaky nose, his batlike ears, his long taloned fingers, his implacable stiff-legged gait, and his posture suggestive of someone who sleeps in a coffin, Max Schreck's Count Orlok (the name has been changed to protect the studio, which it didn't) is decidedly non-human. He's a mutant, perhaps, or an alien. He is also not sexy, which is something of a paradox because vampirism, with its night prowling and exchange of fluids, is all about sex -- or the fear of it. And yet this is probably the greatest film version of Dracula, even allowing for the fact that it's a ripoff, designed to allow the producers Enrico Dieckmann and Albin Grau to avoid having to pay the Stoker estate for the rights. They were sued, and according to the terms of the settlement all prints of the film were supposed to be destroyed. The studio went out of business, but Nosferatu was undead -- enough copies survived that it could be pieced together for posterity. Undead, but not undated: Some of the opening scenes involving Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim), the novel's Harker, are a bit laughable given the actor's puppyish grin, and the character of Knock (Alexander Granach), the novel's Renfield, is wildly over-the-top. But Murnau knew how to create atmosphere, and he keeps the action grounded in plausibility by using real locations and natural settings. The scene in which a long procession of coffins filled with plague victims moves down a street (actually in Lübeck) is haunting. But most of all, it's Schreck's uncanny performance that makes Nosferatu still able to stalk through dreams after more than 100 years.

Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922)

Austrian poster, art by Albin Grau.

n o s f e r a t u: a s y m p h o n y o f h o r r o r, 1922 🎬 dir. f. w. murnau 'Ellen Decides to Sacrifice Herself'

The werewolf in the 1922 film Nosferatu is actually a striped hyena.

Fascinating.

There's a whole big long post on here goes over some of the different stuff from the earlier days of horror films, one of the big ones I remember from it is the use of armadillos because apparently they weren't commonly known and yes the do look a bit weird.

There was something about the bug in the box too.

I can't locate it on my page though.

If you're looking for Classic Hollywood and other horror or monster films @cousin-possum-kc is a good guy to follow for that, I have no idea how he manages to keep track of all the stuff in his head about all this, the different Japanese monster series's, Dr Who, Tolkien, a large amount of anime trivia, and more too but it's up there.

Very well tagged and organized page too, nice guy to boot as well.

I imagine people wonder the same about me with some of my fixations, got a good chunk of Tolkien up there in my noggin too.

I also now do need to check out this nightmares on film website that I got the screencap up top from, looks like it's full of information I will rapidly forget.

imagine not knowing what other films greta schröder has starred in

Cenas do filme de vampiro "Nosferatu" (1922) do cineasta alemão F. W. Murnau. Filme do Expressionismo Alemão. Canção "Marian" da Banda inglesa The Sisters of Mercy (rock, rock gótico). Estrelado por Max Schreck como Conde Orlok, um vampiro que ataca a esposa (Greta Schröder) de seu agente imobiliário (Gustav von Wangenheim) e traz a praga para a cidade deles.

(en) Scenes from the vampire film "Nosferatu" (1922) by German filmmaker F. W. Murnau. German Expressionism Film. Song "Marian" by the English band The Sisters of Mercy (rock, gothic rock). Starring Max Schreck as Count Orlok, a vampire who preys on the wife (Greta Schröder) of his estate agent (Gustav von Wangenheim) and brings the plague to their town.

Oopsies! I wrote this up ages ago and saved it in my drafts and then never posted it. Recently, on my Dracula Daily kick, I rewatched:

Shadow of the Vampire

2000, directed by E Elias Merhige*

Boy oh boy, I vividly remember this movie was one of the first, or maybe the first, DVDs I ever bought, once it became clear they were going to totally replace VHS. I haven’t watched it in over 15 years, so it feels pleasantly nostalgic to see it again! Plus, in the meantime, I’ve learned a lot about film and about German silent film, so it’s neat to watch this now with more knowledge.

First of all: damn! I always forget Cary Elwys and Eddie Izzard are in this. And I TOTALLY forgot that it was produced by Nicholas Cage.

So this movie is about the making of Nosferatu. It is about Frederich Murnau making his classic silent horror film, but the method actor he has hired to play the vampire seems to be just a biiiiiiit too much into his method…

This is a fun little movie! Wilhem Dafoe is, I think I would say with confidence, his generation’s best character actor, I just adore him in everything, and he’s clearly having a blast. He used to be (or maybe still is?) part of an experimental theatre troupe and I guess that’s maybe why he’s so comfortable with physicality, like, man. I’ve just never seen another actor who is so physically expressive. He I always absolutely fascinating in whatever bit or not bit part he does. I think Wilhem Dafoe’s performance is the thing in this movie that keeps it from being a forgettable, goofy, small budget late 90s - early 2000s movie, and elevates it into something worth watching. He really does a wonderful job.

It’s so cute watching them recreate scenes from the silent film, I think they must have had a blast doing that. Being a fan of silent film, it’s so fun to see the “behind the scenes” and watch a movie that’s got one of my favourite silent directors as a character.

*Never heard of the director E Merhige? Well, that would be because he only ever made two Hollywood movies. Apparently Nick Cage saw one of his experimental films and thought this would be a good guy to get to direct. He does mostly just theatre now, but is… apparently working on a restoration of the 1979 Caligula movie to release a cut that’s closer to the director’s intention, so… there’s… that, lol. I think… the inexperience of the director shows in a few places. For instance, there’s two scenes I remember watching thinking “oh, this looks like a master shot that they forgot to go back and film close-ups for.” Weird choices like that. There’s maybe a reason why this director only made two Hollywood movies.

But I dunno. It’s worth a watch. It’s funky. It’s a neat story. It’s got vampires. If you’re following Dracula Daily, it would be a perfect time to pop it on.

Fun fact: I mean this should probably be a given with any movie you watch that’s supposed to be based on real events, but not everything in this movie is historically accurate. For example, the actress Greta Schröder is treated like she’s a famous star, but really she was mostly an unheard of actress who didn’t really go on to do much.

This movie is not a masterpiece, but it’s fun. Give it a little watch if you’re following Dracula Daily, or if you need a little palette-cleansing break from the endless glut of Disney properties.