Nosferatu (Silent)

I recently purchsed the Early Cinema Box Set with four horror classic, one of which is Nosferatu.

The edition offered here is slightly bastardized by the insertion of more than a few screens wherin Count Graf Orlok is refered to as Dracula and other charcaters are given names straight from Bram Stoker's Dracula. The charcter of Hutter is named Johnathan Hawker and many such incodents occur.

It is very important that the viewer know that the initial editon of Nosferatu made every effort to NOT relate to Dracula. In fact Stoker's widow sucessfully sued the producers citing copywright infringment.

I strongly suggest Oldies revamp this edition to reflect a more accurate portrayl n the spirit of true classic preservation or that you purchase this from another purveyor.

That's my lousy opinion.

FW Murnau creates a pretty faithful silent version of Dracula. Murnau was one of the great silent film directors ("Sunrise" 1927) who died in an auto accident before sound came out. The cinematography is always the highlight of his films -- and the images will amaze you. The story of the making of this film was featured in the Movie "The Shadow of the Vampire" with Willem Dafoe (Oscar Nominee) playing the crazy Max Schreck who plays the Vampire.

Nosferatu is the first vampire movie ever, and it remains hard to beat. Even Bela Lugosi, in his vastly more famous version of the Bram Stoker tale, comes off as amateurish compared to Max Schreck's legitamitely scary performance. While there are several Nosferatu DVDs on the market, some of vastly better quality, I enjoyed Alpha's version because of the bizarre soundtrack. While many silent DVDs offer a faceless classical score (see Metropolis), this Nosferatu is chock full of weird "library music"--the type of avant garde jazz and classical stuff from the mid-60s to early 70s you find on forgotten vinyl LPs buried in the basement of your local library. Other versions of Nosferatu by other companies do the obvious vampire soundtrack thing--gothic industrial music and creepy heavy metal--but the oddball sounds on Alpha's disc--solo recorders, etc.--really creeped me out. I knocked a star and a half off for transfer quality, though.