Nosferatu on VHS. Movie starring Max Schreck, Alexander Granach. Directed by F.W. Murnau. 1922.
The Original Dracula Masterpiece
From the VHS box:
This silent film masterpiece, designed by Albin Grau and directed by F.W. Murnau, one of the three (with Fritz Lang and Ernest Lubitsch) masters of the German cinema, is an adaptation of Bram Stocker’s classic novel Dracula.
In the 1830’s, Hutter, the young clerk of a real estate agent, leaves his wife Nina in order to conduct the sale of some property with the mysterious Count Orlock (Noferatu) in Transylvania. He falls in the clutches of the Count but escapes. Leaving his castle with a number of earth-filled coffins, the Count travels by ship to Bremen. The entire crew of the ship dies, and when it arrives in a port a swarm of rats descends upon the city. Meanwhile, Hutter has returned to Nina with his tale of the Count. She resolves to destroy the vampire by keeping him at her bedside until sunrise, when the sun’s rays will destroy the monster’s body.
Murnau’s inspired editing, lighting and direction and the performance by Max Schreck as the vampire with taloned fingers, long pointy ears and jerky walk makes NOSFERATU a true “Symphony of Horror.”
Bonus back cover scan:
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