"Funner" With Frank

Like so much of my initial exposure to the cinema of the fantastic, I’m sure I first encountered the rodent-like vampire from NOSFERATU (1922) in the pages of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND, which is where I encountered so many movie monsters for the first time. Sadly, I cannot recall the exact issue but I’m sure that Forry had to have run some stills from the silent German classic in at least one, if not more, issues.

I do however remember my first viewing of the film itself. It was far from an optimal situation, but it was also the only game in town, so it was take it or leave it. I speak of a series that ran on PBS when I was in high school. As I recall, the program was shown locally on Saturday afternoons and each week, a silent film would be telecast. This was long before the days of extensive restoration work so naturally, the prints I was exposed to were somewhat dodgy but as I said, it was the only way to see such immortal films as METROPOLIS (1927), THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1920) and NOSFERATU.

Inferior visual quality or not, NOSFERATU scared the hell out of me and continues to do so to this very day. I attended a screening of the film at the Howard Theater in Taylor, Texas last night. It wasn’t the complete restored version (which I own) but it did have a nice electronic score and the transfer was good, and clear with no noticeable cuts and jumps where footage was missing.

I don’t know how many times I’ve seen NOSFERATU. After that first PBS broadcast, I probably saw a bootleg print in the movie room at a local comic book convention. Remember when cons had a movie room? It seems that as the years have gone by, every few years a new “complete” version of NOSFERATU would be released and of course, I had to see those releases. So, it’s maybe five or six times that I’ve seen it, and it still radiates the power of suffocating fear every time Count Dracula (Max Schrek) is on screen. He ranks, in my book, as the greatest cinematic vampire of all time. In over a hundred years and who knows how many vampire movies, NOSFERATU still stands at the top of the undead heap.

That’s because this “thing” was never human. He is a living embodiment of pestilence, of disease, of rot. No “sparkly” vampire nonsense here. Nosferatu is a repellent plague carrying monster who, when you stop to think about it, would surely stink to high heaven.

The film follows Bram Stoker’s original DRACULA novel fairly well. However, the filmmakers, including director F.W. Murnau, didn’t bother to secure the rights to Stoker’s material. Thus, the title change to NOSFERATU even though the character is called Count Dracula throughout the film.

If you think silent films are a waste of time, if you think they ‘re boring, if you think the lack of sound (especially spoken dialogue) and color cinematography is reason to avoid watching any silent film, you my friend, are missing one of the great movie watching experiences you can have. Open your mind and eyes and at try to meet a silent movie on its own terms and you might just find yourself enormously entertained.

And if you love horror films and horror fiction of all kinds, you must certainly see NOSFERATU at least once and I believe you’ll want to see it again. And again.

I know it sounds like hype, but NOSFERATU is a touchstone film in the history of horror and world cinema. This landmark excursion into the land of phantoms will stay with you for days afterwards and rewards repeat viewings.

Thanks to Channing Kingery-Boles at the Howard for making this film available to a small but enthusiastic audience last night. I hope there are more silent films to come and not just horror/fantasy/science fiction films. The world of silent films is a fascinating place to explore. At over 100 years of age, silent cinema is a lost world of images waiting to be seen and to entertain again and again.

NOSFERATU gets my highest possible recommendation. See it!