“Nosferatu” and the birth of the undead

ONE HUNDRED years ago, in March 1922, the first major film adaptation of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” had its premiere in Berlin. Not that it was called “Dracula”. The film-makers hadn’t asked for permission to adapt the famous vampire novel of 1897, so they changed the characters’ names. Jonathan Harker, the estate agent who ventures to Transylvania, was renamed Thomas Hutter (and played by Gustav von Wangenheim). Harker’s fiancée, Mina, became Hutter’s wife Ellen (Greta Schröder). Count Dracula is Count Orlok (Max Schreck). And the film, directed by F.W. Murnau, luxuriated in the shiver-inducing title “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror”.