Nosferatu (22, F.W. Murnau)

Bela Lugosi's version of Dracula would likely prefer to eat his shoe rather than sit side-by-side with F.W. Murnau and Max Schreck's work here. Not only does Nosferatu actually pay attention to things like storytelling, pacing, and characterization, but it does all of that and more without sound. The pacing of the film is nearly as fast as most modern horror flicks, zipping throughout the Dracula narrative with much fat taken off. It doesn't address the New Woman much, but as far as a gothic horror Western European xenophobe paranoia Dracula, you'd be hard pressed to find a better adaptation. Murnau's direction is legendary with much innovation in terms of scene staging and also the integration of expressionist motifs. Onscreen though, the flick gets owned by Schreck any time he's close to being on screen. The look of the character and its portrayal are riddled with that malicious rodent-like demeanor. The art design and lighting set mood that Dracula's miraculous set design attempted to. Individual scenes shine as well with the boat material especially coming off strong. The actors portraying Hutter, Knock, etc. are pretty standard but perfectly in contrast with Schreck's deformed inhumanity. Unfortunately, the version I saw was in black and white, but I can understand the idea that the day-for-night shooting would be much improved with the color tints. All in all though, the things that push the film for me are the pacing, the direction, and the acting. All three things come together so well that even the most mangled public domain $2 bin DVD will thrill nearly anybody. **** and 1/2 * out've *****