Item Details:

NOSFERATU

MAX SCHRECK

GOLDEN AGE OF SILENT CINEMA, 1922 / 1960s

Original Re-Release Lobby Card

Edition: unknown

Publisher: Prana Films Re-Release

Photogravure

Size: 11.5 x 9 in; 29.21 x 22.86 cm

Signed: unsigned

When German director F. W. Murnau decided to do a film version of Bram Stoker's Dracula, he never took into account the legal issues of making a film without first securing the rights to do so. Bram Stoker had written the novel Dracula in 1897 and had passed away in 1912, but his wife Florence lived on until 1937 and still owned the rights to his works. During her widowed years, the sole means of support for Mrs. Stoker were the sales of her late husband's works and she jealously guarded those rights. It was no wonder then, when F. W. Murnau created Nosferatu without her permission, that she would sue him for all copies of the film. And even though she tried to destroy those copies, like the undead count himself, Nosferatu lived on. The film was barely released in 1922 before its legal troubles began. By 1930, it resurfaced in Germany with a new title, The Twelfth Hour, and now had an added musical score to take advantage of the new technology of sound. Even the cast members had their characters renamed in a further effort to disguise the film from the attorneys of Stoker. Original posters and advertising material of any kind associated with the film is virtually impossible to find.

Private Collection