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Bela Lugosi as, 'Count Dracula' in Universal Pictures 1931 classic, Dracula![/caption]And speaking of Bela Lugosi. Bela Lugosi can be said to be the father of the modern movie vampire due to his role as a Dracula in Universal's 1931 classic of the same name, and due to the legendary popularity of Lugosi's portayal of the legendary, 'Count', since then an entire industry was created with in the world of movies!
Now some people might think that Bela Lugosi's Dracula was the first Dracula movie that was ever released... Well Dracula (1931) may have been the first movie to have the name, 'Dracula', but it wasn't the first movie to have a story based on Bram Stokers classic 19th century novel of the same name!
The movie of course that I am speaking of is, Nosferatu: eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922)!
This movie which is most recognizably known as just, 'Nosferatu', was directed by: F.W. Murnau (Faust) and starred Max Schreck (Peer Gynt) in the role of the famous, 'Count', and had been filmed for the German production company, 'Prana Film' (As a matter of fact, it is the only movie that Prana Film ever made!)
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Max Schreck as, 'Count Orlok' in F.W. Murnau's cult classic, Nosferatu: eine Symphony des Grauens (1922)[/caption]Prana Film when it was in pre-production for this movie went to the Stoker estate to try and gain the legal rights to make the movie based on Stoker's book (Dracula)! Unfortunately his estate would not grant the request to use Bram Stoker's original story.
So alot of key segments of the movie had been changed including, the fact that alot of the second string characters in the original novel had been taken out. The principle characters had been kept in this new movie, including, 'Count Dracula', (although the names of the characters had been changed.)
Also the locations and dates were changed from, Britain in the 1890s to Germany in the 1830s.
The last thing that I thought that I would mention here that I thought that you guys might find to be rather interesting is the fact that in Bram Stoker's original novel, that Dracula could be in daylight, but is weakened when he is in sun light. In Nosferatu, the count (who in this movie is called, 'Count Orlok') needs to sleep away from the day light.
The particular fact that in Nosferatu, that Count Orlok has to sleep away from the day light could be said to be the most prolific contribution to Vampire movies that Nosferatu could have made, due to the fact that since Nosferatu was released on March 15th, 1922, that having Vampires having to sleep away from the day light has been a common theme in both, 'Dracula' movies as well as, 'Vampire' movies as a whole!
For more information on this movie I thought that you guys would enjoy this trailer for, Nosferatu: eine Symphonie des Grauens:
http://youtu.be/N-DrKgjit4I
