Max Schreck Movies
Because his name translated as "Terror," there was an ongoing rumor that German actor Max Schreck was actually another actor named Alfred Abel, working under a pseudonym. In fact, Max Schreck did exist; he was married to popular actress Fanny Norman and enjoyed a lengthy stage career before entering films in 1921. Though he was active well into the sound era, his most celebrated role remained that of the desiccated vampire Nosferatu in the 1922 F.W. Murnau production of the same name. So influential was this landmark performance that, in 1979, Klaus Kinski copied Schreck's makeup and mannerisms to the nth degree in Werner Herzog's remake of Nosferatu; in addition, the double-crossing villain played by Christopher Walken in Batman Returns (1992) was named Max Schreck, as dubious an honor if there ever was one. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1928
Am Rande der Welt (At the Edge of the World) was a German antiwar film that had the bad luck to be released in the U.S. at the same time as several other antiwar efforts. Even so, the picture was successful in London and Paris, a fact that the critics attributed as much to the direction by Karl Grune as to the subject matter. Brigitte Helm, who'd scored a sensation a year earlier in Metropolis, was the biggest "name" in the picture. The story was easy enough to follow in the film's original form: alas, the producers decided to severely curtail the film's running time, and as a result several important scenes were lost. The Variety reviewer complained that the characters were "abstractions" rather than people, but this was hardly unusual in German films from this period. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Albert Steinruck, William Dieterle, (more)
Director F.W. Murnau and scriptwriter Thea von Harbou both took a change of pace from their usual dramas with this satiric farce about Grand Duke Don Ramon XX (Harry Liedtke), whose idyllic country is threatened by revolution. The troublemakers are a trio of conspirators, working with a corrupt financier who intends to convert the landscape into a profitable sulfur mine. Don Ramon comes close to being hanged, but is rescued by Olga (Mady Christians), the Grand Duchess of Russia, who loves him and agrees to pay off all his debts. A compromising love letter from Olga falls into the conspirators' hands, but she and Don Ramon, with the help of the adventurer Philip Collins (Alfred Abel) are able to set their affairs right. Note who plays one of the conspirators: Max Schreck, who starred as the hideous vampire in Murnau's horror classic Nosferatu. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Liedtke, Mady Christians, (more)
- 1923
Most of the directorial efforts of German filmmaker Karl Grune have either been lost to posterity or obscured by their own lack of distinction. Not so Grune's 1923 masterpiece Die Strasse, released in English-speaking countries as The Street. A textbook example of post-expressionism, the film features Eugen Klopfer as a nondescript Berliner, stuck in what he considers a dull marriage. Klopfer escapes to The Street, which metaphorically represents unbridled freedom. Alas, he cannot cope with the dangers and challenges of the world outside his familiar surroundings, and after getting mixed up with crooks and gamblers he attempts suicide. Sadder, wiser, and more grateful, Klopfer heads back to the wearisome but safe cocoon of his own home. The Street was the vanguard of an important German silent-film genre known as the "street picture," which proved a fertile field for such directors as Pabst, Dupont and Murnau. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Aud Egede Nissen
F. W. Murnau's landmark vampire film Nosferatu isn't merely a variation on Bram Stoker's Dracula: it's a direct steal, so much so that Stoker's widow went to court, demanding in vain that the Murnau film be suppressed and destroyed. The character names have been changed to protect the guilty (in the original German prints, at least), but devotees of Stoker will have little trouble recognizing their Dracula counterparts. The film begins in the Carpathian mountains, where real estate agent Hutter (Gustav von Wagenheim) has arrived to close a sale with the reclusive Herr Orlok (Max Schreck). Despite the feverish warnings of the local peasants, Hutter insists upon completing his journey to Orlok's sinister castle. While enjoying his host's hospitality, Hutter accidently cuts his finger-whereupon Orlok tips his hand by staring intently at the bloody digit, licking his lips. Hutter catches on that Orlok is no ordinary mortal when he witnesses the vampiric nobleman loading himself into a coffin in preparation for his journey to Bremen. By the time the ship bearing Orlok arrives at its destination, the captain and crew have all been killed-and partially devoured. There follows a wave of mysterious deaths in Bremen, which the local authorities attribute to a plague of some sort. But Ellen, Hutter's wife, knows better. Armed with the knowledge that a vampire will perish upon exposure to the rays of the sun, Ellen offers herself to Orlok, deliberately keeping him "entertained" until sunrise. At the cost of her own life, Ellen ends Orlok's reign of terror once and for all. Rumors still persist that Max Schreck, the actor playing Nosferatu, was actually another, better-known performer in disguise. Whatever the case, Schreck's natural countenance was buried under one of the most repulsive facial makeups in cinema history-one that was copied to even greater effect by Klaus Kinski in Werner Herzog's 1979 remake - Nosferatu the Vampyre. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Max Schreck, Alexander Granach, (more)
