Great Reviews in History: Nosferatu (1922)
Ooh boy. You know your movie monster is scary when it still looks unsettling in 1929 newsprint. And yes, though Nosferatu was released in 1922, it’s a long boat ride from Germany to get that film to the States. And as you see in this ad (from The Daily Worker, June 04, 1929), this was the first showing in America. There’s nothing quite like a midsummer creature feature.
Before we go any further, though, let’s take some time to reflect on the legacy of Nosferatu, and also - if you don’t happen to listen to the podcast - I should explain what we at Review Party Dot Com consider a “Great Review in History.”
For the most part, it’s historically bad takes, but it could also be a glowing review of something we now know is very, very bad. Ah, hindsight.
In the case of Nosferatu, well- how many pre-1930s movie characters do you think you would recognize? You’ve got Chaplin and Keaton (and maybe a few other vaudevillian converts), you’ve got that moon where the rocket flies into its eye (from 1902’s A Trip to the Moon), and you’ve got Count Orlok.
Yeah, that handsome devil.
And there’s a reason you recognize him, beyond that one episode of Spongebob. He wouldn’t be iconic just based on his look. No, Nosferatu was the first true vampire film (based on Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, Dracula) and the first media to show a vampire dying from sunlight.
The look is comparable to the hugely influential Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and as such, Nosferatu holds a 97% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, was ranked twenty-first in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema" in 2010, and this is what our good friend Roger Ebert has to say:
Here is the story of Dracula before it was buried alive in clichés, jokes, TV skits, cartoons and more than 30 other films. The film is in awe of its material. It seems to really believe in vampires. ... Is Murnau's Nosferatu scary in the modern sense? Not for me. I admire it more for its artistry and ideas, its atmosphere and images, than for its ability to manipulate my emotions like a skilful modern horror film. It knows none of the later tricks of the trade, like sudden threats that pop in from the side of the screen. But Nosferatu remains effective: It doesn't scare us, but it haunts us.
That is how you praise something that is now almost 100 years old. But we’re not here to talk about praise, are we? If we were, I might have worked hard to track down some of the German-language newspapers that reviewed Nosferatu back in 1922. Maybe I will in the future, when I’ve downloaded German into my brain.
But not today. Today we turn to the American premiere. Today, we turn to The Daily Worker, and if you’re thinking that name sounds familiar, yes, it is the newspaper that Elaine’s communist boyfriend reads in that one episode of Seinfeld! Hey, we’re all allowed to have an opinion, as long as it doesn’t escalate to the level of war, right? Don’t worry, this doesn’t.
Let’s get to it!
So it’s not exactly starting off hot, is it? Not only is the author calling the movie crew young punk sophomores, they’re saying they “stole” from Dracula to get the plot; they’d hate to see Hollywood these days. It sounds like someone who is sick of seeing vampire films - almost like certain critics today with Marvel films - only this is the first vampire movie in the game. How much do you have to compare it against?!
I’ll skip ahead a bit, because after surprisingly praising the acting (which is wasted here), there are these lovely couple of lines:
“Just gimme a good old-fashioned plague, that’s all I’m asking!” Yikes, right? And boy does it get harsh at the end. If you like this movie, you should be ashamed, NO- no, if you’ve even seen it, if you’ve let the photography lure you into the pattycake baby’s story, you are a FOOL!
Oddly enough, the review then continues a few lines to comment positively on the headstone epitaphs (though it’s unclear if they were real or merely set-dressings). “Some of our forefathers had the merit of frankness when it came to commemorating the dear departed.” Yeah, what a lost skill. What happened to our country’s great tradition of saying a few short words about the dead? Make epitaphs great again? Yeeuck.
So there you have it. The Communists? Not big on the vampires. Good with plagues, good with funny headstones. The rest, take it or leave it.
I suppose this ad on an adjoining page is telling enough, as our young Nosferatu gets second billing to…
AS GOOD AS A TRIP TO RUSSIA! I mean, at that point, the tickets practically sell themselves! See Nosferatu, waaaay down there at the bottom?
Same, Orlok, same. That’s a mood.
And that’s a wrap on this blog. If you’d prefer to hear us boys talk about this review, then hit Episodes up there at the top and navigate to Episode 70: I’m All Ears, Unfortunately. Happy Haunting!
