Shadow of the Vampire: The Real Dracula

F.W. Murnau (born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe in Bielefeld, Germany in 1888) was one of the most acclaimed directors of the silent-movie era.

One of five children, (2 brothers and 2 sisters), he showed an early interest in the theatre. In 1910, the family name was changed to Murnau, for a lovely Bavarian town.  Following service as a German pilot during WWI, Murnau pursued his real passion: making movies.

Very little has been written about Murnau in English, although a 1998 novel, Nosferatu by Jim Shepard, is loosely based on his life. Several German Internet sites, however, provide important details of the man and his work.

An on-line virtual museum even provides a clip of the original silent film, Nosferatu Eine Symphonie des Grauens (translated as Nosferatu, a Symphony of Terror). In the clip we see Murnau’s version of Dracula arriving home by ship. (Follow the link to see the video. The subtitles translate: "The Master is coming! The master is here!") "The master," of course, is the only one left on board. Everyone else is dead.

Following enormous success in Germany, with films like "Faust," Murnau was invited to make movies in Hollywood. Two other Germans, Fritz Lang and Georg Wilhelm Pabst, were already in America. However, Murnau felt he did not have enough control over his films when the Hollywood studios were involved. He soon went to the South Seas where he filmed Tabu.

One week before Tabu premiered in New York, Murnau was a passenger in a car bound for Monterey, California. It would be his last trip. When the car was involved in an accident just south of Santa Barbara, Murnau was thrown out and his head struck a pole. He died instantly, by the side of the road. He was 42 years old.

Totally absorbed with his craft of film-making, Murnau wanted his characters and movies to be as realistic as possible. It did not matter to him that audiences could not hear his characters speak. The images and shadows of people and scenes spoke for themselves. None was heard more loudly than Max Schreck, who played Dracula.