Book lifts lid on star of eerie first Dracula film
Berlin (Reuters) - The number one screen characterization of Dracula was so eerie, roughly critics asked whether the actor himself could be a lamia. Only since his death, little has been done to resurrect Max Schreck's reputation -- until at present.
Schreck is best remembered for playing the cadaverous lamia Count Orlok in F.W. Murnau's 1922 silent classic "Nosferatu: A Symphonic music of Horror", the first, unauthorized cinematic adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula.
The rest of his vocation has been largely forgotten -- unjustly, in the purview of German generator Stefan Eickhoff, world Health Organization has written what he says is the first-class honours degree life history of Schreck.
"Whoever hopes to discover a vampire will be disappointed, just they testament find an worker of real accomplishment and versatility," said Eickhoff. "Still he himself remains more or less shrouded in closed book."
"Nosferatu" failed to take its lead a adept, simply achieved such cultus status that just about flick scholars speculated his name -- Schreck substance "fear" or "fear" in German -- was a nom de guerre.
In 1953, Greek-born critic Adonis Kyrou badly asked in his ledger "Le Surrealisme au Movie theater" whether the worker was a lamia: the estimation caught carry and by and by inspired a picture.
Despite years of research, Eickhoff found in that location were virtually no anecdotes featuring Schreck, nor any references to him in the memoirs of the many hoi polloi he had worked with.
Instead, Eickhoff's life history provides a detailed history of the career of Schreck, a civil servant's word wHO appeared in about 800 microscope stage and screen roles. Glimpses into the man slow the actor's cloak remain few and far between.
