SC - OT: Eating the Script Girl

[Peters, Rise J.]

Susan Fox-Davis wrote:
> 
 
> Don't be so sure.  Part of what inspired this work of speculative fiction is the
> historical datum

What historical datum? AFAIK, the data consists entirely of the
performance itself and the allegation that Max Schreck may in fact have
been a contract player named Alfred Abel. Is there more?

> that the actor was a realllly weird spooky guy.  "What if he had
> really been a vampire?"  The answer to the cinematic question is that the movie
> "Nosferatu" would have come out exactly the same.

I think a great deal of any allegations of spookiness on the part of the
actor may have had to do with the simple fact that nobody had ever
played a vampire on film (despite rumors, Melies' "The Devil's Castle"
doesn't count) before. I just watched "Nosferatu" the other day, and
Schreck, or whoever it is, is so heavily made up that his actual
performance is completely obscured by makeup, primitive special effects,
and an extremely pantomimic directorial style. There was a similarly
huge mystique attached to Boris Karloff, too, shortly before, and
shortly after, the production and release of the 1931 "Frankenstein",
one entirely unjustified except for publicity purposes. At least his
earlier career is pretty documentably harmless, and nobody was ever
kinder to children and dogs, but I'm really not aware of any claims that
Schreck was an especially spooky man off camera. Or, if he was, there
are quite a few otherwise reputable film historians who weren't aware of
it. 

Adamantius
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Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com