• Cast • Count Dracula, the vampire.......................Max Schreck Renfield, an estate agent...............Alexander Grannach Jonathon Harker, Renfield's clerk.................Gustav von Wangenheim Nina, his wife.........................................................Greta Schroeder Westenra, Harker's friend..........G. H. Schell Lucy, his wife..........................................Ruth Landshoff The Professor............................................John Gottowt The Town doctor..........................................Gustav Botz Captain of the 'Demeter'............................Max Nemetz First Mate...............................................Wolfgang Heinz From the diary of Johann Cavallius, able historian of his native city of Bremen: Nosferatu! That name alone can chill the blood! Nosferatu! Was it he who brought the plaque to Bremen in 1838? I have long sought the causes of that terrible epidemic, and found at its origin and its climax the innocent figures of Jonathon Harker and his young wife Nina. B R E M E N 1 8 3 8 MORNING At the Home of Jonathon and Nina Harker. Harker leaves for work. HARKER: (presents Nina with a bouquet of flowers). In the streets of Bremen.Harker walks to work. An old man approaches. OLD MAN: Wait, young man. You can't escape destiny by running away. HARKER: (shakes the old man's hand and continues walking) At the Estate Office of Agent Renfield. Renfield reads a letter. The agent Renfield was a strange man, and there were unpleasant rumours about him. Enter Harker RENFIELD: Here is an important letter from Transylvania. Count Dracula wishes to buy a house in our city. It's a good opportunity for you, Harker. The Count is rich, and free with his money. You will, have a marvelous journey. And, young as you are, what matter if it costs you some pain--or even a little blood? The house facing yours...that should suit him. Leave at once, my young friend. And don't be frightened if people speak of Transylvania as the land of phantoms. At the Home of the Harkers HARKER: I may be away for several months, Nina. Renfield is sending me to some lost corner of the Carpathians. NINA: (looks worried) Harker left Nina with his good friends Westenra and his wife Lucy. Outside the Westernras' House. Nina runs to say goodbye to Harker. HARKER: Don't worry, Nina, nothing can happen to me. Harker mounts a horse and rides away T R A N S Y L V A N I A From relay to relay, through the dust raised by the stages, Harker hurried on. A coach speeds along rugged countryside. EVENING. A Village Inn. Harker disembarks from the coach and enters the Inn. HARKER: Dinner, quickly! I should already be at Count Dracula's castle! The inn patrons look away in worry. INNKEEPER: You must not leave now! The evil spirits become all-powerful after dark! HARKER: (chuckles to himself) In a room at the Inn Harker undresses for bed. He reads from a book left on the bedtable. THE BOOK OF THE VAMPIRES ...and it was in 1443 that the first Nosferatu was born. That name rings like the cry of a bird of prey. Never speak it aloud... Men do not always recognize the dangers that beasts can sense at certain times. HARKER: (laughs and goes to bed) Outside the window, a hyena prowls. Village horses scatter in fear. Village women cower in terror. MORNING Outside the Inn. A coach departs. LATE AFTERNOON In the Carpathian Mountains. The coach speeds along mountain roads. PASSENGER: Hurry! The sun will soon be setting. AT DUSK THAT EVENING At a crossroads. The coach stops and Harker disembarks. DRIVER: We will go no further, sir. Not for a fortune! We will go no further. Here begins the land of the phantoms. The driver throws down Harker's luggage HARKER: (Walks away, crossing over a bridge) And when he had crossed the phantoms came to meet him. Harker is met by a coach which carries him to Castle Dracula. At the Castle. Harker is greeted by the Nosferatu Count. NOSFERATU: You are late, young man. It is almost midnight. My servants have all retired. He leads Harker to sup at a dining table HARKER: (cuts finger on a bread knife) NOSFERATU: Blood! Your precious blood! Harker warily backs away. NOSFERATU: Let us chat together a moment, my friend. There are still several hours until dawn, and I have the whole day to sleep. He leads Harker to a chair by a fireplace. As the sun rose, Harker felt himself freed from the oppressions of the night. Harker awakens. He notes two marks on his neck. LATER THAT MORNING. Harker walks in the countryside around the Castle. He finds a gazebo and writes there a letter to Nina. Nina, my beloved - Don't be unhappy. Though I am far away, I love you. This is a strange country. After my first night in the castle, I found two large bites on my neck. From mosquitoes? From spiders? I don't know. I have had some frightful dreams, but they were only dreams. You mustn't worry about me. I am leaving immediately to return to Bremen--and to you. Harker stops a traveler and gives him the letter to post. As twilight came on, the empty castle became alive with menacing shadows. In the parlour at Castle Dracula. Harker and the Nosferatu review legal papers. The Count sees Harker's picture of Nina. NOSFERATU: Is this your wife? What a lovely throat! That old mansion seems quite satisfactory. We shall be neighbours. Count signs the documents THAT NIGHT. In Harker's Bedroom. Harker packs away Nina's picture. He finds The Book of the Vampires and reads more. Nosferatu drinks the blood of the young, the blood necessary to his own existence. One can recognize the mark of the vampire by the trace of his fangs on the victim's throat. HARKER: (peeks out his bedroom door) COUNT: (stands motionlessly at the end of the hall) HARKER: (quickly closes his bedroom door, looks out the window at the river far below, and climbs into his bed) Enter the Count That same night in Bremen, in a somnabulistic dream... At the home of the Westenras. NINA: (awakens in a trance and walks out to the terrace) Westenra follows WESTENRA: Nina? Nina collapses in Westenra's arms. Enter servant. WESTENRA: The doctor, quickly! LATER THAT NIGHT. In Harker's Bedroom in Castle Dracula. The Count advances on Harker as he lies asleep. MEANWHILE... In Nina's Bedroom in Bremen. The doctor, Westenra and Lucy stand over Nina as she sleeps. NINA: (suddenly sitting up) Jonathon! Jonathon! Hear me! MOMENTS LATER. In Harker's Bedroom in Castle Dracula. The Count turns from Harker's sleeping body. Exit the Count. MEANWHILE... In Nina's Bedroom in Bremen. NINA: (sighs relief and returns to sleep) DOCTOR: A sudden fever. The doctor laid Nina's trance to some unknown disease. Since then I have learned that she had sensed the menace of Nosferatu that very night. And Harker, far away, had heard her cries of warning. THE NEXT MORNING. In Harker's Bedroom at Castle Dracula. Harker awakens. He rushes from his bedroom out into the courtyard and wanders into a crypt. He finds the Count lying in a coffin. Exit Harker, horrifed. EARLY THAT EVENING. Harker looks out his bedroom window. He sees the Count loading coffins on a horse-drawn cart. COUNT: (climbs into a coffin and closes the lid) Exit horses, cart, coffins and Count. HARKER: (Makes a rope from a bedsheet and climbs out the window) Harker falls to the ground below and is knocked unconscious. THE NEXT DAY. A cargo-bearing raft floats down a river. The men little suspected what terrible cargo they were carrying down the valley. SEVERAL DAYS LATER. In a hospital room somewhere in Transylvania. A nurse and doctor tend to Harker at his bedside. NURSE: Some peasants brought him here last evening. He still has a high fever. HARKER: (leaps up suddenly) Coffins! Coffins filled with earth! In a shipyard. Sailors load crates onto a ship. Tipping over one crate, they find only dirt and rats. Nosferatu was en route; and with him disaster approached Bremen. At the same time, Dr. Van Helsing was giving a course on the secrets of nature and their strange correspondences to human life. The professor told his students about the existence of a carnivourous plant. B R E M E N Professor Van Helsing's Laboratory. Van Helsing and four colleagues watch as a Venus flytrap traps a fly. VAN HELSING: Astonishing, isn't it, gentlemen? That plant is the vampire of the vegetable kingdom. Nosferatu held Renfield under his influence from afar. At the Sanatarium. An attendant enters the doctor's quarters. ATTENDANT: That patient who was brought in yesterday has gone out of his mind! In Renfield's cell at the Sanatarium. Enter Doctor and Attendant. RENFIELD: (catches and eats flies) Blood! Blood! Renfield leaps at Doctor. Attendant subdues Renfield. In Van Helsing's Laboratory. Van Helsing and colleagues peer into a tank. VAN HELSING: And now, gentlemen, here is another type of vampire: a polyp with claws...transparent, without substance, almost a phantom. Nina was often seen alone among the dunes watching and waiting for her husband's return. On the dunes overlooking the sea. Nina sits on a bench looking out to sea. Lucy and Western bring Nina the letter from Harker. MEANWHILE... In Harker's Hospital Room Somewhere in Transylvania. Harker dresses for his journey back to Bremen. AT THE SAME TIME... In Renfield's Cell at the Sanatarium in Bremen. Renfield unfolds a newspaper clipping and reads it. NEW PLAGUE BAFFLES SCIENCE A mysterious epidemic of the plaque has broken out in eastern Europe in the port cities of the Black Sea, attacking principally the young and vigorous. Cause of the two bloody marks on the neck of each victim baffles the medical profession. RENFIELD: (laughs) Aboard the Demester, first one man was stricken, then all. In the hold of the Demeter. Captain tends to a sick sailor. The Count appears briefly then fades. One evening at sundown, the captain and his first mate buried the last man of the crew. On the deck of the Demeter. Captain and first mate toss a body overboard. FIRST MATE: I am going below. I want to have a look in the hold. In the hold of the Demeter. First mate sees the Nosferatu rise from his coffin. FIRST MATE: (rushes topside and leaps overboard) CAPTAIN: (ties himself to the steering wheel) The Nosferatu approaches the Captain. Despite all sorts of obstacles, Harker pushed on towards Bremen. Meanwhile, driven by the fatal breath of the vampire, the vessel moved rapidly towards the Baltic. ONE NIGHT. At the Westenras' House. Nina sleepwalks to the terrace. Lucy follows Nina. NINA: He's coming. I must go to meet him. In the Bremen Harbour. The Demeter sails into port. In Renfield's Cell at the Sanatarium. Renfield attempts to climb out his window. RENFIELD: The Master is coming! The Master is here! Renfield escapes I have long tried to understand why Nosferatu travelled with the earth-filled coffins. Recently I discovered that to preserve their diabolic power, vampires must sleep during the day in the same unhallowed ground in which they had been buried. The Count carries his coffin from the harbour to his newly-purchased house in Bremen. MEANWHILE... At the Westenras' House. Harker returns and is met by Nina. NINA: Jonathon! Thank God you are safe! Now I feel that I too have been saved! THE NEXT MORNING. In the Bremen Harbour. Officials search the Demeter. The captain is found dead at the wheel. OFFICIAL: We couldn't find a single living soul on board! A second official discovers the Ship's Log Ship's Log - Varna to Bremen - 24 April 1838. Passed the Dardanelles - East wind - Carrying 5 passengers, mate, crew of 7, and myself, the Captain. 6 May 1838 - Rounded Cape of Inatagran - One of my men, the strongest, is sick - Crew is restless, uneasy. 7 May 1838 - Mate reported stowaway hiding below decks - Will investigate. 18 May 1838 - Passed Gibraltar - Panic on board - Three men dead already - Mate out of his mind - Rats in the hold - I fear the plague. BURGOMASTER: The plague is here! Stay in your houses! HOURS LATER. In the deserted streets of Bremen. Towncrier reads a notice. NOTICE To halt the spread of the plague, the Burgomaster of Bremen forbids the citizens of this city to bring their sick to the hospitals until further notice. Nina had promised her husband never to open The Book of the Vampires, but she found herself unable to resist the temptation. In the living room of the Harkers Nina reads from The Book of the Vampires. One can recognize the mark of the vampire by the trace of his fangs on the victim's throat. Only a woman can break his frightful spell--a woman pure in heart--who will offer her blood freely to Nosferatu and will keep the vampire by her side until after the cock has crowed. Enter Harker NINA: (pointing out the window to the mansion across the street) Look! Every night, in front of me! The townspeople lived in mortal terror. Who was sick or dying? Who will be stricken tomorrow? At the Harkers' House. Nina lies sick in bed. HARKER: Don't be frightened. I will get the professor. Exit Harker. Nina looks out the window at the line of coffins being carried along the street. She reads from The Book of the Vampires. Only a woman can break his frightful spell --a woman--pure in heart--who will offer her blood freely to blood Nosferatu and will keep the vampire by her side until after the cock has crowed. MEANWHILE... Outside the Sanatarium. Two old women talk to each other. OLD WOMAN: They saw him escape. He strangled his keeper. Renfield runs down an alley, pursued by a crowd. He climbs onto a roof. The crowd throws rocks at him. He climbs down and runs outside of town. The crowd pursues. THAT NIGHT. In the Harkers' Bedroom Nina is awakened by the Nosferatu outside her window. She opens the window. Harker awakens and Nina faints in his arms. HARKER: The professor! Call the professor! Exit Harker. Enter the Nosferatu. THE NEXT MORNING. In the Harkers' Bedroom. The cock crows. The Nosferatu looks up from drinking at Nina's neck. MEANWHILE... In Renfield's Cell at the Sanatarium. RENFIELD: Master! Master! Beware! Outside the Harkers' House. Harker and Van Helsing arrive. In the Harkers' Bedroom. Sunlight sweeps across the buildings across the street from Nina's window. Nosferatu attempts to escape but is touched by the sunlight. He vanishes in a puff of smoke. In Renfield's Cell at the Sanatarium. RENFIELD: The Master is dead. In the Harkers' Bedroom. Nina awakens. Enter Harker. NINA: Jonathon! Harker takes Nina in his arms as she dies..And at that moment, as if by a miracle, the sick no longer died, and the stifling shadow of the vampire vanished with the morning sun. • THE END • Bio of.........Max Schreck Resource...Find A Grave Vault of Secrets Main Site Directory