Today, no film buff can miss the masterpiece "Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror," the 1922 German Expressionist film based on Bram Stoker's Dracula. It's practically a cliche now with everyone familiar with the image of Count Orlok swinging up from his coffin as if on a hinge, but the entire film does warrant a viewing by every fan of classic film.
Nevertheless, while the film stands today as one of the greatest silent films ever made, there was a concerted effort to destroy every single print of the film thanks to the nonsense of intellectual property law.
It seems that the makers of the film never secured the rights to produce a film based on Stoker's novel, and given the inexact nature of copyright law at the time, this was nothing terribly unusual. But, after hearing about the film, Florence Stoker, Bram's widow, became enraged that the film had been made without her consent and tirelessly lobbied to have every print of the film destroyed. She never expressed any interest in seeing the movie, either.
She did this in spite of the fact that the film produced considerable interest in the original novel and made Mrs. Stoker a far wealthier woman that she would have been otherwise.
Fortunately, her plan failed, and now that she's in her own coffin, we can enjoy this masterpiece of German film. Thank the film gods that in this case, IP law was not enforced.
