The copyright battle that gave cinematic life to Dracula

Estate summary

Olivia Rutigliano considers how the dispute over Nosferatu helped shape two enduring traditions of vampire cinema. Her essay begins with the unauthorised use of Dracula and Florence Stoker’s efforts to control the resulting film, then follows the survival of prints and the development of authorised stage and screen adaptations. It contrasts Murnau’s isolated, unsettling Orlok with the more urbane Dracula familiar from later performances. Rutigliano argues that the legal conflict is part of the explanation for these diverging screen identities, rather than simply a curious episode in film preservation. The essay is an interpretation based on later histories, including David J. Skal’s work; it does not reproduce the original case file. Its account of Florence’s intentions and some dates differs from other retrospectives, so those details should be read as the author’s account rather than established findings from newly recovered documents.

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