New Delhi, Jan. 12 -- Like the now-iconic image of Count Orlok arising from his coffin, Nosferatu has resurrected itself over and over for more than a century of cinematic adaptations, despite an early attempt to drive a stake through its heart. On discovering that the 1922 silent German Expressionist film (streaming on Plex) was an unauthorised adaptation of author Bram Stoker's Dracula, his widow, Florence, was furious. A years-long legal battle ensued and in 1925, a German court ordered that all copies of Nosferatu, directed by F.W. Murnau, be destroyed. Luckily, some prints had already made their way over to America, where Dracula was in the public domain. Nosferatu survived, and cinema was all the better for it. (Robert Eggers' 2024 ...