Hello Bill (And everyone else), I have researched the subject of Murnau as much as possible, but it is indeed an elusive subject at best, as so little about him has survived and so little about him has ever been written. With that being said, the most reliable sources of information I have been able to find have been Lotte Eisner's two books "Murnau" and "The Haunted Screen" (Much like you, I found a handful of internet sites that seem to contradict each other or altogether lack creditable information). Both books are now out of print, however, I believe amazon.com can do an OOP book search for you and I think the Berkeley University Press might still print some of Eisner's work. Eisner was a "film historian" or sorts, ala Louis Brooks, and was a contemporary of Murnau in Germany and thus knew a lot of the same characters and shared common friends. However I don't think the two ever actually met. Her documentation and writings on Murnau are, I believe, some of the best record we have of him and his work. The Vampire story, or the idea that Shreck was a Vampire, seems to the best of my research, to be completely fabricated for the film, "Shadow Of A Vampire", which seems to take it's share of liberties with what little is known about Murnau. It would seem in order to sell tickets, Lions Gate Films revved up it's marketing machine,(probably also pulling from the novel of the same name) to circulate fabricated and ludicrous tales surrounding the making of a somewhat unremarkable Murnau film. Meaning only that the story and Murnau's attention to detail, as well as makeup and cinematography made for an impressive film, however I would argue not close to his best. Murnau's work in "Nosferatu" and for that matter his work in "Expressionism" seems to have culminated in his last German and UFA film in 1926, "Faust", which seems to be considered by many a true masterpiece of German Expressionism. His foray into Realism which somewhat begins with his film, "The Last Laugh", would find it's crowning achievement in Murnau's last feature, "Tabu", which was filmed entirely on location in Tai Pei with natives of the islands as the only actors. All in all though, it would appear that for Hollywood, Murnau's real life and work weren't interesting enough to script and shoot, so they had to "add" their gratuitous "embellishments". Ideas that the actor Max Scheck, who went on be featured in around 20 other films (www.imdb.com lists his other films), was a Vampire are just a part of that ploy to get you to see the "Shadow Of A Vampire" and perhaps to get you to buy the badly "remastered" edition of "Nosferatu" on DVD which was released a couple of weeks before "Shadow Of The Vampire". In retrospect, looking at Schreck's career which lasted until 1935, and seeing that he was featured in anywhere from 1 to 3 films a year from the time Nosferatu was made until he died in 1936, (he was in 2 films the year Nosferatu was released and in another 3 the following year), it seems preposterous that anyone in Germany would have believed him to be a real Vampire. I suppose it would be the modern equivalent of a film studio releasing a film 80 years from now on the making of Francis Ford Coppla's "Dracula" and insisting at the time the film was released, rumors began to circulate that Tom Cruise was really a Vampire. Albeit Shreck probably never achieved the popularity that Cruise has today, but he was still just as easily a recognizable star in German Cinema. Not to ramble, but I hope this helps some. - Staven ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.tcf.ua.edu/ScreenSite