I'm Kristen Davis, host of the podcast, Are You a Charlotte? The incredible Cynthia Nixon joins me

this week for a conversation filled with memories and stories I didn't even know. Cynthia could have

been Carrie. When I first read the script, they asked me to read for Carrie, as I think they asked

you to read for Carrie. Did you? I did. And they were like, yeah, not so much.

You can't miss this.

Listen to Are You a Charlotte on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of IHeart Radio.

Hi, my name is Robert Lamb, and this is The Monster Fact, a short-form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time.

At last, I can speak to you of the most recent cinematic treatment of Count Orlock,

the off-brand Dracula from 1920's Nosferatu, a symphony of horror,

who went on to become a horror icon in his own right.

We have to remember that in 1922, Bram Stoker's novel Dracula was only 35 years old.

In fact, F.W. Murnau's unauthorized adaptation drew the ire of Stoker's widow,

whose legal actions threatened to see all copies of the now legendary silent film destroyed.

Luckily, of course, Murnau's masterpiece survived.

As horror film historian David J. Schaul points out in his book,

V is for Vampire, the A to Z Guide to Everything Undead,

the German expressionist picture can largely be seen as a, quote,

metaphor of the plague-like destruction of Germany in World War I.

He also points out that in its initial release, it was far from the silent black and white nightmare that we think of today

and was actually elaborately color-tinted and accompanied by a modernist orchestra score.

The film influenced not only subsequent Dracula adaptations, but horror cinema as a whole.

...