Directed by: E. Elias Merhige
Synopsis: F.W. Murnau (John Malkovich) finds the perfect person to fill the role of his vampire Count Orlock in Max Shreck (Willem Dafoe) who is either the world’s best actor or something more sinister.
Kitty Cameo: The film opens with Murnau shooting the opening scene of the film with actress Greta Schröder (Catherine McCormack) playing with a cat.
She dangles a ball of string in front of the cat’s face but the cat doesn’t react.
Eventually the scene fades to color and the director yells “End!” The cat is then removed from the windowsill. Later producer Albin Grau (Udo Kier) and others will comment on the lethargy of the cat. “Laudanum,” Grau explains, “It’s hard to keep the damn thing docile under the lights.” While it is known that cats have been drugged to keep them calm on a movie set, in the original movie the cat used was not overly lively but did play with the ball and interact with the actress. The reference to laudanum was likely to set up its mention later in the film.
In the commentary track on the film’s DVD the director did comment that “the cat was remarkably cooperative in this film,” and went on to say how he doesn’t know how the cat managed to stay so remarkably still for the scene.
Final Mewsings: Cat actors sometimes aren’t acting; sometimes they are just not into it.
Many thanks to Nick Wale for letting us know about the cat in this film!
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