Nosferatu History and Home Video Guide: Die zwölfte Stunde (1930)

• January 2024: Die zwölfte Stunde finally available for online viewing!
• First ever vampire film was reshot, recut and reissued with sound
• Methodology also practised by world’s most famous quack doctor
• The same ignominious fate befell many contemporary silent films
• Another victim was fellow silent horror The Phantom of the Opera
• Both films now survive in a confusing number of different versions
• Many other silents are now only extant in their later hybrid variants

This is one of a series of articles covering everything Graf Orlok and best read sequentially. They detail the film’s history, many different versions and home video releases, and I suggest you start reading from Part 1, unless you want to skip straight to the restored DVD and Blu-ray reviews. Note that this article, like most on this site, is in a constant state of flux, with new info and screening dates being added regularly.

To this day, various methods, sometimes controversial, are used to “update” films made using older technology. These include cropping those shot in Academy ratio to widescreen, remixing mono audio to surround sound, colorization and converting 2D to 3D. But they weren’t the first. As sound films rapidly took over and silents became passé, they were often converted to part-talkies halfway through shooting or even after the fact. With such a shot in the arm, the resulting hybrids benefited from a newfound longevity and were often referred to as “goat gland” films.

This was owing to the then current fame of medical charlatan John R. Brinkley, who grew wealthy transplanting goat testicles into ailing men – and women! – claiming the practise cured dozens of ailments including impotence and infertility. As his fraudulent advertising put it, any patient of his would become “the ram that am with every lamb.” Brinkley’s very expensive quackery made him a multi-millionaire but there was an even greater cost: that of huge suffering and death, making him one of the worst undeclared serial killers in American history. And they call Count Orlok a monster.

You couldn’t make it up. Fortunately Brinkley, like his spiritual kin Count Orlok, came to a sticky end.

• Nuts! the Film | UK | De

Brinkley’s incredible life (and death) story continues to generate much interest. Among countless other works, it’s the subject of several books and an award winning animated film, Nuts! (2016). Additionally, there’s a short featuring his ‘son’ and a biopic rumoured to star Robert Downey Jr.

• Goat Gland Doctor (1986) documentary
• Life of a Man: A Biography of John R. Brinkley (1934) – Clement Wood
• The Bizarre Careers of John R. Brinkley (2002) – R. Alton Lee
• Quacks and Crusaders: The Fabulous Careers of John Brinkley, Norman Baker, and Harry Hoxsey (2002) – Eric S. Juhnke
• Charlatan: The Fraudulent Life of John Brinkley (2008, UK edition, audio CD) – Pope Brock

Clips, interviews, etc | notes | website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Penny Lane

Getting back to Nosferatu’s first sound reissue, fully-silent films that were completed and sometimes even already released were re-edited and had newly shot scenes inserted. These new dialogue, music and sound effects scenes were often completely unrelated to the original production, as is the case here. Audio was provided using a number of competing technologies. Those less fortunate had optical soundtracks, which came to be the dominant technology, applied to the left edge of the film frame, which meant them permanently losing a large chunk of the image to accommodate it. The lucky ones were provided with sound on disc accompaniment, though unfortunately, in many cases these discs were later lost, as happened with Die zwölfte Stunde. So you see, the idea of giving Count Orlok a voice really is nothing new.

Die zwölfte Stunde. Eine Nacht des Grauens (1930) revision of Nosferatu. German 8-page programme; copy in Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek Archiv.

Die zwölfte Stunde. Eine Nacht des Grauens (The Twelfth Hour: A Night of Horror) was a drastically revised version of Nosferatu, to the extent that the film now had a happy ending! Its sound-on-disc accompaniment comprised music and sound effects only; no dialogue. The characters were all renamed (yet again), with Orlok becoming Wolkoff, Knock – Karsten, Hutter – Kundberg and Ellen – Margitta. It also contained some entirely new footage.[2] shot by cameraman Günther Krampf under the direction of Dr. Waldemar Roger. This included a scene at a wake, and a variety of pastoral sequences depicting rural life. Actor Eduard von Winterstein, coincidentally the real-life father of Gustav von Wangenheim, who played Hutter, also joined the cast as an innkeeper in some new scenes. Also appearing was Hans Behal as a priest.

Die zwölfte Stunde programme, pages 4 and 5

Die zwölfte Stunde title was only used in Germany in an obvious attempt to avoid the legal problems that the origin film ran into. Elsewhere, it was released as variations on Nosferatu. Despite false information to the contrary, there are only two known early prints of Die zwölfte Stunde. The only one in good, complete condition has been locked away in the archives of the Cinémathèque Française for years and only seen publicly via the odd screening with live piano accompaniment, as its sound discs are now lost. But it’s not much more than a curiosity, concomitant with poor contemporary reviews.

The Bundesarchiv also had timecoded DVD-Rs available on application and clearly consider DzS public domain, along with its parent film, as in January 2024 they finally placed their copy online. Welcomed by many, what we now need is to know whether the lesser print has any unique newly-shot footage and if so, for it to be combined with the other to provide the longest possible version.

Die zwölfte Stunde programme, pages 6 and 7. Both stills of Wolkoff (Orlok) are different from the original film and this appears to be an uncredited non-Schreck actor or stand-in, with distinctly campy make-up. Also see comments section here.

35mm, eight acts, 1893m, after cut-outs: 1799m (1:05:30)

Censorship: 14.11.1930, B27446, Jv. Censorship card not in Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv nor Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek. Reproduced in Lotte H. Eisner: F.W. Murnau (1964) p. 233 (Eng.)

Produced by Deutsch-Film-Production (D.F.P) Berlin SW 48, Friedrichstraße 233, 1930 / Artistic editing: Dr. Waldemar Roger / Music: Georg Fiebiger / Sound system: Organon GmbH, Polyphon-Grammophon-Group / World distribution: German Sound Film Distribution GmbH, Berlin

D.F.P was also registered as “Deutsche Film-Produktion (D.F.P.)”. Until 1932, the company released only two features: the American Wild West films In höchster Gefahr (In Highest Danger) and Bill… Augen auf! (Bill… Eyes Open!), which were both passed by the censors on 26.2.1930.

Check out this great series of articles on Nosferatu, Die zwölfte Stunde and Drakula halála by Guillermo Triguero.

Count Wolkoff (Orlok) in Die zwölfte Stunde. This appears to be the original version of the seemingly retouched photo in the programme above and the basis for the Spanish poster below.

Known screenings

Austria

• Première: 16.5.1930, as Nosferatu (The Vampyr), Vienna – Paimann’s Film Listen no. 737, 23.5.1930, p. 79 states the Viennese première is with six acts and about 2,300m in length; Klaus[2] says 2,297m. Paimann’s name the German “Prana-Organon-Film” as the company of origin.

Brazil

As logic would dictate, it’s almost certain the German-language version was only released in German-speaking countries. Though unverified, it’s likely an international sound version with sound effects only and intertitles instead of dialogue was prepared for other countries, as with similar films of the time, such as . Also possible is that both versions were released in tandem in Germanic countries. If you have any information as to which version played in Brazil, Spain or elsewhere, get in touch!

• From 30.5.1932, Correio da Manhã, 26.5.1932, p. 14.
  “O Lobishomem (O Vampiro de Nosferatu) O monstro que suguva o sangue das virgens. Incrivel! Medonho! Nunca Visto!”
  “The Werewolf (The Vampire of Nosferatu) The monster that sucked the blood of virgins. Amazing! Ghastly! Never see!”

Germany

• 17–22.3.1931, Berlin Kamera – Film-Kurier, no. 61, 13.3.1931: “Have You Heard?” memorial for Murnau in the Camera; Lichtbild-Bühne, No. 64, 16.3.1931: “The film appears mute and tinted under the title The Twelfth Hour (A Night of Horror).” The reviewers of these events, however, always speak of Nosferatu. See: The Murnau Memorial Presentation: Nosferatu in the Camera. In Lichtbild-Bühne, No. 66, 18.3.1931.

Spain

• 23.2.1931, as Nosferatu, el vampiro, Barcelona Avenida – La Vanguardia newspaper, 22.2.1931, p. 16.
• 23.11.1931, Madrid Cine de la Prensa. – Berriatúa (as no. 7), p 137 Also La Época newspaper, 23.1.1931, p. 2.

Spanish poster of Die zwölfte Stunde aka Nosferatu, el vampiro. Note its close resemblance to the photo on page 6 of the programme above. The window is arched, not square and partly boarded-up, as in the original film.

[2] Full credits in Deutsche Tonfilme: 1. Jahrgang 1929/30 (1988) by Ulrich J. Klaus

Grateful thanks to Aitam Bar-Sagi, David Shepard, Lokke Heiss, Martin H. Larsen and Patrick Stanbury for help with this series of articles.

Related articles

If you like this, you’ll love:

• Nosferatu: History and Home Video Guide: Genesis of a Vampire
  • Part 2: 1920s Screenings
  • Part 3: Surviving Prints and “Public Domain Version”
  • Part 4: 1981–1987 Restorations 
  • Part 5: David Shepard and Eureka Versions
  • Part 6: 1995 and 2006 Restorations
  • Part 7: Serenading the Undead: So Many Scores
  • Part 8: The Many Faces of Orlok: Restored Versions on Blu-ray and DVD
• Nosferatu Unleashed in HD: Every Blu-ray Reviewed
• Nosferatu History and Home Video Guide: Die zwölfte Stunde (1930)
• Nosferatu: Chronicles from the Vaults – reprints of rare articles
  • Volume II
  • Volume III – includes complete bibliography
• Nosferatu Rises: Reincarnated in Sound

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