Max Schreck is seen on screen, even before his character Graf Orlok is presented to the audience. He appears briefly opposite Hutter at the desk at the office of Knock, looking up from writing when Knock calls on Hutter to give him the assignment of going to see the count.
Many scenes featuring Graf Orlok were filmed during the day, and when viewed in black and white, this becomes extremely obvious. This potential blooper is corrected when the "official" versions of the movie are tinted blue to represent night.
Ruth Landshoff, the actress who played the hero's sister once described a scene in which she fled the vampire, running along a beach. That scene is not in any version of the film.
All known prints and negatives were destroyed under the terms of settlement of a lawsuit by Bram Stoker's widow. However, the film would subsequently surface in other countries.
Director F.W. Murnau found Max Schreck "strikingly ugly" in real life and decided the vampire makeup would suffice with just pointy ears and false teeth.
There have been different first names for the main characters in different English versions. In a few, Hutter is called "Thomas", in others is "Jonathon". Although Hutter's wife is credited as "Ellen", in some versions she is called "Nina".
The trivia item below may give away important plot points.
The concept in popular culture that sunlight is lethal to vampires is based on this film, which depicted such a death for the very first time in film history. F.W. Murnau knew that he would be sued for borrowing heavily from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula without permission so he changed the ending so that he could say this film and Dracula were not exactly the same.