Tenderness of the Wolves (1973)

Surprisingly deemed too controversial a topic to direct himself, infant terrible Rainer Werner Fassbinder handed the reins of Tenderness of the Wolves, a deeply unsettling portrayal of serial killer Fritz Haarmann, to his protégé Ulli Lommel, the man later responsible for video nasty The Boogeyman (1980) and countless straight-to-video efforts that linger in the IMDb's Bottom 100 list. Despite this, the film looks and feels like a Fassbinder film. The characters inhabit the same sleazily-filmed world, many of Fassbinder's troupe of actors appear, and the great man himself has a small role as an ugly pimp.Written by the great Kurt Raab, who also stars as Haarmann, Tenderness of the Wolves doesn't spend any time trying to understand the motivation of the man dubbed the Vampire of Hanover, but instead shows us a snippet of his debauched life. Moving the story from 1924 (when Haarmann was arrested in real-life) to post World War II, Germany is a country clearly feeling the economic strain of losing the war, where the black market is flourishing and con-man Haarmann is doing very well for himself. Along with his on-and-off lover and pimp Hans Grans (Jeff Roden), he swindles clothes from good Samaritans and sells them on for profit, as well as selling meat to bar owner Louise (Brigitte Mira) which may or may not be the bodies of his victims.As a horror, it achieves it's disturbing atmosphere not through gratuitousness, but through the squalor of its setting, observant direction, and Raab's magnificent performance. Haartmann was a gay child molester who enjoyed throttling his victims, biting into their throats (often through the Adam's apple), before chopping them into pieces and throwing them into the Leine River. We don't see much of the murders, but when they do occur they are filmed without sensationalism, made all the more unsettling due to the full-frontal male nudity of some of the film's under-age actors, something extremely rare in horror even today.Haartmann, shaven-headed and ghostly pale, manipulates his victims by posing as a police officer before drugging and overpowering them, often making little effort to cover his tracks or dispose of the bodies discretely. This arrogance, although it would eventually lead to his arrest, makes him even more of a monster, and Raab delivers a truly terrific performance. Without attempting to explain his actions or even offer a background of how Haarmann got into the criminal business and how he developed a taste for human blood, Tenderness of the Wolves becomes more about the world he inhabits and the creepy characters who surround him. It's hardly a film to discuss over breakfast, but it will no doubt stay with you for long after the credits have rolled.

It's German, it's from the '70's, so of course this movie is being something different than usual. It's a typical European production, that doesn't take a spectacular Hollywood approach but instead focuses more on the visuals and actual storytelling.Guess that some people might find this movie to be a lackluster and even boring to watch but in its genre it's simply being an unique movie that is throughout intriguing to watch. It's a movie that grabs you, even though the movie has some slow storytelling in it. It's really a movie that takes its time to set up things and never does things hastily. Even the killings occur in a slow, delicate manner, often without wasting too much dialog on it. It's all the more intriguing once you know that this movie is fairly well based on true events and persons.I wasn't sure what to expect from this movie beforehand, since it had a premise of an homosexual German serial killer, set in the early 20th century. This are 3 things that might already scare off some people from ever watching it. I had no idea what the overall tone or the story would be all about. In all honesty, I was more expecting an homo-erotic type of movie, also because of its title perhaps. But it's simply a very accessible movie to just basically everyone. It isn't trying to be very controversial or groundbreaking with its subject, which might also be one of the reasons though why this movie isn't that well known. Sure, there is some male nudity in the movie but it's all fairly tame and toned down. It certainly isn't being presented as anything erotic or exciting, so you shouldn't feel too uncomfortable with it.It's more a movie that tries to shock with its premise, which does work out well. The movie feels and looks almost like an horror movie at times, due to its fine atmosphere and effective storytelling. It's a really well made film, that feels a bit clumsy at times with its editing perhaps but even this contributes to its nice suiting eerie atmosphere.It also all works out very well thanks to its main character, that got played very well by Kurt Raab, who does look quite effectively creepy.One greatly effective and intriguing movie.8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

This is a true masterpiece. A classic Produced by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who also plays a small role, and directed by Cult Filmmaker Ulli Lommel. It stars legendary Kurt Raab and it reminds you of Fritz Lang's masterpiece "M". Even though it is 37 years old, it feels like it was made yesterday. The camera work, the music, the acting, the directing, the lighting, the music, it's all as good as it gets! Based on a true crime story, it's about serial killer Fritz Haarmann, who murdered some 40 kids back around WWII in Germany. The mood, the settings, the whole feel of the film is so extraordinary, it keeps you glued to the screen from the first minute. And it's actually as good as the best Fassbinder films I have seen. I read a review back in the 70s by Vincent Canby in the New York Times, who loved this film and I saw it back then at a cinema in Manhattan, but this DVD I just screened is so cool so wonderful, this film is on my all time top ten list.

Back in the early 70's, when his name wasn't yet a synonym for insufferably crappy hand-held camera horror stuff, Ulli Lommel actually was quite the promising and visionary young (barely 29 years old) director in his home country Germany. The powerful impact of "The Tenderness of Wolves" alone is already more than enough evidence to back up this statement. This is a thoroughly unsettling and disturbing drama/horror hybrid based on the true facts in the case of one of the most notorious European criminal figures of the previous century. Fritz Haarmann was a German pedophile and serial killer of young adolescent males during the Interbellum period and made nearly 30 victims in only five years of time. Haarmann makes his money by trades food and goods on the black market that he himself falsely confiscated by pretending to be a policeman. This is also how he picks up young lads in the train station and lures them to his apartment loft. Uncle Fritz probes for homeless boys and eventually murders them by biting their throats; which gave him the nickname "The Vampire of Hanover". The atrocities became even more inhuman when Fritz, together with his lover/partner-in-crime Hans Grans, sold the hacked up flesh of the victims on the black market. "The Tenderness of Wolves" is definitely not an overly graphical or tasteless film, but the subject matter is sickening and the whole portrayal of pedophilia is beyond disturbing. Haarmann pretty openly declares his affection for young boys and his entire surrounding either deliberately ignores this or even considers it to be the most common thing in the world. Only his neighbor from the apartment below suspects his psychopathic tendencies and attempts to alert the authorities, but that fails as Haarmann actually had connections with the police where he worked as a "rat".The sequences in which Haarmann is intimate with his victims are extremely discomforting, but at the same time they make the film all the more powerful and hauntingly realistic. It seems unthinkable in this modern day and age, but it was so easy for twisted perverts to pick up unsuspecting and youthful victims. Especially in times of poverty and despair, like the case in Germany between the two World Wars. Every time Haarmann comes near a boy, you can already assume the poor kid's fate is sealed, like the runaway drifter at the railway station or the boy at the carnival. Whenever he approaches a kid, your skin is guaranteed to crawl, because his voice is so stern and despicable. "The Tenderness of Wolves" also benefices from a more than decent re-creation of the depressing era and – of course – the incredibly brilliant and courageous performance of lead actor/writer Kurt Raab. He truly depicts Fritz Haarmann exactly like an emotionless and depraved monster ought to be depicted. This certainly isn't a film that is suitable for all tastes (and even the most hardened cult fanatics need to feel in a certain state of mind to watch it), but it's undeniably a unique experience and easily one of the top five most unpleasant yet fascinating things I ever watched. Moreover, after witnessing the unforgettable tour-de-force accomplishment that is "The Tenderness of Wolves", it's all the more difficult to accept that Ulli Lommel is nowadays directing junk entitled "Zombie Nation", "Diary of a Cannibal" or "BTK Killer".