Tenderness of the Wolves

Director: Ulli Lommel
Run Time: 82 min
Format: DCP
Release Year: 1973
Language: German
Starring: Ingrid Caven, Jeff Roden, Kurt Raab, Margit Carstensen, Wolfgang Schenck

A Fassbinder-produced reimagining of the story of Fritz Haarmann, the serial killer whose crimes inspired Fritz Lang’s 1931 classic M. In a post-war German city, Haarmann, a seasoned criminal, is recruited as a police informant. He uses the cover this position affords him to preys on young boys, luring them into his garret before molesting them, killing them with a bite to the neck, and turning their bodies into sausages. Everyone in town loves Haarmann’s meats, from black marketeers to the police inspector, but the tide turns when a nosy neighbor starts putting two and two together. Based on a script by Kurt Raab who also stars as Haarmann and featuring performances from many Fassbinder regulars—including a memorable cameo by the man himself—, Tenderness of the Wolves cares less about historical accuracy than about setting the scene for, in Fassbinder’s words, “a thriller with lots of blood … a combination of Fritz Lang’s M and Hitchcock’s Psycho.”