Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #56012 in DVD
• Released on: 1999-08-24
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Collector's Edition, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: German
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 86 minutes

Amazon.com
Based on the same true story that inspired Fritz Lang's M, Ulli Lommel's Tenderness of the Wolves takes an unsettling look at the life of murderer, black marketeer, and police informant Fritz Haarman, a pedophile who used his position to sweep the train stations and pick up young runaway boys. Living in the depression of post-WWI Germany, Haarman lured the boys to his attic apartment with the promise of a warm meal and bed, only to emerge alone the next morning with secondhand clothes and black market "pork." Lommel melds images from M and F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu with the elegant camerawork, evocative sets, and tableaux-style direction associated with the films of New German cinema auteur Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who produced the film and appears in a small role. Screenwriter/star Kurt Raab suggests Peter Lorre by way of the vampire Nosferatu with his shaved head, child-like smile and hunched walk, an insidiously beguiling boy-man who strangles his innocent young victims and feasts on their blood. The film is handsomely photographed and well performed by a cast made up of Fassbinder's regular troupe, but becomes muddled toward the middle, tangling the many threads before finally winding them together in a bold, baroque climax. Though lacking in the rich irony of Fassbinder's works, it's a striking, often startling film dominated by Raab's unsettling performance. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Fritz Haarman: The Werewolf Of Hanover
TENDERNESS OF THE WOLVES is an adaptation of the life & crimes of one of Germany's most horrific serial killers, Fritz Haarman. Haarman was a homosexual pedophile, police informant,& black marketeer. He was also a butcher of young men & boys & after he has had his way with them, he would dismember them & sell their body parts as meat on unsuspecting customers. He was caught & was convicted of killing 27 victims, though he would confess that he has killed over 40 or 50. He sentenced to die by the guillotine. TENDERNESS OF THE WOLVES is not a very easy film to watch. There is very little in terms of sheer horror or violence, but the movie shows very graphic homosexual scenes & overtones. The film doesn't hide the fact that Haarman's world is full of depravity. He is surrounded by the scum of Germany's society. The film doesn't show Haarman butchering his victims, you only hear of chopping sounds through the walls of his neighbors as they wonder what Haarman is preparing for them. TENDERNESS OF THE WOLVES is a very creepy, dark, disturbing film about a man so full of evil & perverted that the viewer is left feeling wretched & dirty after viewing this film. This film is DEFINATELY NOT for everyone.

Creepy and evocative.
Dark retelling of the story of Fritz Haarmann, the "Hanover Vampire," and an interesting blend of true crime drama, serial killer mystery, and homage to such films as Fritz Lang's "M." Kurt Raab is eerie as Haarmann, with his bald head, bulging eyes, and sinister calm manner. A good amount of factual evidence from this case is included in the movie, and much of the atmosphere is left to the imagination - the warning of "graphic violence" on the box reverse side seems unnecessary, since only one murder and one attack are actually filmed. (Perhaps in 1973, this was considered "graphic," but it is tame by today's standards.) All in all, a very creepy movie.

Horrific, Engaging, and Disturbing Fritz Haarmann bio pic
In post World War I in Germany, Fritz Haarmann was/is known as the Butcher of Hanover. This is a historical fact.

The Tenderness of Wolves shows us just how this monster actually operated. Director Ulli Lommel, his hand guided by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, provides us with a truly disturbing film.

Kurt Raab as Haarmann actually appears to be playing Peter Lorre playing Haarmann in the (far superior) M. Raab seems, at times, to be channelling Lorre.

The plot is not entirely cohesive and it cannot withstand itself through the middle. However, the beginning and ending of this film far make up for the deficit of the middle.

Haarman lured young children away from desolate life with a promise of a hot meal and warm place to sleep. Instead he offered them rape, murder, mutilation, and eventually cannibalism.

This is an arthouse film masquerading as a horror/thriller/drama. It is definitely worth your time, but it is not for the faint of heart.

A good film.