The American Friend
The American Friend ★★★½ Der Amerikanische Freund 1977
Tribute to the American gangster film helped introduce Wenders to American moviegoers. Young Hamburg picture framer thinks he has a terminal disease and is set up by American expatriate Hopper to become a hired assassin in West Germany. The lure is a promise of quick money that the supposedly dying man can then leave his wife and child. After the first assasination, the two bond. Hopper is the typical Wenders protagonist, a strange man in a strange land looking for a connection. Great, creepy thriller adapted from Patricia Highsmith's novel “Ripley's Game.” Fuller and Ray (better known as directors) appear briefly as gangsters. 127m/C VHS, DVD . FR GE Bruno Ganz, Dennis Hopper, Elisabeth (Lisa) Kreuzer, Gerard Blain, Jean Eustache, Samuel Fuller, Nicholas Ray, Daniel Schmid, Lou Castel, Rudolf Schuendler, Sandy Whitelaw; Cameos: Wim Wenders; D: Wim Wenders; W: Wim Wenders; C: Robby Muller; M: Jurgen Knieper.