The Vampire of Dusseldorf (1965)

Original title:  Le Vampire de Dusseldorf

AKA:  The Secret Killer

Director:  Robert Hossein

Writer:  Claude Desailly, Georges Tabet, Andre Tabet, Robert Hossein

Composer:  Andre Hossein

Starring:  Robert Hossein, Marie-France Pisier, Roger Dutoit, Annie Anderson, Michel Dacquin, Anne Carrere, Norma Dugo

More info:  IMDb


Plot:  Based on the true story of Peter Kurten, a serial killer who committed nine murders and many other offenses in Dusseldorf during the Great Depression era.

My rating:  7/10

Will I watch it again?  Maybe.

I've never heard of serial killer Peter Kurten, and now I won't soon forget him.  This guy was brutal.  He likely killed dozens and attempted to kill many more.  His Wikipedia page makes for a horrific read.  He was a monster.  This film very loosely tells the final days of Kurten (subtly played by director/star Hossein) before he's captured.  Just what he did in the film was bad enough, but reading what he did after the movie ended is just shocking.  In hindsight, I wish I had read his Wikipedia page before I watched the film. 

 
Despite the sometimes hard to believe murders he commits in the movie, it's framed in a way that you get a taste of what was going on in Germany at the time, when hate was on the rise.  The policing authority representing law and order is about to be overtaken with vengeance and violence.  We see examples of that with a convertible with four young Brownshirt men inflicting violence with impunity.  Kurten is witness to this and it probably gives him a sense of validation.  The only hint at his motives are given in a couple of lines from Kurten about his cruelty toward animals as a child. 

The cinematography looks fantastic and it's beautifully shot in B&W.  The pacing works well and it's a nice watch.  The only real issue I have is that Kurten doesn't seem all that careful when committing his crimes.  He's very impulsive and most of what we see him do is late at night and out in the open.  He doesn't come across as someone with the skills needed to avoid detection, although he is sometimes seen by others and cleans up afterward like when he finds out a young female witness gave his description to the police and the next day he visits her to shut her up for good.  He's got that going but not the in-the-moment smarts.  It's only a movie and maybe I shouldn't expect so much but Hossein's performance, wile good, falls short of showing that kind of skill or complexity that someone like him should have.  I'm not looking for Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter-level of skill but something more akin to a craftsman who is very good at their job.  The record shows that Kurten was prolific and it would be neat to see how someone who committed so many atrocities could've survived as long as he did before he lost his head.