The American Friend [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Hamburg denizen Jonathan (Lowell Ganz) is under the impression that he is dying from a blood disease. Jonathan's "American friend," displaced cowboy Ripley (Dennis Hopper), decides to use his illness to his advantage. Ripley introduces him to gangster Minot (Gerard Blain), who proposes to the dying man that he should become an professional mob assassin, assuring a large legacy for his wife and children. Since he is facing death anyway, what has he to lose? Ripley had originally intended to allow Jonathan to do the dirty work that he didn't feel like doing, but has second thoughts when he becomes friends with the doomed man. In the end, it is Ripley who is the loser, even though Jonathan turns out to be right about his days being numbered. Director Wim Wenders based his screenplay for American Friend on one of the many "doppelganger" crime novels by Patricia Highsmith.