In his 1978 review of The American Friend, Kehr posits Wenders as the “quietest talent” among the German New Wave filmmakers. An adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel Ripley’s Game, The American Friend is as “enjoyable a thriller as it is moving and accomplished as a work of art” (Kehr). Its story hinges on the chance meeting of two men—underworld criminal Ripley (Hopper) and family man and craftsman Zimmerman (Ganz)—whose relationship forms around shared murder.