The Golden Glove
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"Violence, 1970s interiors, lust murder, dirt and German schlager music play an important role in The Golden Glove (2019)." --Sholem Stein |
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The Golden Glove is a 2019 German thriller drama film directed by Fatih Akin. The film is an adaptation of Heinz Strunk’s eponymous novel and tells the story of the German serial killer Fritz Honka who murdered four women between 1970 and 1975 and hid the parts of dead bodies in his apartment. The Golden Glove is named after the pub in the red-light district of Hamburg where the defaced alcoholic Honka met his victims. The Golden Glove is the first film by Fatih Akin to receive an 18 rating in Germany.
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Soundtrack
The soundtrack consists mainly of sentimental schlager hit songs from the early seventies, which are played on the jukebox in the pub scenes, among which are:
- Hans Albers – Das Herz von St. Pauli
- Adamo – Es geht eine Träne auf Reisen
- Daliah Lavi – Ein Schiff wird kommen
- Heintje – Du sollst nicht weinen
- Rocco Granata – Buona Notte Bambino
- Roy Black – Wenn Du bei mir bist
- Bata Illic – Schwarze Madonna
Cast
- Jonas Dassler as Fritz Honka
- Margarethe Tiesel as Gerda Voss
- Katja Studt as Helga Denningsen
- Dirk Böhling as Soldaten-Nobert
- Hark Bohm as Dornkaat-Max
- Uwe Rohde as Herbert
- Lars Nagel as Nasen-Ernie
- Greta Sophie Schmidt as Petra Schulz
- Martina Eitner-Acheampong as Frida
- Jessica Kosmalla as Ruth
- Tilla Kratochwil as Inge
- Barbara Krabbe as Anna
- Philipp Baltus as pimp
- Marc Hosemann as Siggi Honka
- Adam Bousdoukos as Lefteris
- Tristan Göbel as Willi
Handlung
Hamburg-St. Pauli, 1970: The auxiliary worker Fritz Honka spends his evenings mostly in the neighborhood pub "Zum goldenen Handschuh". With his deformed face, his shortness and his squinting eyes, "Fiete" is considered ugly but harmless and shy. He invites older, lonely women to alcoholic beverages. One day, when he takes a woman for sex into his small attic apartment with numerous pin-up pictures, he kills her. In order not to arouse suspicion in the house, Honka dismembers the corpse and places some items in the neighborhood. In his later crimes, he deposits the dismembered body parts behind the panels below the roof pitches. He tries to cover the smell of decay with Little Trees. He always blames the obtrusive stench on the cooking skills of the Greek working-class family living below him.
Four years later Honka takes the older Viennese Gerda from the pub to her home. When he gets no erection from the alcohol, he penetrates her with a wooden spoon. When he comes home from work the next day, Gerda still has not disappeared from his apartment. In anger, he beats her, but lets her continue to live with him, after he finds that she has cleaned up the apartment. Honka forces Gerda to humiliating sex, sets up a contract to keep her as a slave. She is also supposed to give him her 30-year-old daughter Rosi. At the same time Honka likes that he is addressed by Gerda as "chief". Next to her and his drinking buddies, the only caregiver is his brother Siggi, who has also been addicted to alcohol since a break-up. Gerda leaves Honka when, after the numerous humiliations one day, she gets carried away in the Golden Glove by Gisela, a Salvation Army major, who offers her a better life. Angry, he takes the older Anna and Inge home with him. While Honka wants to force Inge to sex, she flees. He then kills Anna, who is still in his home.
When Honka is hit by a car, he plans a fresh start without alcohol. He becomes a night watchman in an office complex and meets the younger cleaning lady Helga Denningsen and her husband Erich. Through Helga, with whom he falls in love, Honka starts drinking again. A rape attempt on her fails. One of Honka's last victims is a former prostitute and concentration camp inmate. He abuses her when he does not get an erection. She then takes revenge on him by rubbing mustard on his penis while he sleeps. As she tries to steal money from Honka, he chokes her unconscious and slaps her with several liquor bottles.
Attempting to recreate attractive pupil Petra fails when a fire breaks out in his home. Maggots had previously penetrated through the ceiling to the Greek neighbors, who then fled the apartment without turning off the stove. The fire department finds body parts when extinguishing the fire and Fritz Honka is arrested on the spot by the police.
See also