Wambo (2001) Online

This TV Movie about Bavarian actor Walter Sedlmayr (Herbert Stieglmeier in the movie) is very well written and directed and compared to most of Germany´s TV program it was outstanding. The character of Wambo(potbelly) is worked out very good. You get to know the man behind the story very good, his warm sides as well as his bad sides and especially his private life, which was kept very secret. After he was killed, Bavaria was shocked, not only by the brutal murder, but because his homosexuality was revealed ("a real Bavarian man is not gay"). The cast is good, especially Jürgen Tarach. His (Herbert Stieglmeier) acting is great and although he is from Berlin he manages the Bavarian accent very convincing. All in all a very entertaining film I can recommend to everybody.

Walter Sedlmayr on the height of popularity was to Bavarians what John Wayne was for Americans: an archetype. Sedlmayr was as Bavarian as King Ludwig, Lederhosen and the Oktoberfest. Down to earth, comfortably living between tradition and modernity, conservative yet a heart of gold and an uncompromising sense of humour; just as most Bavarians would like to see themselves. Indeed, during his lifetime most Bavarians would mention Walter Sedlmayr in one sentence with legendary Prime Minister Franz-Josef Strauss.

All that changed when Sedlmayr was brutally murdered in 1990 – all of southern Germany was in shock, not only because of the crime itself but because facts about Sedlmayr's private life and especially his sexuality made it into the tabloid. Sedlmayr had been a closet-homosexual all his life and as the kinkier aspects were made public, Bavarian society dropped the "arch-Bavarian" like a hot potato.

"Wambo" is the story of Walter Sedlmayrs life and has two major flaws, one being Jürgen Tarrach, who plays Walter Sedlmayr (for legal reasons called Herbert Stieglmeier). Tarrach is a good actor but rather than playing the character as a living Bavarian cliché, he plays a person that is very obviously insecure, a "mama's boy", filled with doubt and self-loathing. He plays Sedlmayr like Sedlmayr could have been behind the facade, but not as the general public perceived him. It may not be apparent to those not familiar with the German tribal system but to most Bavarians, Tarrach is obviously a Prussian (in his case from Berlin but for Bavarians, everybody who isn't Bavarian is Prussian). Imagine a bio-pic about John Wayne; Heston is played by Ralph Fiennes – you get my point.

Secondly, the cast, with the exception of local legend Ruth Drexler, seem to have been fished from various German (private)-TV shows, soap operas and serials, in other words, B-grade actors. That too shows if one compares "Wambo" to other mini-series like "Monaco Franze" or "Kir Royal", which were all carried by excellent actors.

Ten years after the TV-premiere, "Mambo" wasn't a terrible film – it's somewhere along the line of Roy Black biopic "Du Bist Nicht Allein"; superior to most garbage that is sent through the channels in 2011 but paling in comparison to classic German / Bavarian TV.

I'd give it a generous 6 from 10 points.

If you have enjoyed "Mambo" or like bio-pictures along the same line, I would then recommend you "Fantabulous", which focuses on the life and times of British "Carry On"-comedian Kenneth Williams (whose story has some eerie similarities to the life of Walter Sedlmayr).