Winnetou (1963)

When violent conflict breaks out between greedy railroaders and a tribe of Mescalero Apaches, only two men, destined to be blood brothers, can prevent all-out war: chief's son Winnetou and German engineer Old Shatterhand.

Director:

Harald Reinl

Writers:

Karl May (novel), Harald G. Petersson (as H.G. Petersson)

Stars:

Lex Barker, Pierre Brice, Marie Versini

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Lex Barker	...	Old Shatterhand
Pierre Brice	...	Winnetou
Marie Versini	...	Nscho-tschi
Mario Adorf	...	Frederick Santer
Walter Barnes	...	Bill Jones
Chris Howland	...	Lord Tuff-Tuff
Ralf Wolter	...	Sam Hawkens
Milivoje Popovic-Mavid	...	Intschu-tschuna (as Mavid Popovic)
Dunja Rajter	...	Belle
Niksa Stefanini	...	Bullock
Branko Spoljar	...	Bancroft
Husein Cokic	...	Will Parker
Demeter Bitenc	...	Dick Stone
Tomoslav Erak	...	Tangua
Hrvoje Svob	...	Klekih-petra

Storyline

The construction of the Great Western Railroad creates heavy conflict between the railway company and neighboring Indian tribes. Worse, criminal gang leader Santer sets his eyes on a gold mine located on holy Indian land and influences the construction supervisor to re-rout the planned railroad straight through Apache land. Old Shatterhand, who works as a measurement technician, discovers the evil plan and searches contact with the Apaches in an effort to avert war.

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Plot Keywords:

apache territory | spaghetti western | italo western | apache | railway | 

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Taglines:

Noch spannender - noch größer - noch schöner!

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Genres:

Western | Adventure

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Details

Country:

West Germany Italy Yugoslavia

Language:

German

Release Date:

1 May 1965 (USA)

Also Known As:

Winnetou

Filming Locations:

Zezevo, Croatia

Box Office

Budget:

DEM4,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Atlantis Film, Jadran Film, Rialto Film Preben-Philipsen

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor) Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

The rope Lex Barker is tied with on the "torture tree" changes positions between shots.

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Alternate Versions

The English version (i.e. "Winnetou, the Warrior") omits all scenes with Chris Howland. Some other scenes are trimmed as well - including a sequence between the character Sam Hawkens and a fat Indian squaw. The German 2005 restored DVD version has a English soundtrack option in which the scenes that where not in the English version reverts to the German soundtrack. It is therefore possible to see the differences between the two versions. The German soundtrack on the same DVD issue has been remixed into stereo and at least one sequence that has previously been censored in German VHS copies - the death of Santer - has been restored as well.

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Connections

Referenced in DVTV: Debata manzelek kandidátu na prezidenta (2018)

User Reviews

A landmark film version of a German classic

I first saw this film at the age of 10 in Germany and at that age found it captivating for it's quality of cinematography and sound-track.

The film was one of a series that attempted for the first time to capture the unique and high romantic Western novels of Germany's greatest adventure writer Karl May. Now, more than 30 years later, and with a video copy of the film in my library to look at when in the mood, I find this version of Karl May's novel rather quaint and clumsy in terms of script/screenplay and certainly out of step with the more popularised versions of the Wild West.

However, May's portrayal of late 19th century America was always a mixture of well researched facts mingled with high romantic fantasy adventure in the "Knights of the Round Table" or "Star Wars" vein. In this regard, the film does capture the spirit of Karl May's novels pretty well, if rather geared towards an assumed prior knowledge by the audience of the characters and of May's novels. From today's sophisticated movie audience's perspective this film version of "Winnetou I" is still noteworthy for its magnificent soundtrack rivaling any John Williams score, and for the noble portrayal of the hero by French actor Pierre Brice, who made this role his own in numerous sequels and stage shows.