Old Shatterhand

Before a peace contract with the natives will be signed, Captain Bradley and a bunch of outlaws try and sabotage it by faking Indian attacks on settlers. Old Shatterhand and Winnetou start searching for the members of this conspiracy.

It is a little bit strange that the movie doesn't really click, because it has all the ingredients of a typical Karl May western of that period, plus a perfect cast with Lex Barker, Pierre Brice, Daliah Lavi and Ralf Wolter as the good guys, facing excellent villains (Guy Madison, Rik Battaglia). It is somewhat too long with two hours for a rather straight story, and with its occasional brutality (even murder of a child) and carelessness for detail never develops the sense of magic that was typical for the best contributions to the series. Ultimately a disappointment.

Adventures , action , crossfire and gorgeous Yugoslavian exteriors magnificently photographed . Again the intimate Winnetou and Old Shatterhand in a dangerous adventure set on wonderful landscapes . As usual , at the beginning takes place an emotive meeting between and Winnetou (Pierre Brice) and Old Shatterhand (Lex Barker married Spanish Carmen Cervera and early deceased Lex , she subsequently wedded Baron Thyssen) . This time Winnetou and Old Shatterhand have to battle some renegades who attempt to break a peace treaty between White Men and Indians . As bandits trying to get the army to abandon their fort get the Indians addicted to whiskey, then convince them to attack and drive out the soldiers . Then , beloved Winnetou attempts a treaty of peace and prepares a summit between the Indian tribes and the Northern General Taylor (Charles Fawcett) . Meantime , Old Shatterland and his faithful half-brother are on the trail to chase the nasty Dixon (Rik Battaglia) . Capt. Bradley (Guy Madison) , Sergeant (Gustavo Rojo) and Dixon want to create a war between the native American tribes and the white men . Then Old Shatterhand, Winnetou and their sidekick Sam Hawkens (ordinary Ralf Wolter) try to prevent this . Old Shatterhand and Sam set out on pursuit of the bandits and prepares them a trap . Later on , Apache chief Winnetou tries to free his adopted son called Tujunga and Old Shatterhand who have been taken prisoners by a traitor captain (Guy Madison) . Apaches are joined by a Comanche party and both of them attack the fort at a spectacular scenes . At the end , Indians besiege the fort and occurs a breathtaking epilogue by means of arrows , shootouts , explosions and cannons.

This Western|Adventure results to be a pleasant episode about one of the series of popular German made Western , featuring the duo formed by valiant ¨Old Shatterhand¨ who agrees to help Indians against White traitors and immortal ¨Winnetou¨ , both of them repeat their same notorious roles as dignified as always . This enjoyable saga benefits from sensational adventures , shootouts , explosions , exciting combats , larger-than-life characters and impressive scenarios . Furthermore , a lovely support cast ,such as Daliah Lavi as a gorgeous , exotic Mestiza , the American Guy Madison , Spanish Gustavo Rojo , Italian Mirko Ellis and Gojko Mitic who is one of the most famous and most loved actors in East Germany and in the other countries in Eastern Europe and starred a lot of Indian roles . Winnetou-Pierre Brice repeats , as usual, his excellent and immortal role to be continued in a TV series. Lex Barker scores especially high marks , though he plays as a serious and intelligent frontiersman . Enjoyable relationship between Old Shatterhand and Winnetou is quite match . Pierre Brice is sensational as Winnetou , he is descendant of old French nobility , after enlisting as volunteer to the French Army and fighting in Indochina, he attended acting lessons and got a first small role in some film . In 1962, a German producer searched for an actor who should play the Native American chief Winnetou on a Western movie adapted from novels by Karl May and got to know Brice at the Berlin Film Festival. He got the role and portrayed "Winnetou" in ten more movies with his co-star Lex Barker as "Old Shatterhand". These very successful productions made him a superstar in Germany, winning several awards such as Bambi or the Golden Otto of teenager magazine "Bravo". Furthermore , received Germany's Cross of Merit, First Class as one the most popular Frenchmen in Germany . Although appearing on countless other movies and TV shows, he will always be best remembered as "Winnetou", whom he also played at the Bad Segeberg open air theater.

The highbrow Lex Barker who like his co-star and good friend Pierre Brice started a singing career and released several records and played most part of series : ¨Apache gold (1963)¨ by Harald Reinl, ¨Apaches last Battle (1964)¨ by Hugo Fregonese, ¨Last of renegades(1964)¨, ¨The desperate trail¨, ¨Old Surehand¨ (1965) directed by Alfred Vohrer, "Half-Breed" (1966)¨ by Harald Philipp, ¨In the valley of death(1968)¨ by Harald Reinl . Stewart Granger took the role in two occasions ,he starred a diverse character but the role is pretty similar to Old Shatterland , he plays with mirth and liking manner as ¨Among vultures¨ and ¨Winnetou and Surehand¨ .Besides Rod Cameron starred only one : ¨Old Firehand¨ in which chemistry between stuffy Cameron and Brice is inexistent . The film displays a colorful cinematography in Superpanorama 70 , filmed in Atelier, Spandau, Berlin, Germany (studio) and location Krka Falls, Krka National Park, Croatia , Krute, Popovo Polje, Tresbisnica river,Yugoslavia ,Ulcinj, Montenegro . Catching , sensitive musical score ,though with excessive use of synthesizer by Italian Riz Ortalani , replacing Martin Bottcher , series' ordinary , being eventually substituted in some episode by Peter Thomas . The motion picture produced by Artur Brauner Productions - still successfully working- was professionally directed by Hugo Fregonese . Hugo was an Argentina director who emigrated to Hollywood, then became technical adviser on latino themes at Columbia Studios in Hollywood, and subsequently under contract at Universal from 1950 to 1952 filming ¨Man in the attic¨ with Jack Palance , ¨Blowing wild¨with Gary Cooper , ¨Decameron Nights¨with Joan Fontaine , ¨Harry Black and the tiger¨with Steart Granger . Spent the rest of the decade in Europe directing Euro-westerns as ¨Savage Pampas¨ and potboilers as "The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse" , Terror as "Dracula vs. Frankenstein" before finishing his career back in the country of his birth . Rating : 6 , acceptable and passable . Worthwhile seeing for marvelous landscapes and breathtaking outdoors from Yugoslavia and Croatia.

Unfortunately this movie is very bad. It is written poorly by people who have never read Karl May. It is filmed pretty badly, too. After the success of "Winnetou I" the other big german producer, Brauner, wanted to make some money out of this "milkcow", too. But like all the other movies he then made after books of Karl May (and I have seen them all), the movies were hastily produced and turned out to be worse than those of his competitor. Even the costumes seem to be made for a dude ranch. There's only one or two scenes that are fun to watch, the rest is just boooring. Take my advice and spare yourself the time. Watch "Der Schatz im Silbersee" instead.

This movie stresses to Lex Barker, and Winnetou degenerates as a helping rider. For those music fans, rely on Martin Boettcher, Daliah Lavi didn' t sing a typical song. Some kind of action is worth watching the non original Karl May picturization.

The striking character of this film is its visual beauty and stylish quality of art. Pierre Brice as Winnetou makes an impressing character for his nobility and integrity from beginning to end, and Lex Barker as Old Shatterhand matches him well enough. All the other actors are good as well. It's a grim story, there are some atrocious incidents with bloodsheds and nasty treasons on the way, but the loveliness of the landscapes and photography make the film more than enjoyable all the way in spite of the nastiness of the foul play of the white man. Karl May the author was one of the first to side with the Indians against the white man as he wrote his great Winnetou novels in his 50s in the 1890s, and they are still unique and impressing for their moral paragon of nobility. Seldom has the desert of the Apaches been so beautifully filmed as in this classic of an odd and much underrated western film.