Old Shatterhand

This German western essentially begins with a Dutch family being massacred by a small band of Comanche warriors and led by a white man nicknamed "Dixon" (Rik Battaglia) who is part of a group of men seeking to stop an upcoming treaty between the American government and a nearby Apache tribe led by a chief named "Winnetou" (Pierre Brice). To help accomplish this goal, they subsequently left behind the bodies of a couple of Apache warriors in the belief that this would prevent the signing of the treaty and possibly stir up a war, which would open up additional land for them. What they don't realize, however, is that Winnetou has a white blood brother known as "Old Shatterhand" (Lex Barker) who has an uncanny ability to detect unscrupulous actions of this sort, and he is willing to do whatever it takes to expose them. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this film is basically the third movie in the "Winnetou" series, following "The Treasure of the Silver Lake" and "Winnetou," produced in 1962 and 1963, respectively. Much like both of its predecessors, it features beautiful scenery and background music. In any case, although I don't consider this to be a great Western, it still managed to entertain me, and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

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.

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.

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.

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.