Der Schut

Karl May Oriental Adventure with Lex Barker, Marie Versini and Rik Battaglia

In 1964, "Der Schut", the first Karl May adventure produced by Artur Brauner and his CCC Film, was released in cinemas. His former production manager Horst Wendlandt had become the biggest competitor on the German-speaking market since he left Rialto-Film in 1961. Successes like "Der Schatz im Silbersee / The Treasure in the Silver Lake" and "Winnetou I" then led to the idea of trying it with Karl May myself. The strip was distributed by Ilse Kubaschewski and her GLORIA.

"Der Schut" takes place in the Orient, in what was then the Ottoman Empire, in the land of the Skipetars (synonym for Albanians). Lex Barker was able to get the lead role of Kara Ben Nemsi for a fee of around 200,000 DM. Ralf Wolter, Rik Battaglia, Dieter Borsche, Chris Howland, Friedrich von Lebedur (the Queequeg! From "Moby Dick", 1956) and Heimatfilm star Marianne Hold can be seen in other roles.

The French actress Marie Versini shines in the female lead role. Today she is best known as Winnetou's sister Nscho-tschi from the film "Winnetou I". In this film she can be seen as the intrepid Chita, who is kidnapped by bandits, escapes and experiences much more. The busy actress from Paris was still present in the 1980s. She also starred in the ZDF mini-series "Die schöne Wilhelmine / The Beautiful Wilhelmine" (1984), through which the West German television star Anja Kruse had her breakthrough with audiences.

The very successful film was shot in Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo. The action and pace are certainly pleasing, but from today's perspective the comical interludes from Ralf Wolter (as Haji Halef Omar) and Dieter Borsche / Chris Howland (as Lord and Butler! Phew!) are a bit annoying. The script comes from Georg Marischka, the music comes from the tried and tested Martin Böttcher. Artur Brauner's first Karl May film was a huge success at the box office. Continuations regarding Karl May could follow. The Wikipedia entry for the film offers an interesting insight behind the scenes. In addition to the already mentioned 200,000 DM for the main actor and box office magnet Lex Barker (1919-1973), it is noticeable that the other actors in leading roles received around 30,000 DM in fees. Huge distances, the star system shows itself in its full form! 25,000 DM were paid for the script, the director received 80,000 DM. Those were the prices back then!

In the last phase of a brilliant career ,Robert Siodmak ,one of the past masters of film noir, proved he could age gracefully ;he had already broached the adventures movie ("cobra woman" "the crimson pirate" );if the former was rubbish ,the second one had a tongue-in-chick side which emerged again in the sixties,when he was granted wide screen and Lex Barker ,whose career was buoying in Germany where he got huge commercial success with the "Winnetou " saga in which he played Old Shatterhand.

Nevertheless, Siodmak was too clever a director to make his movie a vehicle for Barker; there are many scenes in which he does not appear , leaving room for the other actors : particularly Dieter Borsche , excellent as an English lord , British through and through ,who ,even in the most desperate predicament,keeps the stiff upper lip and would never, in a month of Sundays , miss his tea time ;with his servant ,Archibald, they seem to be out of a Jules Verne novel (a writer who probably inspired Karl May); Rik Battaglia is a suave villain, refined, eagle-eyed , as soon as he appears ,the viewer effortlessly guesses who he really is .

It's a good adventures movie , with lots of sudden new developments ,with a good use of wide screen and splendid colors ; of course the natives serve as foils to the Europeans ,but it was the rule of the game ; Indiana Jones , whose adventures are not that much different from Kara Ben 's ,did not change it either.

The Schut (Rik Battaglia) seems to be a king of the bandits; he controls the land in the disguise of the rich Merchant Nirwan. The corrupt police force does not take any action against him. The Schut holds an English aristocrat and a French merchant for a ransom, then he also abducts the beautiful Tschita (Marie Versini). Kara Ben Nemsi (Lex Barker) tries to find the Schut's hiding-place in the mountains and free the prisoners. But the Schut has many rogues and assassins under his command who make this search long and dangerous.

Hollywood director Robert Siodmak, famous for the Burt Lancaster classics "The Crimson Pirate" and "The Killers", directed this picture on location in Yugoslavia. Despite his experience, some fights are not convincing (e.g. Kara holding the weight of both Aladschy brothers on a rope!) and the low budget is occasionally revealed, but nevertheless "Der Schut" is the best movie from the oriental branch of the May series in the 1960s. Solid action and a good sense of humor carried by Dieter Borsche (as Lord Lindsay) and Chris Howland (butler Archie) as well as Ralf Wolter (in the role of Kara's sidekick Halef) fit well together, recommendable!