Le trésor des montagnes bleues

Apache chief Pierre Brice saves Assiniboine princess Karin Dor from a guy in a bear suit. He takes her back to her village and discovers that the Assiniboines have captured cavalry officer Terence Hill and two of his men. Brice has a plan to meet with colonel Renato Baldini and make peace, so he convinces Assiniboine chief Rikard Brzeska to let Hill go with a message for the colonel, who happens to be his father. Brice and all the chiefs will come to the fort and they'll all talk peace.

On the way home, Hill sees a brutal attack on a native village by a group of men lead by Klaus Kinski. He fights them off with the help of Lex Barker, who was conveniently passing by and also happens to be pals with Brice. Kinski is working for Anthony Steel, an oil baron who wants no peace because he can use conflict with the natives as an excuse to steal their land.

Baldini and the native chiefs reach a peace agreement, mostly because Hill agrees to marry Dor (who's in love with Brice, but both of them agree to take one for the team). Steel attacks a group of settlers and blames it on the natives. It's up to Barker, Brice, Hill and comedic sidekick Eddi Arent (who I didn't mention previously because he annoys me) to stop Kinski and Steel and save the day.

One of a series of West German westerns based on the books of Karl May that have Native American heroes even though they are all played by white Europeans. This is fairly typical Euro-genre fare, not all that coherent in the plot department, but a hell of a lot of fun. It's pretty much worth seeing just to see Barker, Hill and Kinski together, but it's also just chock full of great little action set pieces.

This is only the second of the long-running series of German produced Westerns filmed in Yugoslavia by cult director Harald Reinl that I have been fortunate to see, but is at least as good as TREASURE OF SILVER LAKE if not somewhat more polished of a production. Euro ManBeef matinée idol & former Tarzan star Lex Barker (of Reinl's CASTLE OF THE WALKING DEAD) returns as Karl May's "Old Shatterhand", a white man trained in the ways of the Native American Indian tribes who roams the west with the "noble Apache chief" Winnetou, played by European genre film favorite Pierre Brice (Ferroni's MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN) as the two work tirelessly to bring peace between the white man & the Natives upon who's land their settlements are inevitably encroaching.

This time around the story is a bit more epic in nature, with Winnetou sacrificing his love for the Apache princess Ribanna (future James Bond femme fatale Karin Dor from YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE) to a young Yankee cavalry officer played by future TRINITY film favorite Terence Hill, in a bid for peace between the two factions. Caught between those forces of good -- yes, the Indians are the good guys here, working with the white man -- is a ruthless oil baron played with scathing efficiency by Anthony Steele, with Klaus Kinski heading his band of cuthroat scumbag unwashed sweaty greasy cowboys, hell bent on inciting war between the Yankees and Apaches for their own personal gain.

Quite simply put the cast alone makes this entry in the series a delight, but when coupled with somewhat higher production standards and coupled again with Martin Böttcher iconic, popular music score (which was a top 40 hit for years in Germany) the film attains a kind of sweeping, lofty "larger than life" quality that ranks it amongst the finest Westerns from the early 1960s regardless of the country of origin. The script is never talky, with not one wasted scene or unnecessary discussion, and a decidedly more humanist touch than the treasure hunting escapades from SILVER LAKE.

One of the most fascinating aspects of these films are the Yugoslavian locales used for the filming, which have a unique flavor that sets them apart from both the Italian Spaghetti Westerns filmed in Spain and the more familiar American made productions with their Monument Valley landscapes. And the attention to detail this time out is much more effective, with the Yugoslavian extras playing the Apache tribes coming off as a people rather than just a supporting choir decked out in leatherskins.

That's another aspect that makes these Karl May Westerns somewhat remarkable: They were certainly more advanced and sympathetic in how they depicted the Native Americans than even our own domestic productions of the time ("F TROOP", anyone?) where the Natives are either depicted as pop-up targets for the action sequences or comic relief drunks. You get a real feel for them as a dignified population who are forced to embrace the arrival of the white man with a sense of chagrin, and this story's focus revolves around efforts to undue whatever goodwill might exist between the two civilizations.

They key to the equation is of course Barker's Shatterhand and Brice's Winnetou, each having earned the respect time and again of the otherwise opposing sides. And it's interesting to see the usual cowboy types as the source of the conflict, with the US Cavalry depicted as just going about their job rather than slaughtering the Indians indiscriminately. Try weighing this positive message against the completely negative and one-sided approach used in the dreadful SOLDIER BLUE, which potentially could have told more or less the same story if it's makers had cared about the Natives as anything other but pawns in their social agenda.

If the film has any weaknesses it is the usual aspects of Anglo European types aping Native Americans, some of the on screen treatment of the horses used is questionable, and perhaps certain anachronisms like a 48 star American flag shown flapping heroically in the wind. But the dignity and sheer artiness & atmosphere more than compensate: A special film that deserves some kind of re-release, just as good now as it was in 1964, with nary a mean spirited bone in it's larger than life body. Remarkable, really.

8/10

"Winnetou 2" is the lucky one of the Winnetou trilogy, because in between the tragic events of part 1 and 3, none of the central characters needs to die. So it's a somewhat easier going show with a lot of great actors: a very young Terence Hill (then still Mario Girotti), Klaus Kinski, and notably Karin Dor ("The Green Archer", "You Only Live Twice") as Ribanna who falls in love with Winnetou but is expected to marry Lt.Merril for the sake of peace. Very impressive are the scene with countless extras (i.e. the meeting of the Indian chieftains) and in the cave when Winnetou comes to the rescue of Ribanna - and Merril whom he doesn't bear a grudge, that's noble Apaches for you. Director Reinl would take Lex Barker and Karin Dor into an even scarier place later with "Castle of the Walking Dead" ("Die Schlangengrube und das Pendel"). To sum it up: "Winnetou 2" was a good sequel that disappointed none of the audience, therefore part 3 was immediately on the schedule.

The cast is as cosmopolitan as it can be : German (Dor,the director's wife , Kinski) ,French (Brice) ,English (Steele) ,Italian (Massimo Girotti aka Terence Hill) ,American (Barker), .....

But this is not my favorite Winnetou:Hugo Fregonese did a better job with "old shatterhand "even though the principal's role is reduced to his well-known philosophy ;"old shatterhand " had a better screenplay and a much more effective directing .

There are shades of "broken arrow " in it ,and too many plotholes ; the love of Lieutenant Merrill is a fait accompli; out of the blue ,he decides to marry the beautiful Indian ,and the father and Suzanne (his sister? ) accept it without a moment's hesitation ; this kind of marriage is common in westerns since "broken arrow",but they often meet a bad end (Delmer Daves ' film) or are strongly disapproved by the daddy ("gunman's walk" )

Gallic Pierre Brice is true to himself as the Indian Gandhi ; peace is the key to everything in his philosophy and his words of wisdom always make sense;he's ready to give it all to preserve it,even though he must sacrifice his love for Ribanna ;but ,a bachelor , he will be able to follow his paleface brother in further adventures; the comic relief and his six-dollar-hat are not very funny. Kinski makes up for it as the baddie: but , his count-the-steps trick is far-fetched .

This is an epic western-adventure-movie. It is highly entertaining and has in fact the potential of being a lot better than it is. Dances with Wolves reminds me a lot of this movie. And with a better script and stronger directing Winnetou II could have been a timeless piece of art like the Costner movie. The yugoslavian landscape seems a bit out of place sometimes, but the movie has a lot of the "Karl May - feeling".