Surehand (Mano veloce)

Frontiersman Old Surehand (Stewart Granger) and his faithful friend Old Wabble (Milan Srdoc) are on the trail of a cold-blooded killer with the nickname 'The General' (Larry Pennell), who murdered Old Surehand's brother. On the way Old Surehand and Old Wabble are involved in the running conflict between settlers and the Comanches. Old Surehand can count on the support of his friend and blood brother Winnetou (Pierre Brice), the amiable chief of the Apaches. Bandits commanded by The General rob a train and try to put the blame on the Comanches. When the son of the Comanche chief is killed in town by a sniper, only Old Surehand and Winnetou are able to prevent a war between the Comanches and settlers.

This is the third and I reckon the best of the Winnetou films featuring Stewart Granger - it has plenty of lively action action, some comic touches that work and a lean plot with a couple of unexpected twists. It seems like this is an "origin" tale as far Old SureHand is concerned. His real name is revealed as Johnny Garden. Visually, it's striking. On the down side, Winnetou doesn't show up until 43 minutes, and he and Granger aren't often seen together. Well, it was known they didn't get on behind the scenes; Granger didn't think much of him.

This is a highly entertaining film based on Karl May trilogy novels , it starts with Old Surehand ( Stewart Granger ) in an exciting opening sequence when he rides onto the screen and soon rescues to train passengers attacked by bandits . After that , the outlaws killing American buffalo for originating a war against white-men . Later on , Indians raid a ranch , the Indian chief's son comes to the little town for a peace treatise but he's treacherously murdered . Meanwhile , Old Sureland befriends an old man ad his nephew ( Letitia Milan who played the first Mario Bava's Giallo: ¨Girl who knew too much¨ ) and his fiancé , a judge assistant ( Terence Hill or Mario Girotti, previous his successful Trinity ). There's an emotional love story between them , and they are taken prisoners by Indians . Sureland set on pursuit of his killer's brother and attempts to pacify the Indians . Of course , he encounters his Indian-brother Winnetou ( Pierre Brice ) at an emotional meeting . The clues lead a gunrunner named the General ( Larry Pennell ).

This is an agreeable episode about one of the series of popular German made Western , featuring the duo formed by valiant ¨Old Surehand¨ and immortal ¨Winnetou¨ , they repeat their same noted roles as dignified as always . This enjoyable saga benefits from sensational adventures , shootouts , larger-than-life characters and spectacular scenarios shot in Yugoslavia . Stewart Granger took the role in two occasions ( ¨Among vultures¨ and this one ) and Pierre Brice starred all the series and he went on filming television episodes . Chemistry between them is quite match , Stewart Granger scores especially high marks , he plays with mirth and liking manner . His predecessor was the serious Lex Barker who starred a diverse character but the roles are pretty similar , he played the 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 Shatterland(1966)¨ by Harald Philipp, ¨In the valley of death(1968)¨ by Harald Reinl , besides Rod Cameron starred only one : ¨Old Firehand¨ directed by Alfred Vohrer. The film displays a colorful cinematography and a catching musical score by usual series , Martin Bottcher . The motion picture produced by Rialto Productions is convincingly directed by Alfred Vohrer who directed various Karl May titles , besides he was a German thriller expert called Krimi ( Edward Wallace adaptation ) .

This complex-plot action Western offers Stewart Granger all possibilities to show his talent. The officer-actors try hard to fulfill it. A good budget enabled the director to build a great natural thriller-western. The fist-fights ought to be in the dark, the brightness-button doesn't fit it, but the whole story!

The movie was originally entitled „Old Surehand I", because famous German novelist Karl May wrote a trilogy around the Old Surehand character. Yet movie no.1 was not followed by any sequel. Stewart Granger had played the same role before in „Der Ölprinz" and „Unter Geiern", though, and his portrait of a tricky, tongue-in-cheek westerner was loved by many fans, though others argued his Old Surehand was a completely new creation, not one of May's novels.

The movie tells how the son of an Indian chief is murdered. A villain simply called the General (Larry Pennell) is responsible for this - and much more. Old Surehand (Stewart Granger) tries to stop the Indians from attacking the innocent settlers.

Among the cast, you will notice a very young Terence Hill, still under his real name Mario Girotti in 1965. Also Milan Srdoc deserves mentioning. He portrays Old Wabble, Surehand's friend, as a nervous coward with an unexpected tragic edge. Overall, the movie is well paced, funny and tremendously entertaining. Many scenes stick to my memory: the precise shot from long distance which saves the passengers of the train in the opening scene, the night at the station when bandits try and poison Surehand and certainly the most unusual „battle" between the army and the Indians, while Pierre Brice as Winnetou and the great landscape of Slovenia and Croatia are strong and trusted trademarks of the series.

Wow, I can't believe that anyone would give this movie a good review. There are so many problems with it I don't even know where to start. The dialog is so laughable, each scene so preposterous, it is just bizarre.

Just as an example, in the waterfall scene, a mans starts to go over the waterfall in a raft but is saved by a lasso from Stewart Granger and pulled off the raft at the last second; in the next shot Stewart Granger is pulling in the rope with the man attached and behind and above him is most of the waterfall. The whole movie is like this, with dialog that has no pretext and scenes that have no context, so many goofs and continuity issues it would take longer to write about that than the movie itself.

The plot is not bad, it was just so poorly written with such absurd dialog that it has to be a foreign-made or produced film. No accomplished western producer could have made such a laughable excuse. I feel for Stewart Granger that he was part of such a ridiculous movie. And the way he had the rifle cradled in his left arm in every scene regardless of the setting made me want to giggle uncontrollably.

Old Surehand. Might as well have been named old dumb*ss.