Viva Gringo

It's considered western but it is not, the action takes place in Peru. It's considered an adventure movie, but it's not really such great adventure. It's considered comedy but you can't laugh. The prolific and talented Fernando Rey has a small role as the president of Peru. The funniest is another very talented Spanish actor, Francisco Rabal, in the role of the bandit Gambusino. Filmed in Peru, Spain and Bulgaria.

Karl Hansen (Guy Madison) is framed for a murder he didn't commit, while the actual murderer got away. Years later, he returns under the name Vater Jaguar to finally catch the bad guy and avoid a new war between the South American natives and the government troops. The great cast includes Karl May regular Rik Battaglia, Fernando Rey and no less than 3 comedians: Walter Giller, Heinz Erhardt and (in a rather limited role that doesn't allow him to show his qualities) Chris Howland.

Although the movie had a lot of effort put into it, including filming in the real Machu Picchu (Peru), its success never got near the previous Karl May movies of the 1960s which were placed in North America. The audience missed stars like Lex Barker and Pierre Brice, and the Italian western style soundtrack by A F Lavagnino sounds titally different from Martin Böttcher's music for the other Karl May movies, so the whole feeling was wrong. It didn't help that the story was a bit lame, while the comedians didn't have a real connection to it - it feels like they were cut in from a different movie. Although the movie was quite a disaster in commercial terms, it is interesting to see a different approach to the famous Karl May novels.