Review by unbrokenmetal

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.