Dir. Various, West Germany/ France/ Italy, 1964-1968, 720 mins, in German with subtitles
Cast: Lex Barker, Pierre Bryce, Ralf Wolter, Marie Versini, Rik Battaglia
Review by Colin Dibben
These are stirring, old-school ‘Boy’s Own’ adventures, set in the Old West, the Ottoman Empire stretching east of Yugoslavia or 19th century Mexico. Old Shatterhand, Winnetou and Shatterhand in the Valley of Death and The Shoot make great use of Yugoslavian locations; the rest of the films (Through Wild Kurdistan, In the Kingdom of the Silver Lion, The Treasure of the Aztecs and The Pyramid of the Sun God) were shot in Almeria, Spain, where most of the 1960s Italian Westerns were shot.
The white saviour in each film is played by Lex Barker (Old Shatterhand himself in the 2 straight westerns, Kara Ben Nemsi, a German adventurer, in the Ottoman adventures and Dr Karl Sternau in the Mexico films). Shatterhand buddies up with brownface Noble Apache warrior Winnetou (Bryce); Nemsi and Sternau have a rather tedious comic companion, played in each film by walking gargoyle Ralf Wolter. The feisty damsel in distress is played in several of the films by Marie Versini and Rik Battaglia twirls his moustache, sucks his teeth and laughs cruelly as the villain in most cases.
Although Barker’s character is always a one-note goody-two-shoes and Ralf Wolter gets more annoying as the series progresses, all these films are fun to watch; although if you watch them in a row you will definitely feel that they run out of steam as they enter the Mexican phase. The Shoot is the best of the bunch and demonstrates what makes the format work: nice locations, with a zone of indiscernibility between real and fictional extras; a really bad baddy; a relatively complex narrative with several groups or individuals who help the heroes one moment then double cross them the next; some good old-fashioned fisticuffs and other stunts – and even a nice dig or 2 at the British aristocracy.
Each film comes with an introduction by Sir Christopher Frayling. These provide historical context and lovely anecdotes as well as managing viewer expectations. There are also interesting archival interviews with Rik Battaglia, Marie Versini and Artur Brauner.
The films all look good, presented here from 4K restorations. Some look great: Frayling points out that Old Shatterhand was made in 70mm Scope.
This is a handsome 4-disc box set and there are loads of other extras, including:
- Limited Edition 60-page collector’s book featuring new writing on Karl May on page and screen by German popular cinema experts Tim Bergfelder and Holger Haase, a profile of Lex Barker by Boris Brosowski and an essay on Old Shatterhand and Winnetou by Lee Broughton, author of The Euro-Western
- New audio commentaries on Old Shatterhand and The Treasure of the Aztecs by film historian David Kalat
- Karl May at CCC – new interview with producer Alice Brauner, managing director of CCC Film and daughter of CCC founder Artur Brauner
- Prodigal Son – new interview with film historian Sheldon Hall on the late career of Robert Siodmak, who directed Pyramid of the Sun God and The Treasure of the Aztecs
- Archival making of documentary on Old Shatterhand and Winnetou and Shatterhand in the Valley of Death
- Archival interview with Bernhard Schmid, co-editor and contributor to Karl May Verlag
- Archival featurette on the restoration of The Shoot, Through Wild Kurdistan and In the Kingdom of the Silver Lion
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