I havent’ yet seen any of the Winnetou films. Which ones do you think are the best? I believe they’re all available on dvd, right?
Start with Winnetou 1. Probably the best.
A bit late, the DVDs are on their way to the Lansipuisto in the beautiful city (I hope) of Pori, Suomi Finland
Otherwise I would have copied one or two Winnetou movies
I did a few reviews on several movies, haven’t done a general overview yet
Winnetou I + Treasure of the Silver lake are probably the best
I like the Winnetou movies, partly because I was brought up with them
I have absolutely no idea what people who are not brought up with Karl May (movies, books, cartoons etc.) think of it
[quote=“scherpschutter, post:36, topic:469”]A bit late, the DVDs are on their way to the Lansipuisto in the beautiful city (I hope) of Pori, Suomi Finland
Otherwise I would have copied one or two Winnetou movies
I did a few reviews on several movies, haven’t done a general overview yet
Winnetou I + Treasure of the Silver lake are probably the best
I like the Winnetou movies, partly because I was brought up with them
I have absolutely no idea what people who are not brought up with Karl May (movies, books, cartoons etc.) think of it[/quote]
that would be interesting to know as I am german and I think everybody that was born before the 90´s had his portion of Karl May, either in written form or as film, probably both. There is just no way for me to see any of those films and not think of childhood games playing cowboys and indians.
Does anyone own the relatively new German BluRays? I received info that they might be region free, wondering if that could be double checked
I don’t know how to check whether the Winnetou BDs are really region-free. I can’t play Blu-rays on my computer, and my DVD-BD player doesn’t give me that information (or I’m too stupid to figure out how to get it). On the back covers of the four Blu-ray box sets that I have, the following specifications are given:
Karl May Collection I
Der Schatz im Silbersee, Winnetou und das Halbblut Apanatschi, Winnetou und sein Freund Old Firehand
Region codes: A, B, C
Audio: German and English
Karl May Collection II
Unter Geiern, Der Ölprinz, Old Surehand 1. Teil
Region codes: A, B, C
Audio: German and English
Karl May Winnetou I–III
Winnetou 1. Teil, Winnetou 2. Teil, Winnetou 3. Teil
Region codes: A, B, C
Audio: German and English
Karl May Shatterhand Box
Old Shatterhand, Winnetou und Shatterhand im Tal der Toten
Region code: B
Audio: only German
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I’d say this and a report to that end I received are enough to confirm these region free . Thanks! And that is good news. I always like when companies ditch the region code (sometimes they cannot due to contractual reasons)
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Maybe this is of interest to someone, although I have my doubts. Anyway, here are all the Winnetou films, first in the order of their release date (directors, screenwriters, producers and main actors are also mentioned); then in a possible order with regard to the events depicted, i.e. in a narrative order from events before the meeting of Winnetou and Old Shatterhand in Apache Gold until Winnetou’s death in The Desperado Trail.
A.
- Der Schatz im Silbersee, Treasure of Silver Lake, December 12, 1962, Harald Reinl; H. G. Petersson; Horst Wendlandt; Pierre Brice, Lex Barker, Karin Dor
- Winnetou 1. Teil, Winnetou the Warrior / Apache Gold, December 11, 1963, Harald Reinl; H. G. Petersson; Horst Wendlandt; Pierre Brice, Lex Barker, Marie Versini
- Old Shatterhand, Apaches’ Last Battle, April 30, 1964, Hugo Fregonese; Ladislas Fodor, R. A. Stemmle; Artur Brauner; Pierre Brice, Lex Barker, Daliah Lavi
- Winnetou 2. Teil, Last of the Renegades / Winnetou: The Red Gentleman, September 17, 1964, Harald Reinl; H. G. Petersson; Horst Wendlandt; Pierre Brice, Lex Barker, Karin Dor
- Unter Geiern, Frontier Hellcat / Among Vultures, December 8, 1964, Alfred Vohrer; Eberhard Keindorff, Johanna Sibelius; Horst Wendlandt; Pierre Brice, Stewart Granger, Elke Sommer
- Der Ölprinz, Rampage at Apache Wells / The Oil Prince, August 25, 1965, Harald Philipp; Fred Denger, Harald Philipp; Horst Wendlandt; Pierre Brice, Stewart Granger, Macha Méril
- Winnetou 3. Teil, The Desperado Trail, October 14, 1965, Harald Reinl; J. Joachim Bartsch, Harald G. Petersson; Horst Wendlandt; Pierre Brice, Lex Barker, Sophie Hardy
- Old Surehand 1. Teil, Flaming Frontier, December 14, 1965, Alfred Vohrer; Fred Denger; Horst Wendlandt; Pierre Brice, Stewart Granger, Letitia Roman
- Winnetou und das Halbblut Apanatschi, Winnetou and the Crossbreed / Half-Breed, August 17, 1966, Harald Philipp; Fred Denger; Horst Wendlandt; Pierre Brice, Lex Barker, Uschi Glas
- Winnetou und sein Freund Old Firehand, Thunder at the Border / Winnetou and Old Firehand, December 13, 1966, Alfred Vohrer; David de Reszke, C. B. Taylor, Harald G. Petersson; Horst Wendlandt; Pierre Brice, Rod Cameron, Marie Versini
- Winnetou und Shatterhand im Tal der Toten, Winnetou and Shatterhand in the Valley of Death / The Valley of Death, December 12, 1968, Harald Reinl; Alex Berg (Herbert Reinecker), Harald Reinl; Artur Brauner; Pierre Brice, Lex Barker, Karin Dor
B.
- Thunder at the Border
- Apache Gold
- Treasure of Silver Lake
- Apaches’ Last Battle
- Last of the Renegades
- Flaming Frontier
- Frontier Hellcat
- Rampage at Apache Wells
- Half-Breed
- The Valley of Death
- The Desperado Trail
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Interesting. Read all the books as a kid but too long ago to remember
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That’s great, I am interested in seeing these films and would rather get them in a boxset. I won’t miss anything now. Thanks Companero!
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The Winnetou films were loved and ridiculed, admired and despised. In the German-speaking countries almost everyone in the generations born between 1950 and 1980 grew up with these films. Whether one wanted to or not, one could practically not escape them – first they were shown and re-shown in the cinema and then constantly on television. The most interesting English-language Winnetou films study that I have read is by Lee Broughton and can be found in his excellent Euro-Western book. And one thing can be said with certainty about these Karl May film adaptations from the 1960s: they are unique.
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I was a 11 when I became aware of these films. They were recommended to me by a native American friend of my Dad’s.
Winnetou III’s page in the database has been updated to the new layout. Please help correct and expand it. So have the pages for the other two btw.
More layout updates:
https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Ölprinz,_Der
https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Unter_Geiern
https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Winnetou_und_das_Halbblut_Apanatschi
https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Winnetou_und_Shatterhand_im_Tal_der_Toten
https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Schatz_im_Silbersee,_Der
https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Winnetou_und_sein_Freund_Old_Firehand
When was this filmed? It was released in Germany at the end of April 1964 but the Yugoslavia landscape looks like summer or no later than Autumn - no snow or icy breath. I’m guessing this must have been filmed in the autumn of 1963 and then held back because of the release of Winnetou the Warrior.
CCC who made this ‘unofficial’ series entry instead of Rialto had a habit of copying Realto movies. In 1962, they had made an Edgar Wallace film Curse of the Yellow Snake which had been released by the same distributor (Constantin) and passed off as a Rialto Wallace movie. They subsequently started making a series of Bryan Edgar Wallace thrillers.
This one is far too long - two hours. And pretty similar to the previous two ‘official’ films. The oddest moment is the killing of the little boy who has had quite a bit of screen time - he’s not killed by Hawkens (‘one of the heroes’) as the review states but by one of the villains, Burker, sniping from a window - which must have been a shock to the family-orientated audience. It looked like a Kennedy-type assassin to me (Kennnedy assassinated 6m before movie released). My copy - Dutch DVD with German language and Dutch/UK subtitles - runs 113m Pal (118m NTSC). But the UK BBFC clocks it at 121m under Apache’s Last Battle and there is a suggestion of an even longer print in some jurisdictions.
I do have a few additions to the cast names and characters.
According to Michael Petzel’s Karl-May-Filmbuch, Old Shatterhand was shot from September 23 to December 11, 1963.
@Admin: By the way, considering the filming time until December 11, 1963, it is extremely unlikely that Old Shatterhand was shown in Yugoslavia as early as 1963. I think we should change the release year in the database to 1964.
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Thanks - that makes sense.
They’d have filmed the location work first before Winter set in then done the studio work.
Interesting that this was shot before Winnetou 1 was released. CCC taking a bit of a punt that the second film would work as well and given them an audience for this. Barker, Brice and Wolther must have virtually stepped off the Winnetou 1 set and onto this one (which seems to use the Silver Lake town set).
The print I saw has a 1964 copywrite (for what it’s worth).
Having checked my 118m (113m) DVD vs the 121m (116m) version on You Tube it appears that the difference is the opening Constantin ident and a music play out against a black screen at the end which goes on for over 2m. So no footage missing.
Daliah Lavi’s character is in at least one of Karl May’s books. In the English subtitles she is Amy Wilkins aka Paloma Nakama aka The White Dove. She’s explained to be the daughter of a white guy and an Indian woman. In the novels she is Almy Wilkins and it’s a pidgeon not a dove but dove seems better and I wonder if pidgeon is a mistranslation. They don’t explain her presence in the movie although the impression is given that we should know who she is and why she is there.
Regards
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Today is the birthday of Parisian actress Sophie Hardy, who played Ann in The Desperado Trail. There is general agreement on the day, October 4, but the year of birth varies—from 1938 to 1940 to 1944, depending on the source consulted. Hardy appears to be still active as an actress.
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Bloody hell!
I’ve just seen that frontal nude scene in Old Shatterhand aka Apache’s Last Battle. Unbelievable for a 1963/1964 ‘family entertainment’. Surely that would have been trimmed in most jurisdictions?
Not convinced it was Daliah Lavi though. More likely a double. Might have to zoom in to check.