Treasure of Silver Lake (1962)

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

"Der Schatz im Silbersee" is a German western movie from almost 55 years ago and as it is a collaboration with other countries again, the cast here includes French actor Pierre Brice as Winnetou and several Yugoslavian actors in supporting roles. This 105-minute movie was the beginning to the really successful Winnetou franchise. I have seen some of these films and will probably see more in the future, but I personally am disappointed overall with the outcome. So with "successful", I am only referring to the commercial success. This one here also won a Golden Screen, so no surprise many other films would follow. The story here I found entirely disappointing and not memorable at all. It is probably not Brice's worst performance compared to some truly weak efforts later on, but the antagonists here are quite uninteresting and this lack of opposition hurt the film irreparably. Also, the title sounds a lot more interesting than the film finally turns out. For large parts of the film, the focus moves entirely away from the treasure and you wonder why it was even called like that. If you ask me, it was not really necessary to make more (or even many more) films after this one. But they loved the cash obviously. Final criticism: Götz George was criminally underused here. He would have been the one man who may have made this a more interesting watch, but he was not given the material. I do not recommend "The Treasure of the Silver Lake". Thumbs down.

Having read some of the comments on this film I feel somehow compelled to defend one of my favourite childhood movies. First off, I find it very odd that accuracy in the depiction of Indian culture and the what kind of equipment was used in a film made in the 1960s, when with very few exceptions (such as Cheyenne Autumn and Broken Arrow) American Westerns only depicted Indians as villains. Moreover, in the 1960s cinematography was maybe a bit more boring by modern music-video style cutting standards. Also, the prop work (costumes, the kind of guns and knives used etc....excuse me?) was simply making do with what you could get. This was not a multi-million-dollar budget movie, it was produced for German TV in a coproduction with Yugoslavia and I think Italy. Of course the story is full of clichés, and that's not surprising since Karl May never even left Germany, he was writing escapist romanticised fantasies of noble savages and cowboys fighting against evil savages and cowboys, it's not an ethnographic study on mid-19th-century Native American war-painting styles. It is still a very good and entertaining movie with likable characters, including some for comic relief. It is still the best of all the Karl May films, even though it greatly deviates from the book. When you see these films as an adult and don't know them from childhood I can understand they don't really grip you or blow you away. But they are classics. Their clichés, great music, and scenery make them so popular and the films have, along with the books, had a great impact on popular culture in Germany, even having spawned their own spoofs and parodies. If you are looking for factual accuracy, don't watch Westerns at all, if you just like a good adventure story, watch it.

I saw this strange little film at a rural drive-in as a child, and was struck even then by a strangeness that no one else seems to have remarked upon: the Indians appear to be wearing uniforms -- a strange departure from the usual Western convention whereby the Indians "all look the same," but are hardly dressed to resemble an army. This anomaly remains my most vivid memory of what we judged, as a family, a horrifically awful film and worse Western (a genre on which my father considered himself something of an expert, having followed Westerns since Tom Mix, in his youth) -- making it a perfect booking for drive-in showing in the sticks when it entered U.S. release. A question for the more knowledgeable and hard-core devotees out there: did this film gain wide release in U.S. theaters at the time?

Paving the way for the Italian "Spaghetti Westerns" was this German-made "Kraut Western" that kicked off a whole series of films based on the writings of frontier adventure author Karl May. American audiences will likely have a difficult time fully appreciating this film because of the downright horrendous dubbing. Also, even though this film is inspired by the countless American westerns that preceded it, it has certain elements that may be a turn-off to traditional western enthusiasts. However, to those who approach the film with an open mind and anticipate that the dialogue will sometimes sound unintentionally funny when paired with the faces on screen, the film is more than a little entertaining. Barker plays a legendary drifter called Old Shatterhand. He roams the plains with his best pal Winnetou ("Chief of all Apaches" as the script dictates) played by Brice (and apparently played over and over by Brice in film and even on stage!) This neo-"Lone Ranger and Tonto" duo rights wrongs and helps various settlers with their sizable problems. This time out, they team up to thwart a ruthless band of criminals (led by Lom) who will stop at nothing to retrieve the title goods. If this rather simple plot sounds dull, it is decidedly not! The nearly epic film depicts stunning scenery, a nail-biting assault on a fort, a knock down contest between Barker and a towering Indian chief and a satisfactory climax at Silver Lake. Barker, a gloriously handsome former "Tarzan" has his beautiful mug hidden under a beard at first, but not for too long. He gives a standout performance in a role which won him multitudinous European fans. Brice (a French, blue-eyed actor!) doesn't get to do as much, but still made enough impact to assure a long career as this character. Also in the cast is hunky, stocky, deliriously sexy George. He manages to overcome the ridiculous vocal dubbing and provide a highly energetic and entertaining performance. In fact, all of the actors got a rigorous workout in the making of this film. They clearly did much of their own riding and stunt work. (Some of it is really odd. Watch for the fight scene between George and Lom in which George practically sits on Lom's face and then picks him up by his genitals to throw him! George also throws a dead/injured man down a well....the only source of drinking water for miles and miles! Why?) On hand for decorative purposes (which she fulfills well) is Dor, who would later be a Bond girl and the subject of one of Hitchcock's most famous camera shots in "Topaz". Lom (with a shocking burst of red hair on his usually bald head) is also beset by bad dubbing, but comes across as a serious villain. There are some comic relief characters that are excruciating. A Gabby Hayes-style rip off in a fright wig, a foppish entomologist with a butterfly net and, worst of all, a lanky, coonskin cap-wearing man who insists (to the utter torture of the viewing audience) on speaking everything in rhyme! There are also goofy elements like people hiding behind tiny trees and bushes in plain sight, yet not being seen. Still, the good outweighs the bad here with the colorful characters and exciting situations going a long way to make the film entertaining. The music also tends to be pretty interesting when it isn't intrusive. The scenes at the title lake are truly beautiful, not only due to the gorgeous setting, but also because George finally takes his shirt off for a while. Fans of "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" will find the climax of this film to be a bit of an inspiration for the climax of that film.