Adventure Calls Box Set-- Old Shatterhand Movie Review

I have finally started the Adventure Calls series and watched Old Shatterhand(1964). These are based on characters from Karl May's stories, and it turns out that he was Hitler's favorite author. But he was in very high regard for many other people as well. 

This is very well discussed by Sir Christopher Frayling, in one of the many features on this one disc, who seems to be an expert on the man, his history, and what he describes as a cult of the man's work. Sir Frayling has written a book on the Western genre, Spaghetti Westerns: Cowboys & Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone. I think it would be an interesting read. I will have to get a copy.

German children were raised on Karl May's stories, and his novels were a huge success. His books and series of films, which are based on stories, are not well known in Europe or North America. I am grateful to have been sent this group of movies. I was only sent the discs for review. 

Like many movies of its time, Old Shatterhand starts with the sweeping epic music that will be the main piece of the film. It will play in full at the end of the film.

Old Shatterhand(Lex Barker) is a peaceful man and is best friends with the local Apache chief Winnetou(Pierre Brice). They are coming together again, as peaceful brothers, to find out who is trying to stop the peace talks between the whites & the natives. This takes a different approach from most Westerns I have seen, where violence meets violence; instead, there is a collective effort toward peace.

Of course, some don't want to see harmony among people of different nationalities, and we still have that in our society today. So they do what they can to try to stop anything that might bring peace. I think the movie does a great job of giving us both sides, and Old Shatterhand is quite a decent hero of the people. 

The action sequences are shot well; however, when the people are fighting, it's a lot of rolling around, wrestling, and poorly timed punches, which is definitely the weakest part of the film.

The cinematography is beautiful, and the film was shot in Croatia, with such gorgeous landscapes, mountains, and waterfalls around; they took advantage of it and shared the beauty with us in several shots.

The films have been restored in 4K and are presented in 1080HD. A great time to be a fan of movies when collections like these give us films that we are not familiar with. Sure, it's great to have your favorite films on physical media, I sure do,  but these mean as much to someone as much as your favorite film does.

I really enjoyed the film, and its simple message of peace and understanding. It might be a little slow-paced and more dialogue than fighting, but I thought it was well done and look forward to watching Old Shatterhand & Winnetou in the Valley of Death

I am not sure why the films were never introduced to the rest of the world until now. However, Euraka! Entertainment thought that these films need to find a new audience and be celebrated by the fans of the films that have been around for decades.