One of three visually spectacular German produced westerns Robert Siodmak directed based on the popular [in Germany] adventure novels of Karl May.*
I just watched the vintage trailer [in 2.35:1] for DER SCHATZ DER AZTEKEN on the excellent UFA R2 DVD of Jess Franco's DER TODESRACHER VON SOHO (1972). DER TODESRACHER... was produced by Artur Brauner's CCC company as were the Siodmak Karl May adaptations. There were a series of CCC Karl May films in the 1960s which did quite well in Germany, including Harald Reinl's APACHE GOLD aka TREASURE OF SILVER LAKE (1962).
I'll have a review up soon of DER SCHATZ..., along with its companion film, Siodmak's PYRAMID OF THE SUN GOD. Both were released in 1965 and starred former Tarzan Lex Barker. Lensed in Spain and Germany these films have a quite different look and feel compared to the Italian Spaghetti westerns of the same era. They're an acquired taste.
*Karl May was one of Adolf Hitler's favorite writers!
Thanks to Bruno.
4 comments:
I'm only familiar with Siodmak's Hollywood films so those would be interesting to see. Are they available on DVD with English sub-titling?
The trailer is on the UFA DVD, so they might have, but probably not Eng subbed. You might want to GOOGLE the titles with DVD.
Siodmak also make films in Germany before going to Hollywood. I would like to see more of them and his later films, especially THE LAST ROMAN with Orson Welles.
Siodmak's Lex Barker-related material is still very popular in Hungary (that's where I live, and I'm a huge fan of Uncle Jess). Though many famous foreign films could only reach us after the fall of the communist regime, these innocent German productions kept flooding in, because our (secretly despised)leaders and their censors found nothing offensive in them. Both films are available on DVD here (beautiful remastered widescreen prints, Hungarian and original German audio, no subtitles)
Revelator, thank you for the information from Hungary on the film's popularity and on the DVD availability there. And welcome to the blog!
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