Karl May Oriental Adventure with Lex Barker, Marie Versini and Rik Battaglia
In 1964, "Der Schut", the first Karl May adventure produced by Artur Brauner and his CCC Film, was released in cinemas. His former production manager Horst Wendlandt had become the biggest competitor on the German-speaking market since he left Rialto-Film in 1961. Successes like "Der Schatz im Silbersee / The Treasure in the Silver Lake" and "Winnetou I" then led to the idea of trying it with Karl May myself. The strip was distributed by Ilse Kubaschewski and her GLORIA.
"Der Schut" takes place in the Orient, in what was then the Ottoman Empire, in the land of the Skipetars (synonym for Albanians). Lex Barker was able to get the lead role of Kara Ben Nemsi for a fee of around 200,000 DM. Ralf Wolter, Rik Battaglia, Dieter Borsche, Chris Howland, Friedrich von Lebedur (the Queequeg! From "Moby Dick", 1956) and Heimatfilm star Marianne Hold can be seen in other roles.
The French actress Marie Versini shines in the female lead role. Today she is best known as Winnetou's sister Nscho-tschi from the film "Winnetou I". In this film she can be seen as the intrepid Chita, who is kidnapped by bandits, escapes and experiences much more. The busy actress from Paris was still present in the 1980s. She also starred in the ZDF mini-series "Die schöne Wilhelmine / The Beautiful Wilhelmine" (1984), through which the West German television star Anja Kruse had her breakthrough with audiences.
The very successful film was shot in Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo. The action and pace are certainly pleasing, but from today's perspective the comical interludes from Ralf Wolter (as Haji Halef Omar) and Dieter Borsche / Chris Howland (as Lord and Butler! Phew!) are a bit annoying. The script comes from Georg Marischka, the music comes from the tried and tested Martin Böttcher. Artur Brauner's first Karl May film was a huge success at the box office. Continuations regarding Karl May could follow. The Wikipedia entry for the film offers an interesting insight behind the scenes. In addition to the already mentioned 200,000 DM for the main actor and box office magnet Lex Barker (1919-1973), it is noticeable that the other actors in leading roles received around 30,000 DM in fees. Huge distances, the star system shows itself in its full form! 25,000 DM were paid for the script, the director received 80,000 DM. Those were the prices back then!
