Der Schatz im Silbersee

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Der Schatz im Silbersee (The Treasure of Silver Lake) is a West German-Yugoslav co-production from 1962, the first of the so-called Kraut Westerns of the 1960s, adapted from a Karl May novel of the same name. Director Harald Reinl, having to a large extent defined the popular genres of post-World War II West German cinema with Heimatfilme, war films, and Edgar Wallace thrillers, now set his sights on the works of the popular adventure novelist (1842-1912). Produced by Horst Wendlandt for 3.5 million marks, it was the most expensive German post-war movie up until then.

In an effort to increase international sales, it was decided to give the part of the leading hero, Old Shatterhand, to American actor Lex Barker, while Frenchman Pierre Brice was cast as Winnetou, the noble Apache chief. Since costs of filming the story in the American Southwest were prohibitive, it was decided to shoot the film (and its sequels) in Yugoslavia, which offered some spectacular landscapes that could double for America with the addition of a few fake cacti etc.

The commercial success of Der Schatz im Silbersee at the time was noticed by the Cahiers du Cinéma, who called it a "Black Forest Western", and even across the Atlantic, where The Western was at that time once again seen as a dying genre. The film was followed by a Prequel,

  • Winnetou I (1963), and several sequels:
  • Old Shatterhand (1963, produced by a different company, but with the same actors)
  • Winnetou II (1964)
  • Unter Geiern (Beneath Vultures, 1964) -- in the latter, Winnetou was accompanied not by Old Shatterhand, but by Stewart Granger as Old Surehand.
  • Winnetou III (1965), in which Winnetou dies. Because of that, the following films were prequels again, the first two with Stewart Granger reprising the role of Old Surehand:
  • Der Ölprinz (The Oil Prince, 1965)
  • Old Surehand (1965). After that, Lex Barker returned for:
  • Winnetou und das Halbblut Apanatschi (Winnetou and the Half-Breed Apanatchi, 1966); then came Rod Cameron for:
  • Winnetou und sein Freund Old Firehand (Winnetou and His Friend Old Firehand, 1966); and the final one with Lex Barker:
  • Winnetou und Old Shatterhand im Tal der Toten (Winnetou and Old Shatterhand in the Valley of the Dead, 1968).

Many of the later films were co-produced in Italy and co-starred Italian actors. The success of the Kraut Western is often seen as a midwife to the birth of the Spaghetti Westerns. It also provided the spark that made the East German DEFA decide to produce a series of ideologically more correct Indianerfilme ("Indian movies") of its own. All of these starred Gojko Mitic in the lead, a Yugoslavian actor whose first part in a Western had been chief Wokadeh in Unter Geiern.

Tropes used in Der Schatz im Silbersee include:
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