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Der Schut
The Shoot
Yellow Devil / Sut / Au Pays des Skipétars / Una Carabina per Schut
West Germany/France/Italy/Yugoslavia 1964
produced by Artur Brauner, Götz Dieter Wulf (executive) for CCC-Filmkunst, Critérion Film, Serena Film, Avala Film
directed by Robert Siodmak
starring Lex Barker, Marie Versini, Ralf Wolter, Rik Battaglia, Dieter Borsche, Chris Howland, Marianne Hold, Friedrich von Lebedur, Dusan Janicijevic, Renato Baldini, Jovan-Burdus Janicevic, Nikola Popovic, Eva Ras, Zivojin Denic, Perre Fromont, Olga Brajevic, Maria Grazia Francia, Aleksandar Stojkovic, Dusan Antonijevic, Dusan Perkovic, Jovan Vojinovic, Janez Vrhovec
screenplay by Georg Marischka, based on the novel by Karl May, music by Martin Böttcher
Kara Ben Nemsi, Kara Ben Nemsi at CCC-Filmkunst, Karl May at CCC-Filmkunst
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Somewhere in the Balkans: German Kara Ben Nemsi (Lex Barker) and his
native friend Hadschi Halef Omar (Ralf Wolter) are trying to their friend
Henri Galingré (Pierre Formont), who has been taken captive by the
mysterius Shoot, who terrorizes the countryside. The two are accompanied
by Galingré's wife Annette (Marianne Hold) and Omar (Dusan Janicijevic),
whose wife Tschita (Marie Versini) has also been abducted by the Shoot.
Somehow, Tschita manages to flee from the Shoot's clutches, only to run
right into the arms of Nirvan (Rik Battaglia), who claims to be a friend
of Kara - but is actually the Shoot in person ... so it's back to the
Shoot's dungeon for Tschita, as well as Lord Lindsay (Dieter Borsche) and
his servant Archibald (Chris Howland), also friends of Kara.
After quite some fights with the men of the Shoot, even Kara himself
becomes his opponent's captive, but by that time, Tschita has made another
successful escape attempt and has teamed up with Kara's friends to lead
them and the local army battallion to the Shoot's secret hideout. During
the attack, the shoot manages to make an escape by coach, dragging a tied
up Kara behind - to his dead, presumably, if it wasn't for Tschita, who
bravely saves him - and now Kara sees to it that the Shoot gets his just
desserts when he falls off a cliff.
Artur Brauner of CCC-Filmkunst was always quick to jump any
bandwagon - and in the early 1960's, when Rialto
was successful with their Winnetou-Westerns
based on books of popular German author, Brauner was quick to produce a Winnetou-film
of his own, Old Shatterhand, starring Pierre Brice, Lex Barker and
Ralf Wolter, all of the Rialto-series
... to which Rialto
reacted with giving the three of them exclusive contracts, preventing
them from playing the characters for any other studio. But Brauner wasn't
one to give up easily, so he hired Barker and Wolter to play rather
similar roles in The Shoot, based on an Oriental-based novel by
Karl May, and he also hired Marie Versini for a supporting role, who has
become quite popular with fans due to her appearance in Winnetou
I, and Martin Böttcher of Winnetou-fame
was responsible for the soundtrack. And wouldn't you know it, The Shoot
became a success ...
The film itself though is nothing all that special, a competently
directed Oriental adventure (thanks to Hollywood veteran Robert Siodmak)
that a few times too often shows the lack of sufficient budget (especially
the finale that had all the buildup of a great battle scene is a definite
let-down) but that's well enough paced to keep the audience interested
nevertheless.
So yes, it's entertaining enough, but it definitely is no classic like
several of Siodmak's earlier films.
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