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An oasis, somewhere in Africa: German writer and adventurer Kara Ben Nemsi (Viktor Staal) and his somewhat cowardly local "protector" Hadschi Halef Omar (Georg Thomalla) have just met up with their friends, eccentric Sir Lindsay (Theo Lingen) and his Bavarian interpreter professor Pfotenhauer (Fernando Sancho), when they learn their caravan is about to be attacked by a gang of slavers led by Abu el Mot (José Guardiola). And even if they set a trap for the villain and his company, all of our heroes safe Kara and Halef fall into the hands of the slavers. It's not long before Kara, who has a reputation as a healer, is called to the palace of Murad Ibrahim (Rafael Luis Calvo) to treat one of his wives, Senitza (Mara Cruz). At the palace Kara and Halef find a magnifying glass that belongs to Sir Lindsay, so they figure Ibrahim must be in league with Abu el Mot. They also learn from one of Ibrahim's slaves, Hamid (Julio Nunez), that Senitza has actually been abducted by Ibrahim and is actually his bride. So they make up a plan to free Senitza and take one of Ibrahim's boats for their getaway on the river - a plan that works even though Ibrahim reveals that he has actually lured Kara here to spring a trap on him. At the next town, Kara tries to report Ibrahim to the authorities but it seems Ibrahim has sprung another trap on Kara by arriving before him - a trap that ultimately backfires, and ultimately Ibrahim is even forced to give up the location of Abu el Mot's camp by the local gouvernor, Mudir (Antonio Casas). Ultimately though, Kara and company find Abu el Mot's camp empty safe for their friends Lindsay and Pfotenhauer, but learn where Abu el Mot plans to strike next and plan to set up a trap there - that almost fails when Kara becomes Abu el Mot's captive. But ultimately, Halef arrives with Mudir's troops and they surround the baddies, and in an effort to avoid bloodshed offer safe passsage to Abu el Mot's footsoldiers should they extradite their master - which works reasonably well, too ...

By the 1950s, the books by Karl May (1842 - 1912) had been favourites with especially younger readers, but before 1960s, movie adaptations of the man's work were rather scarce, with this one being the first in over 20 years - and frankly, the film fails to really impress, it's an old-fahioned adventure yarn with some exotic locations thrown in for colour, but the plot not going out of its way to be special, with easily decipherable good and bad guys, a bit too much comedy from Georg Thomalla, Theo Lingen and Fernando Sancho, while Viktor Staal is a bit too serious as Kara, and even if there's no romance in store for him, he seems to try very hard to come across as romantic lead. What remains is nostalgic fun for sure, but nothing really great.

That all said, the film was successful enough to bear a sequel, Der Löwe von Babylon, the following year, with Victor Staal replaced by Helmuth Schneider though.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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