Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Forumrxes Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "Der Ölprinz" or "The Oil Prince" is a West German / Yugoslavian co-production from 1965, so this 90-minute movie had its 50th anniversary last year. Once again, it stars Pierre Brice as the title character and Stewart Granger is on board too playing Old Surehand with Lex Barker and the (recently deceased Götz George) not in it this time. But there are familiar faces from other Karl May adaptations, such as Terence Hill and a whole lot of Yugoslavian actors. Overall, this film can be summarized pretty nicely that it is hurt by the absence of a not too great actor like Lex Barker. At least he had tons of charisma. Pierre Brice is not a good actor in my opinion and should not have headlined this franchise. The result is that this movie we have here is almost entirely forgettable and lacks in many departments, especially story-telling. The director and also one of the two writers who adapted Karl May's work is Harald Philipp and I have seen other work from him that disappointed me. Still I am not sure if it is really his fault or if May is the one too blame as I have never read the base material. The result in this very case is a film that may be beautiful visually at times, but is really empty in terms of the story. If you want to see a great oil movie, go for "There Will be Blood" instead.

classicsoncall This is my second Winnetou Western and unfortunately, it doesn't whet one's appetite for more in the series. Pierre Brice seemed more authentic as an Indian in this film compared to "Winnetou and Old Firehand", but then again, we're talking about a Frenchman portraying an Apache Chief. I saw this picture under the title "Rampage at Apache Wells" and that's a bit of a misnomer as well. There was one Indian attack that caused some damage but it was over pretty quickly. Try as they might, I didn't really get a sense of the blood brother connection between Winnetou and Old Surehand, Stewart Granger. In his early fifties, Granger didn't look like the rugged Western type to be pulling off a role like this. The plot of the story seemed reasonable enough, settlers heading to Shelly Lake are encouraged by a promise of free land from the Utahs in exchange for a share of the grain and meat they intend to produce. When a slick shyster going by the name of The Oil Prince (Harald Leipnitz) instigates the Indian tribe against the settlers, the opposing sides have a falling out until Surehand can expose the outlaw and his henchman Knife (Slobodan Dimitrijevic). It all plays out in expected fashion with little in the way of suspense, in a cautionary tale that warns me to stay away from Westerns in which the principal players go by the names of Pierre, Slobodan, Harald and Milan.

Wizard-8 This is the second "Winnetou" western I've seen, and though I have yet to see more of the series, I'm getting the feeling they are more or less the same. Stewart Granger actually makes a good hero - though starting to age, he has both a charm and a heroic presence that fits this particular "Hand" hero he plays. Other than that, it's more of the same - nice scenery, but bogged down by a leaden pace, blatant padding (especially toward the end) plus comic relief that's both utterly unfunny and childish. There is some interest in seeing a young Terence Hill, several years before he became a European superstar, and there is some amusement to see HIM being the one slapped and punched around for a change!

amikus2000 This Winnetou movie contains a story with whole look at Winnetous opposite OIL PRINCE Harald Leipnitz. Stewart Granger's script gave him a rather passive position. Heinz Erhard (piano-player) could turn it into a comedy, but he fails sometimes. Terence Hill ads the famous actor set, surrounded by the famous soundtrack. Psychological cruelty enriches the Winnetou plot and turns newer aspects in an attractive western.