Durchs wilde Kurdistan

Franz Josef Gottlieb's 1965 film, the first of two adaptations of the second book published in 1892 from Karl May's six-part series "Orientzyklus"...

First, I must confess it has been nearly 20 years since I read the book, so I can't quite recall how faithfully the film follows the source material. But judged on its own merits, the film is exceedingly mediocre, even dipping to remarkably poor levels in certain scenes.

I, for one, had faith in Franz Josef Gottlieb, and the film boasts a decent cast and a respectable budget. Yet, the film is generally plagued by sets and performances reminiscent of sketches produced for RTL.

Kara Ben Nemsi (Lex Barker) and his friend the sheik hear that the sheik's son was taken prisoner by the evil Machredsch of Mossul. On their way to his rescue, they face many dangerous adventures and meet interesting characters such as the constantly drunk Mütesselin (Werner Peters, hilarious!), the unshakable butler Archie (Chris Howland) and the beautiful dancer Ingdscha (Marie Versini).

Mostly solid, colorful fun, but not without flaws. Originally it was planned to shoot this picture at its historical location in Turkey, but for organizational reasons it was decided to make it in Spain instead (source: M. Petzel). „Durchs wilde Kurdistan" was not huge, but successful enough to have a sequel following in the same year: „Im Reich des silbernen Löwen".

This adventure is more tentious than the "Schut", although Gottlieb is not the considerably better director than R. Siodmak (Schut), but the story is somehow predictable and this is fighting with its suspense. It is worth watching the landscape, that is great.