Carne para Abutres

I've seen more than several of these Karl May novels adapted for the screen and I'm not yet sure who has the better imagination. Its quite obvious that these are totally unrealistic depictions of ruthless heathens and downright savages trying to be put in a kinder light for whatever purpose that has yet to be explained. When Native American's watch these tall tales I'm sure they laugh even harder than I did. Way too far out of touch with cultural realities. To qualify them as interesting entertainment would be beyond logical reason. Some of the more obvious flaws are using model 94 Winchester rifles way before the time frame they came into being. Then to believe that one could shoot an arrow from mid-flight without aiming is especially difficult for even an expert marksman to comprehend. These films are pure fantasy from the word go. If you have 90 to 100 minutes to spare I'd suggest visiting the many Native American web pages instead and find out the truth about the culture and customs.

This film begins with a settler named "Martin Bauman Sr." (Walter Barnes) and his son, "Martin Bauman Jr." (Gotz George), joining Apache Chief "Winnetou" (Pierre Brice) on a hunt for a grizzly bear that has been attacking livestock. While they are away from the ranch, bandits arrive, murder his wife and daughter, and leave evidence suggesting that the perpetrators come from a nearby Shoshone tribe. Consumed by rage against the Shoshone, the father cries out for revenge and lashes out at Winnetou when he disagrees with his conclusions about the identity of the perpetrators. His anger is further stoked when a preacher named "Reverend Weller" (Miha Beloe) arrives and swears he witnessed the Shoshone kill his family. Yet, despite this eyewitness account, a famous frontiersman known as "Old Surehand" (Stewart Granger) remains unconvinced and, with the help of Winnetou, decides to uncover the real identity of the perpetrators before the situation escalates. Now, instead of revealing more, I'll simply say that this fifth film in the series wasn't nearly as good as any of its predecessors, largely due to the rambling plot and some absurd action scenes. Likewise, while I have a certain fondness for her, Elke Summer (as "Annie Dillman") could have significantly improved her performance as well. That said, while this film wasn't entirely bad, it definitely wasn't as good as any of the other films in the series, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

Yup..." A Merry-Go-'Round". That is what this film should have been titled because that was all the story of this picture did. 'Round and 'round and 'round it went. I stopped watching it a little after halfway into the film I was afraid it would never end. One of the WORST films I've ever seen. The story line was a collection of almost every Western movie ever shown. Except for the horses, the acting of all the Casts were pathetic, to say the least. A total waste of my money and my time.

The Karl May wave had already been going on for two years (since THE TREASURE OF SILVER LAKE) when AMONG VULTURES came to West German cinemas shortly before Christmas 1964. Packed with film stars and, thanks to the direction of Alfred VOHRER, also one of the most action-packed parts of the series! The fight against the vulture gang is always worth seeing.

Winnetou (Pierre BRICE) and Old Surehand (first appearance of Hollywood star Stewart GRANGER in the role) have their hands full trying to pacify a conflict between the rancher Baumann (Walter BARNES) and the Shoshone chief (muscle-bound as usual: Gojko MITIC). Behind the conflict are the brutal murders of the vulture gang of the unscrupulous leader Preston (Sieghardt RUPP). It's good that the powerful Martin Baumann (Götz GEORGE) and the stunning blonde Annie (Elke SOMMER, recently awarded the GOLDEN GLOBE for THE PRIZE) are also involved!

Fights, shootings, explosions: Alfred VOHRER puts on a great action show. There are also beautiful shots of the Krka waterfalls. A Karl May fan couldn't ask for more. 5.6 million viewers wanted to see the film in West German cinemas. The enchanting Dunja RAJTER (as a barmaid, of course) and Mario GIROTTI, who grew up in Dresden for a few years (not yet as powerful as he later became as Terence HILL), also appear in smaller roles.

Well worth seeing!

As another commenter said, this is pure fantasy in a Western setting. If you're looking for the gritty realism of a Spaghetti Western or an American Western from the Peckinpah era, this is definitely not your cup of tea.

For one thing, everyone is so clean -- even the Vulture Gang, whom you'd naturally expect to have less exacting standards of personal hygiene.

In many ways, these "Bratwurst Westerns" seem like throwbacks to an earlier style, namely, the 1930s brand of American horse opera. Except that in the Old Surehand series, the Native Americans are portrayed to an almost ridiculous degree as misunderstood Noble Savages. (Which is somewhat of an improvement over depicting them as mindless, bloodthirsty savages, but neither approach corresponds very closely to the reality.)

What's really disconcerting about the English language dub of the film is that someone else does Stewart Granger's voice. Which is a pity, because much of Granger's charm and presence as an actor resided in that inimitable bass growl. I wonder why they couldn't get him to do his own dubbing -- I'd have given this one an extra star just for that.

But it doesn't look as though the production values were skimped when it came to the costuming and props, and the cinematography is occasionally breathtaking. (If possible, you should try to catch this in letterbox format, just for the gorgeous scenery.) The action sequences come off fairly well, too, and the bad guys are appropriately villainous.

Overall, I can think of many worse ways to spend an hour-and-a-half.