''The Treasure of the Silver Lake'' (german: Der Schatz im Silbersee) is a 1962

western film The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...

directed by

Harald Reinl Harald Reinl (8 July 1908 in Bad Ischl, Austria – 9 October 1986 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain) was an Austrian film director. He is known for the films he made based on Edgar Wallace and Karl May books (see Karl May movies and Edgar Wal ...

and starring

Lex Barker Alexander Crichlow Barker Jr. (May 8, 1919 – May 11, 1973), known as Lex Barker, was an American actor. He was known for playing Tarzan for RKO Pictures between 1949 and 1953, and portraying leading characters from Karl May's novels, notably a ...

, Pierre Brice and

Karin Dor Karin Dor (, born Kätherose Derr; 22 February 1938 – 6 November 2017) was a German actress. She was famous to international audiences for her role as Bond girl Helga Brandt in the James Bond film '' You Only Live Twice'' (1967) and her appear ...

. It is very loosely based on

Karl May Karl Friedrich May ( , ; 25 February 1842 – 30 March 1912) was a German author. He is best known for his 19th century novels of fictitious travels and adventures, set in the American Old West with Winnetou and Old Shatterhand as main pro ...

's 1891 novel of the same name. It was shot in

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

and was the first in the highly successful ''

Winnetou Winnetou is a fictional Native American hero of several novels written in German by Karl May (1842–1912), one of the best-selling German writers of all time with about 200 million copies worldwide, including the ''Winnetou'' trilogy. The ch ...

film series A film series or movie series (also referred to as a film franchise or movie franchise) is a collection of related films in succession that share the same fictional universe, or are marketed as a series. This article explains what film series are ...

Rialto Film Rialto Film is a German motion-picture production company headquartered in Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make ...

. It was made as a co-production between France, West Germany and Yugoslavia. The film's sets were designed by the Croatian art director Dusan Jericevic. Extensive

location shooting Location shooting is the shooting of a film or television production in a real-world setting rather than a sound stage or backlot. The location may be interior or exterior. The filming location may be the same in which the story is set (for ex ...

took place across Yugoslavia, particularly around the

Plitvice Lakes National Park Plitvice Lakes National Park ( hr, Nacionalni park Plitvička jezera, colloquially ''Plitvice'', ) is one of the oldest and largest national parks in Croatia. In 1979, Plitvice Lakes National Park was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage lis ...

which doubled for the American West. Post-production work was done at the

Wandsbek Studios The Wandsbek Studios are film production and television studios located in Wandsbek, a district of the German city of Hamburg. The complex was established in 1948 when Real Film, set up the previous year, acquired a site in Wandsbek for constr ...

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

Plot

Fred Engel's father is murdered by Colonel Brinkley in order to acquire a

treasure map A treasure map is a map that marks the location of buried treasure, a lost mine, a valuable secret or a hidden locale. More common in fiction than in reality, "pirate treasure maps" are often depicted in works of fiction as hand drawn and cont ...

, however the Colonel only acquires half of it, the other half is held by Mrs. Butler. Discovering the scene of the crime, Old Shatterhand and Winnetou help Fred bring his father's murderer to justice and locate the treasure of Silver Lake.

Cast

Old Shatterhand Old Shatterhand is a fictional character in Western novels by German writer Karl May (1842–1912). He is the German friend and blood brother of Winnetou, the fictional chief of the Mescalero tribe of the Apache The Apache () are a g ...

* Pierre Brice as

Götz George Götz George (; 23 July 1938 – 19 June 2016) was a German actor, the son of actor couple Berta Drews and Heinrich George. His arguably best-known role is that of Duisburg detective Horst Schimanski in the TV crime series ''Tatort''. Early lif ...

as Fred Engel *

Herbert Lom Herbert Charles Angelo Kuchačevič ze Schluderpacheru (11 September 1917 – 27 September 2012), known professionally as Herbert Lom (), was a Czech-British actor who moved to the United Kingdom in 1939. In a career lasting more than 60 ye ...

as Colonel Brinkley *

as Ellen Patterson *

Eddi Arent Gebhardt Georg Arendt (5 May 1925 – 28 May 2013) was a German actor, cabaret artist and comedian. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1956 and 2002. He was born in Danzig, Free City of Danzig (present-day Gdańsk, Poland) and died in ...

as Lord Castlepool *

Marianne Hoppe Marianne Hoppe (26 April 1909 – 23 October 2002) was a German theatre and film actress. Life and work Born in Rostock, Hoppe became a leading lady of stage and films in Germany. She was born into a wealthy landowning family and was initiall ...

as Mrs. Butler *

Ralf Wolter Ralf Wolter (26 November 1926 – 14 October 2022) was a German stage and screen actor. Wolter appeared in nearly 220 films and television series in his over 60 years as a character actor. Life and career Wolter began his long career on the B ...

as Sam Hawkens *

Mirko Boman Mirko Boman (11 December 1926 – 30 August 2013) was a Croatian actor. He appeared in more than fifty films from 1959 to 2002. Selected filmography References External links * 1926 births 2013 deaths Male actors from Zagreb C ...

as Gunstick Uncle * Sima Janicijevic as Patterson *

Ilija Ivezic Ilija may refer to: * Ilija, Iran, a village in Ardabil Province, Iran * Ilija, Slovakia, a village and municipality in the Banská Štiavnica District, in the Banská Bystrica Region * Ilija (given name), South Slavic given name *ilija (puki) kante ...

as Hilton * Branko Spoljar as Doc Jefferson Hartley * Milivoj Stojanovic as Knox *

Slobodan Dimitrijevic Slobodan ( sr-Cyrl, Слободан) is a Serbo-Croatian masculine given name which means "free" (''sloboda'' / meaning "freedom, liberty") used among other South Slavs as well. It was coined by Serbian liberal politician Vladimir Jovanović w ...

as . Rollender Donner * Jozo Kovacevic as Grosser Wolf * Velimir Chytil as Woodward

Box office

It was the highest-grossing film of 1962 in West Germany, selling tickets and grossing . In France, it was the 29th top-grossing film of 1963, selling 1,656,736 tickets. In the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, the film sold tickets. This adds up to a total of tickets sold worldwide. The film was a phenomenal success, predating that of Sergio Leone's films. This helped provide a cultural and financial context for the later Spaghetti Western films.

References

Bibliography

* Bergfelder, Tim. ''International Adventures: German Popular Cinema and European Co-Productions in the 1960s''. Berghahn Books, 2005.

External links

*
''Treasure of the Silver Lake''
at filmportal.de/en 1962 films 1962 Western (genre) films 1960s buddy films 1960s historical films Columbia Pictures films Constantin Film films Winnetou films Films directed by Harald Reinl Films produced by Horst Wendlandt Films set in the 19th century Films set in New Mexico Films set in Tulsa, Oklahoma Films shot in Croatia Films shot in Yugoslavia Films shot at Wandsbek Studios 1960s German-language films German historical films German Western (genre) films West German films German films about revenge German vigilante films 1960s German films Treasure hunt films Foreign films set in the United States {{1960s-Germany-film-stub