The Best & The Worst: Treasure of Silver Lake

Quite a few years ago, I was watching the Encore Westerns channel and just happened upon a heretofore unknown film called Treasure of Silver Lake (1962.) I had no idea what I was in for and it was an almost surreal experience (being a German-made western set in America, but filmed in Yugoslavia and Croatia, and with dubbed voices for all.) Once I adjusted my mindset a bit, I found myself becoming highly invested in the adventurous story and loving what I was seeing. I later sought out as many of the films in this ongoing series as I could, and I enjoyed them too, but Silver Lake remains my favorite. Recently I got to see a gorgeously-restored widescreen version of it (now on Blu-Ray) and it was even better than I remembered!

The original German title.

Blue-eyed Frenchman Pierre Brice made a cottage industry of playing the Apache chief Winnetou in many films and even on stage. Lex Barker, a former Tarzan, played Old Shatterhand in several films.

The unusual terrain is highlighted by the gorgeous widescreen cinematography.

The "worst" for me is the sometimes questionable dubbing (and for some reason in these and countless other dubbed European films, there is always loud, boisterous laughter going on for no apparent reason.) Also, this character, played by Eddi Arent, is part of a triad of comic relief roles who - depending on one's tolerance - a viewer may need relief from! This foppish lord stumbles into the story line in search of a rare butterfly!

The other two characters with the potential to grate are the dark-haired one - who speaks only in rhymes - and the bewigged one who was once attacked by an Indian and occasionally takes off his "hair" to itch what's left of his scalp! The rhyming one is by far my least favorite of the three.

More to my taste is the glowing, deliriously handsome Götz George who plays the son of a landowner who has discovered the treasure of the title. If he seems at all familiar, it's because I gave him a brief tribute when he passed away a couple of years ago.

Another example of the striking scenery.

George's vivid red shirt against the painterly (and real!) mountains and sky.

Bronzed Lex Barker starts off the movie with a thick, blond beard, but soon shaves it off.

Directly after shaving it, shots pour in from the window, forcing Barker and George into a clinch. I like to finish up my shaving habits this way, too, but rarely do...

Chief villainy comes in the form of Herbert Lom. Few people could cast as direct or as threatening a gaze as Mr. Lom when he wanted to.

Needless to say, among the best in this film is the searingly beautiful George and his crystalline eyes!

There's a fairly resourceful female (Marianne Hoppe), too, who helps hold off a horde of bad guys at a fort.

There is true grandeur in the sequence, with a huge, two-story house surrounded by tall fencing. The bad guys use large rolling bales to hide behind as they approach with flaming torches.

Forty-three year-old Sexy Lexy, who'd found a new, wildly-successful career in Europe, was still looking good. Sadly, he would be dead of a heart attack just eleven years later. 

I was just gobsmacked that George was doing what appeared to be every single one of his own stunts, from hopping aboard a team of runaway horses pulling a stagecoach to jumping from a moving horse in this scene to drag Lom to the ground!

Their fight scene is quite rugged, but hilariously choreographed with George sending Lom tumbling into the air, Lom burying his face in George's ass and then George catching Lom's head between his legs...! (Is it getting warm in here?)

It ends with George picking Lom up by the balls and then cupping his hand over Lom's crotch before tossing him into the dirt!

The film's heroine is played by pretty Karin Dor, who Hitchcock fans may recall from Topaz (1969.) She's the one who sank to the floor as her voluminous gown spread out below her. Here, her primary act is to be held hostage THREE different times...!

The film would be a pretty serious affair were it not for the continued presence of these three "amusing" tag-alongs. Somehow, during my last viewing, they didn't bother me as much as they once did, but I'm not much on broad comic relief.

The film's participants are subjected to incident after incident, from a tense arrow-filled ambush at a burnt-out Indian village...

...to a knock-down drag-out battle between Barker and one of the tribes hulking warriors (who's given a hysterically sonorous voice in the English dub.)

When we finally do arrive at Silver Lake, it is indeed breathtaking, with teeming waterfalls and, as seen here, a natural rainbow.

Silver Lake.

But once more, Dor has been captured by Lom. George (not shown) is as well.

If you're going to play a guard who is knocked out and has his gun stolen, there are worse ways for it to be done that to have a shirtless Götz George slither across your face as he's reaching for your pistol...!

But the freedom doesn't last long. Can I just - again - point out how George's beauty jumps from the screen?!

I should think fans of bondage would like this segment. Some folks may have focused in on Dor's pouting breasts, but George's beefy pec was all I could take in by this point!

George was either convinced to shave his chest for this part or else wanted to (I presume the former), though in future roles he would show off a hairy physique.

I can't say enough about the gorgeous location filming, the almost endless series of adventures and the finale inside the cave near Silver Lake, which looks as if it could easily have inspired George Lucas when he was making Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989.)

The stars are lovingly photographed throughout. Barker and Brice were extremely popular in these roles, which remain lesser known to many U.S. film fans.

And, I'm sorry, but there are few young male leads as invigorating as George. To see him in the movie, in perpetual motion, literally hurling himself from one spot to the next, doing all sorts of crazy stunts while also looking like this... Sigh. You may see this film for yourself here if you wish. Try to watch it on as large a screen as you can.

Bonus Pic: George and Barker re-teamed (shown here with costar Uschi Glas during leisure time) on Winnetou and the Crossbreed (1966) by which time his chest hair was back in full flower (as were his swim trunks!)

Bonus Pic: By this 1978 TV appearance (on the German series Derrick), hair was "in."

Sweet dreams, folks...

  * * * ALSO - If you recall the very first installment of The Best & The Worst, there was a question regarding the exposure of Jeff Bridges in the 1979 film Winter Kills. I have updated the post with some revealing information at the bottom of the page.  * * * Till next time!