Winnetou.Ru
1/16/2019
By: Big Chief
After the war, you
returned to Germany, stayed in Berlin. Was it worth doing?
At first we were going to America, to be with friends.
But the trip was delayed because of a guarantee from a relative in the United
States, which was necessary for the invitation. And then I decided that for the
time being I would make the film I dreamed of - “Morituri”. Why did I decide
that? When I returned to Germany on a cart of a Polish peasant, we drove into
the woods. The Pole stopped the horse and decided to track down a shorter way.
While he was going somewhere, I, too, climbed down from the cart to stretch my
legs, tied my horse to a tree and saw a huge pit nearby. It was a monstrous
ravine with bodies of people shot dead at the bottom. There I noticed a boy of
ten or twelve, he layed there with his eyes open. Those eyes! They made the
impression that even a revolver aimed at me would not have caused so much fear!
As if the boy wanted to say - do not forget us ... Then I swore that while I
was alive, I would never forget them! And I kept my promise. “Morituri” was the
first of many others. 24 films about the victims of National Socialism have now
been collected at the Goethe Institute, they will be distributed in 150
countries. In Jerusalem, in Yad Vashem, they opened a media library under my
name, where they show these films. The Film Museum in Frankfurt, the Jewish
Museum in Berlin also collect films in their collection.
The film "Morituri"
You shot in very difficult conditions. Tell me how it was?
During the shooting, something was always missing. There
was not only little food, but also little electricity. Without electricity, the
movie cannot be made. When our gasoline generator lost its breath, I asked the
commandant in Karlshorst to stretch the power line for us. I had a sense of
mission, I did my best to accomplish it. But during the night, filming in
Prenzlau and Eberswalde, the lights went out anyway ... Then there was a scene
in which the guards of the concentration camp shot prisoners. For this, two
dozen Red Army soldiers were detached, they had to change into SS uniform. As
soon as they started shooting, my cameraman ran up to me - he was seriously
worried about his life. Statists got it too. The fact is that there were no
blank, only real bullets! Fortunately, no one was hurt.
Tell me, what are
the distinguishing features of a good producer?
He is like a conductor who gathers the most talented
musicians around him. At the same time, he is allowed to intervene, because he
is the one who has the vision and lives to carry it out.
Herr Browner, and
today you are watching Westerns?
When there is time, but only those in which I have a
special interest. For example, Westerns with Clint Eastwood, old Westerns with
Robert Taylor. Do you know that my Western “Old Shetterhand” in the foreign box
office was better than all the other screen versions of Karl May, filmed by
Wendland? Why? Because the jokes of Ralph Voltaire and Bill Ramsey in this film
are not as flat as in others. I tried to make the film to be internationally
recognized. It brought in more than two million. In France, “Old Shetterhand”
went under the name “Red Gentlemen” / Les Cavaliers rouges - this is how they
designated Winnetou and his Apaches.
Is it because the
film was so well received in other countries that it was closer to the
traditional western?
Karl May does not have a book called Old Shetterhand. It
was a completely original story. Here, on the terrace of this house, an idea
was born. I called the screenwriter Ladislas Fodor, and the two of us thought
about what was at stake. We were well aware of how other Winnetu films were
made, so we had to invent something completely different. We had to invent a
long time, that at some point history it could be born. Fodor told me that this
is it. He worked for ten or twelve years in Hollywood and was very well versed
in the subject. At first he began to write, then Robert A. Stemml joined, and
they began to work together, until finally they said: now you can shoot.
They say that
director Hugo Fregonerise appeared thanks to Guy Madison?
Quite possible. Hugo Fregonese was very good. I cared
more about Rick Battaglia, who worked with me in other films.
“Yes, but there
were a lot of problems with Rick.” He often fell due to illness ...
No, we did not have any problems.
“And yet in
Winnetou and Shatterhand in the Valley of the Dead, he fell ill, and during the
filming of Aztec Treasure, he got skin inflammation ...”
I don’t know about that, but in the Yellow Devil / Der
Schut (1964) he was in great shape.
Is it true that
the role of Zhut in that film should have been played by Mario Adorf?
I’m not sure, I cannot remember. Mario Adorf would have
been good, but Rick was not worse. It is unlikely that you would find someone
better ... We had long wanted to invite him for a role in an adventure film,
but, alas, something didn’t go well with him, he had broken away from us. It
turned out later.
Did you have a
long-term contract with him? After all, producer Horst Wendlandt then engaged
him for Winnetou III ...
No, there was no such contract with him. But with Gert
Frebe was. We made twelve films with him. He was a very difficult person,
especially in character ...
How did you work
with Kurd Jurgens?
With Kurd Jurgens we were good friends. By the way, he
coined my nickname “Atze”. He often visited me here. While visiting with us, it
so happened, he would come around three in the morning, he would go to the
kitchen in the fridge and get something to eat and drink. But he never woke me.
Yurgens was a very delicate person. He said: “I know that I’m not a great actor
like Otto Wilhelm Fisher, but they love me the same way because they trust me because
I’m a good type of actor for Fisher’s pick.” But you have not yet asked about
Horst Wendland, did not specify where the film versions of Karl May came from
...
“Thanks to his son
Matthias Wendlandt.” Or is that not true ?
Aah .. it's a fable. By that time, Wendlandt had been
with me for six or seven years as the head of filmmaking. He was a very good
employee. I trusted him, he was honest. In general, well done, I cannot say anything
here. We were constantly looking for something new for a movie. Among such
material, of course, was Karl May. Yes, there were a lot of things, even the
Leather Stocking Tales from the Last of the Mohicans of James Fenimore Cooper.
But it so happened that at first they removed the bad film version of May,
cheap.
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