LAST FOUR ON SANTA CRUZ, THE

 

1936, Germany

Aka… Die Letzten Vier von Santa Cruz / ‘The Last Four of Santa Cruz’ (Ger)

Ex… Letzten Vier ze Santa Cruz (Cz), A Pénz Rabjai / ‘The Money Addicts’ (Hun), Gli Ultimi Quattro di Santa Cruz (It), Los Amotinados de Santa Cruz / ‘The Mutineers of Santa Cruz’ (Sp)

T: 80 (Ger and Cz)

Pc: UFA-Universum Film [Alfred Ernst Christian Alexander Hugenberg] (Ber)

Dist: UFA-Universum Film [Alfred Hugenberg] (02/07/36, Au), UFA (03/11/36, Ger), (02/26/36, Slov), Arzén von Cserépy Film [?] (03/11/36, Hun), (05/03/36, Fin), (07/31/36, Croat), (1937, It), Trosečníci Film (1937 [?], Cz), Internet Archive.com (12/01/2022, US-Ger/Cz)

D: Werner Klinger; P: Alfred Hugenberg & Karl Ritter; Sc: Alois Johannes Lippl; Nv: Josef Maria Frank: Die Letzten Vier Von St. Paul / ‘The Last Four from St. Pauli (Ger); Ph: Erich Rudolf Schmidtke, Hans Beierlein & Konstantin Irmen-Tschet [Konstantin Cetverikov]; Ed: Gottfried Ritter & Eduard von Borsody; M:

C: Hermann Speelmans (Captain Pieter Streuvels), Irene von Meyendorff (Madeleine, his wife), Valéry Inkijinoff [Walerian Iwanowitsch Inkischinow] (Reeder Alexis Aika), Françoise Rosay [Françoise Bandy de Nalèche] (Nadja Danouw), Erich Ponto (Alexander Ghazaroff), Josef Sieber (Jack), Max Schreck (William), Beppo Brem (Erik), Andrews Engelmann (Cairos), Harald Gloth (Hein), Walter Holten (slave owner Malherbe), Ludwig Andersen (Dunard), Max Harry Ernst (A Guest), Josef Dahmen (Cocteau), Bruno Hübner (Borinsky), Hugo Gau-Hamm (Auseklis, a buccaneer), Babette Jenssen (Borinsky's lady friend) & Hardy Vogdt

Syn: 1930’s Europe. An author, a businessman, a publisher and shipowner form a business venture that will have them harvest lobsters on the island of Santa Cruz in the Canaries. After a report in the newspaper, the business' stocks do well. But the partners quarrel amongst themselves, when they discover there aren't any lobsters in waters off of Santa Cruz. Undaunted, the group head off to the island in a decrepit boat to open a cannery anyway.

     Comm: [Filmed at the Babelsberg Studios in Berlin and on location in the Canary Islands, Spain in 1935] THE LAST FOUR ON SANTA CRUZ is a bubbly crime film set in Santa Cruz, in the Canaries (where it was largely shot), and set during the 1930's. The original book was set in ‘St. Paul’, which was likely chosen to sound like ‘St. Pauli’, the red-light suburb of Hamburg, and later changed for the film.

     German poster artwork played up the presence of ‘Cacti’ that grows in the Canary Islands. The plants, plus the ‘Santa Cruz’ title, also made the film sound like it was set in California, rather than the town of Santa Cruz, in the Islands.

     The same year the rival banner Tobis-Rota-Film Verleih AG made an actual western THE KAISER OF CALIFORNIA / Der Kaiser von Kalifornien (07/21/36), which was filmed in the US (Arizona, California, Nevada and Mexico) as well as interior studio work at the Pisorno Studios, in Tirrenia, Italy.

     It would be nearly thirty years before the Germans would return to the Canaries and shoot both THE LAST RIDE TO SANTA CRUZ and TOWN WITHOUT A SHERIFF / “Stadt Ohne Sheriff” (1972-73, Ger, TV), there. The Germans had started filming in the Canaries before the Spaniards. Strange? At least the title for ‘The Last Ride’ fit the locale more than ‘Last Four’ had.

     Similar use of 'Santa Cruz' later turned up on Lux's sword and cape adventure "Il Prigioniero di Santa Cruz" (1941, It) which is set in the 1700's.

     A print in German, with Czech subtitles has survived and can be viewed at the Internet Archive.com. Italian and Spanish posters have not.

     This was director Werner Klinger’s first film. He continued working until 1968’s “Straßenbekanntschaften auf St. Pauli / ‘Causal Street Friends in St. Pauli’ (Ger), which coincidentally was set in the Reeperbahn area of Hamburg, and he died in 1972.

     Editor Eduard von Borsody was the father of Hans von Borsody (BUFFALO BILL, HERO OF FAR WEST) and distant relative by marriage to Sky du Mont [Caetano Bremme Gaspar Neven DuMont] (THE SHOE OF MANITOU, 2001 and THE CANOE OF MANITOU, 2025).

     Even with Ms. Françoise Rosay in the cast it appears that THE LAST FOUR ON SANTA CRUZ wasn't picked up for France. Even stranger?

     Actor Max Schreck is best remembered as having played the titular vampire character “Nosferatu” (1922, Ger).

     In 1975 Antonio Margheriti Dawson shot the Lee Van Cleef topper TAKE A HARD RIDE in the Canaries. Recently the Secuoya Studios' TV ZORRO (2024, Sp) and TRINIDAD (2026, Sp) have also been shot there.

     Still, if you squint THE LAST FOUR ON SANTA CRUZ is not really a western.  Just an interesting curio that showcases the Island.

 

By Michael Ferguson