Thunder at the Border (1967)

I love this movie so much

Great Film overall

Good concept, poorly executed.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

"Winnetou und sein Freund Old Firehand" or "Thunder at the Border" is a West German & Yugoslavian co-production from 1966 that resulted in a German-language western film. It has its 50th anniversary this year and it is in color. Here we have another of the uncountable Karl May western films from Germany from the 1960s. The title including Winnetou is of course a giveaway. However, do not believe what you are told. These 90 minutes are one of the later installments from the Winnetou series, but actually this is not really a Winnetou film anymore. Pierre Brice's character is almost non-existent for the entire movie, only appears very briefly on several occasions. What still links this film to the Winnetou series is that many actors are in here that appeared in other Winnetou films such as Marie Versini or Rik Battaglia, who is fun to watch as always, but kind of wasted as one of the good guys this time. The antagonists were really boring and the heroes, such as Old Firehand weren't really more interesting either. You cannot blame them though. Obviously the people who made this film, such as director Alfred Vohrer, wanted to make as much cash as possible because the previous Winnetou films were huge commercial successes and this also explains the use of Brice's character in the name. Now I personally think Brice is not a good actor at all, so it may have been a chance to make a good film with him absent most of the time, but the plot and story are just way too weak. Luckily, the film is not as long as some of the other Karl May movies, but even at 1.5 hours, it dragged on several occasions. This film should have been when the Winnetou franchise really should have ended, but sadly there was still one (others may say two) more films to come. I do not recommend the watch. Go for something else.

It's only from reading other reviewers here that I've become aware of a series of films featuring the character of Winnetou as a principal with actor Pierre Brice in the lead role. Though this is titled "Winnetou and Old Firehand", I caught it on the Encore Western Channel as "Thunder at the Border", and it seemed to me that the Apache Chief was merely an ancillary character. Actually, he and his sister Nscho-tschi (Marie Versini) almost seemed out of place in the story to me, appearing as if they had just stepped off an Indian fashion runway while the rest of the cast was suitably attired for the Mexican desert.Regarding Old Firehand, that would have been actor Rod Cameron using yet another name, Jason Waade, a fur trapper sidelined in a Mexican village about to come under attack by an outlaw who's brother winds up dead after killing a villager in a card game. Quite coincidentally, Waade's old flame (firehand/flame?) Michelle (Nadia Gray) resides in the village along with their son who Waade never knew. This is all quite comical actually, as Waade offers enough hints for the viewer to figure things out, but young Tom (Todd Armstrong) is quite clueless. Going by 'Jace', he can't seem to figure out that they both have the same first name, even after Waade reveals that he knows his mother and knows how old the boy is.At least there's a fairly intriguing element introduced in the story when the bandido Silers (Harald Leipnitz) sends a Mexican wagon train back to town planted with explosives. They're set off in a fiery display that provides about the most excitement the film has to offer.With the eventual reconciliation between Waade and Michelle, Tom/Jace finally makes the connection, while proceeding to help the villagers defeat Silers' bunch. Now I don't know about you, but it sure seemed to me that Silers had a smile on his face when Old Firehand put him away with the second arrow. It was as if he signaled his pleasure to get things over with while the good guys had to stick around to mop things up.

I don't understand these negative reviews. No doubts, "Winnetou and Firehand" isn't very great masterpiece like Sergio Leone's "Once upon time in the West", but it's interesting, dynamic action with very effective battle scenes, with splendid soundtrack by Peter Thomas - one of the greatest music in movies about native Americans '(like Trevor Jone's - "The Last of the mohicans", 1992, and Martin Bottcher's - other Winnetou films). Alfred's Vohrer's direction is energetic. photographs of Croatian landscape is impressive. The cast is professional, characters are well characterized. Especially I like beautiful, romantic brother and sister - Pierre's Brice's Winnetou and Marie Versini's Nscho-tschi, Nadia Gray as Michelle (convincing drama of lonely woman), Harald Leipnitz as fanatic avenger Silers, Aleksander Gavric as Derks. The humor and seriousness are well balanced in this film. It's pleasant to see it. To my mind, one of the best movies about Winnetou.

The Moviemaker tried to make a Combination of the Winnetou Movies and the successful Spaghetti-Western. It didn't work well and there are several reasons why. First the Story wasn't made for Winnetou. We will never find out what Winnetou and his sister are really doing in this Mexico. It's obvious that they wrote his part into the Movie. The same is with his sister Nscho-Tsi, played by the beautiful actress Marie Versini. To give her some reason to be in the movie, the scriptwriter developed a Love Story. But the Love Story also doesn't work. After Lex Barker as Old Shatterhand and Stewart Granger as Old Surehand, you find a new hero next to Winnetou: Old Firehand. Old Firehand is played by Rod Cameron. There is no good Chemistry between Winnetou and Old Firehand. Maybe his second name is Old Sweathead because he is wearing a fur cap which he never takes off in hot sunny Mexico. Some elements seem to be taken from the magnificent 7. Old Firehand, Winnetou and others protects a Mexican Village from a gang of bandits. The public never really find out why, because there is also an Officer from the Army in the town. So why they just don't ask the army for help? There are many plot holes in this movie and you'll find bad scripted characters. One guy is an Englishman (or Scottish) Gentleman, and there you can find a good example of bad overacting on a bad scripted figure.There are many things which a viewer can complain on this movie, but the only good about it: watching Marie Versini as Winnetou's sister and Winnetou himself Pierre Price. In my opinion it is the worst Winnetou Western and maybe the worst Karl May Movie ever.