Freddy and the Song of the Prairie
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Freddy and the Song of the Prairie |
 | |
| Country of production | Federal Republic of Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1964 |
| length | 101 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Sobey Martin |
| script | Gustav Kampendonk |
| production | CCC Filmkunst GmbH ( Arthur Brauner ) |
| music | Lotar Olias |
| camera | Siegfried Hold |
| cut | Walter Wischniewsky |
| occupation | |
| |
Freddy and the Song of the Prairie (also with the subtitle The Wild, Wild West ) is a German western and hit film that was filmed in Yugoslavia and West Berlin in 1964 under the direction of Sobey Martin . Freddy Quinn is cast in the title role as the fabulous shooter Black Bill. Rik Battaglia , Beba Lončar , Carlo Croccolo and Mamie van Doren as well as Trude Herr and Josef Albrecht are in the leading roles .
The color film produced by Artur Brauner in Eastmancolor and Cinemascope was premiered on August 28, 1964 in several German cinemas.
action
Black Bill is a mysterious avenger who rides through the prairie singing and fights for the rights of the innocent. Nobody suspects that this is Freddy, whose parents were once killed by desperados . After many years, Freddy aka Black Bill makes his way to the ranch of old Ted Daniels, where he grew up after the death of his parents. But Ted was kidnapped by bandits because he knows of a fabulous gold vein. Black Bill goes to the infamous gold rush town of Moon Valley to hunt down the unscrupulous criminals. Little does he know that Ted's daughter Anita, who he last saw as a child, is also there.
When Anita learns from the sheriff's sister that he is always drunk, she simply becomes deputy sheriff of Moon Valley and calls herself Betty Wilson. Meanwhile, Black Bill, who in turn pretends to be John Burns, meets a certain Steve Perkins, who rules the city like a despot. His fiancée Olivia only recently learned that Perkins is also the head of the infamous Moon Valley gang that has arrested Ted Daniels in the basement of the saloon. The crooks don't know that the gold vein plan is in Daniels' pocket watch that a gang member stole from him.
Through several coincidences, Anita comes into possession of the pocket watch and suspects the alleged John Burns to have been involved in the raid on the ranch. Olivia finds out that Burns is Black Bill and reveals to him that Perkins is the head of the gang. The next day, Burns spreads the rumor that he is leaving town with Olivia. He sets a trap for Perkins, and a dramatic car chase ensues. Anita appears unexpectedly during a shootout. She still thinks Black Bill is the alleged criminal John Burns and has him arrested. Only in the Moon Valley prison do they both discover their true identity. In the end, Freddy aka Black Bill manages to free Ted and finally bring down Steve Perkins.
History of origin
prehistory
The Karl May film Der Schatz im Silbersee (1962), produced by Rialto Film and marketed by Constantin Film , triggered the production of numerous western films in Germany. Since Wendlandt had secured the film rights for Karl May's western novels, his competitor Artur Brauner chose Old Shatterhand, a fictitious title in 1963/64 , in order to bring a Karl May film into the cinemas anyway. With only one other exception, which did not follow until 1968, Brauner had to fall back on Karl May fabrics that did not play in the Western milieu.
In addition to the desire to produce more westerns, Brauner had long had plans to make a film with the successful entertainer Freddy Quinn . In consultation with Constantin Filmverleih, a “Western musical” was finally conceived, for which the experienced hit film and comedy author Gustav Kampendonk wrote a script. Brauner was able to engage the German-born American Sobey Martin as a director, who had already gained experience in the western genre with the staging of several episodes of the television series Thousand Miles of Dust and Smoking Colts .
Pre-production and casting
In addition to Freddy Quinn, the Yugoslav actress Beba Lončar was on the side of the good guys . Brauner also hired a female star, Mamie van Doren , who was one of the best-known sex symbols in US cinema in the 1950s, alongside Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield . The Italian actor Rik Battaglia already made his German western debut in Old Shatterhand , he would later become the standard villain of the Karl May films. Trude Herr and Klaus Dahlen , among others, took on comical roles .
production
The shooting took place from March 9 to May 6, 1964 in Zupci near Trebinje and in the CCC studios in Berlin-Haselhorst . For the Design the set designer Veljko Despotović and were Heinrich Weidemann responsible. The fictional western town of Moon Valley was the same set as Golden Hill in Old Shatterhand . In addition, Brauner relied on a film team, some of which had gained experience with Old Shatterhand or the Karl May films of Rialto Film, above all cameraman Siegfried Hold and costume designer Irms Pauli . Willy Egger and Bosko Savić acted as production managers, while Heinz Willeg took over production management . As with Old Shatterhand , Yugoslavia , where the film was shot, is not officially named as the country of production, as the Belgrade-based Avala Film was the exclusive service partner of CCC-Film.
In his memoirs, published in 1976, Brauner wrote, “What I want to achieve, I achieve, and one day we did Freddy and the Song of the Prairie together . The prairie was in Yugoslavia, an ideal film country, but at that time no longer so ideal because everyone was filming there, and that kind of thing raises prices. The calculation was a whopping 1.7 million marks. "
Film music
The music for the film was composed by Lotar Olias , the texts came from, among others, Kurt Hertha and Walter Rothenburg . The songs sung by Freddy Quinn appeared on the long-playing record Freddy and the song of the prairie on the label Polydor . The music album climbed to number 4 on the charts. The resulting single Give me your word / How nice that you're home again reached number 5. The following single In the Wild Wild West / Dear Old Joe landed at number 31. The film features the following songs:
- Choir: The story of Black Bill
- Instrumental: Cowboy's Tango (title music)
- Freddy Quinn: How nice that you are back home
- Freddy Quinn: Somewhere, sometime
- Mariona: We are the Dixie Girls from the golden west
- Mamie van Doren: I love you
- Choir: In the Wild West
- Freddy Quinn: A sky full of stars
- Freddy Quinn: In the Wild Wild West
- Freddy Quinn: The Wind of the Prairie
- Freddy Quinn: Dear Old Joe
- Freddy Quinn: Give me your word
synchronization
Since it was a film with some foreign language actors, they had to be dubbed . The well-known voice actors and their roles are:
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Steve Perkins | Rik Battaglia | Rainer Brandt |
| Anita | Beba Lončar | Ursula Heyer |
| Sheriff Mickey Stanton | Carlo Croccolo | Arnold Marquis |
| Olivia | Mamie van Doren | Margot Leonard |
| Old Joe | Otto Waldis | Walter Bluhm |
| Murdock | Vladimir Medar | Jochen Brockmann |
reception
The FSK released the film on July 23, 1964 for ages 12 and up. On August 28 of the same year, it was premiered in several German cinemas.
"Show film about the well-known record star in the clichéd Western milieu."
Kino.de wrote: “A musical western that is one of the 13 films that hit star Freddy Quinn (...) made from 1959 onwards. The story of the fearless Freddy who kills an evil gang of gangsters is loosened up by numerous vocal interludes. As a director, producer Artur Brauner was able to win the American TV director Sobey Martin, who had the reputation of being after the exclamation of 'Action!' often falling asleep in his chair. "
media
DVD
- DVD: Freddy and the Song of the Prairie Universum Film GmbH . 2008.
- Freddy and the Song of the Prairie full movie
Web links
- The Sheriff Was a Lady in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Freddy and the Song of the Prairie at filmportal.de
- Freddy and the Song of the Prairie Fig. Film poster on filmposter.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ 101 minutes for cinema projection (24 images / second), 97 minutes for television playback (25 images / second), film length: 2768 meters
- ↑ Information on the movie poster (see Freddy and the songs prairie → here )
- ↑ Artur Brauner : I only exist once. Flashback of a life . Herbig, Munich, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-7766-0775-0 ( quote online ).
- ↑ German single charts from 1956 see page charts-surfer.de
- ↑ Freddy and the song of the prairie in the German dubbing index
- ↑ Freddy and the Song of the Prairie. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Freddy and the Song of the Prairie see page kino.de. Retrieved March 16, 2020.