Frontier Hellcat (1964)

An outlaw gang named The Vultures are robbing and looting and making it look like the Shoshone are responsible.

Then they hit the Baumann farm, killing Mrs. Baumann and her daughter. The surviving men swear to get revenge on the Indians.

Doubting they were to blame, Old Surehand (Stewart Granger) and Apache Chief Winnetou (Pierre Brice) set out to find those truly responsible for the murders.

But there are sure to be complications because Annie Dillman (Elke Sommer), a feisty young beauty bound for Arizona, has a moneybelt strapped around her waist that The Vultures want.

Meanwhile, young Martin Baumann Jr. (Gotz George) has a knack for getting into jams he can’t get himself out of.

And his dad has offended new Shoshone Chief Wokadeh so badly, that he too is vowing vengeance.

Review:

A typical Karl May / Winetou film, lovely looking, chock full of action, but plagued by some comic book style inclinations.

Here, for instance, we have Old Surehand offering to put his fate in the hands of a Shoshone spirit.

So he allows himself to be strapped to a pole. Three of the top Shoshone marksmen will fire arrows at him. To survive, he must shoot the arrows, not the marksmen.

He does, of course, allowing he and Winetou to continue their quest to unmask The Vultures, who have now set their sights on a wagon train headed West.

Elke Sommer is the frontier hellcat of the title, though the film is also known as Amongst Vultures.

Directed by:
Alfred Vohrer

Cast:
Stewart Granger … Old Surehand
Pierre Brice … Winnetou
Elke Sommer … Annie Dillman
Renato Baldini … Judge Leader
Walter Barnes … Martin Baumann Sr.
Gotz George … Martin Baumann Jr.
Sieghard Rupp … George Preston
Paddy Fox … Old Wabble
Gojko Mitic … Wokadeh
Gordana Cosic … Wokadeh’s sister
Miha Baloh … Weller
Dunja Rajter … Betsy
Vladimir Medar … Mr. Baker
Terence Hill … Baker Jr.
as Mario Girotti
Louis Velle … Gordon
Voja Miric … Stewart
Stole Arandjelovic … Milton
Djordje Nenadovic … Miller
as George Heston
Dusan Bulajic … Bloomfield
Mirko Boman … Davy Long
Ilija Ivezic … Jackie
Davor Antolic … Rod
Mirko Kraljev … Bill
Boris Dvornik … Fred
Anthony Ghidra … Joe
as Dragomir Bojanic
Milan Micic … Jimmy
Joza Seb … Bob
Marinkio Cosic … Siedlejenge
Vladimir Bacic … Jemmy
Sime Jagarinac … Shoshone

Runtime: 100 min.

aka:
Among Vultures
Unter Geiern

Music: Martin Bottcher

Memorable lines:

George Preston, leader of the Vultures, when one of his men shows up with an arm wound: “You’ll need more than bandages, Jack, after ignoring my orders.” Whereupon he plugs his henchman in the gut.

Posing preacher to The Vultures leader: “You know who’s staying at Baumanns? Boy, what a beautiful gal. With a money belt. I bet she’d dropped it if we tickled her.”

Stewy, of The Vultures, after guarding Annie from outside the window where she’s being held captive: “Boss, boss, that girl’s gone crazy. She’s taking pot shots at me out the window. She’s driving me out of my mind.”
Vultures boss George Preston: “Who wanted you to use your stupid mind? I just said hold up outside!”

Wagon master Howard Baker, proposing postponing the hanging of accused horse thief Martin Baumann Jr.: “If the boy’s dead, you can’t correct it.”

Old Surehand to Old Wabble: “You’d get yourself captured by ants if I wasn’t around.”

Trivia:

Elke Sommer was 24 when this film was first released in Germany and had already been appearing in films for five years, including several made in Hollywood. She also appeared in Playboy for the first of three times the year this film was released.

This marked the fifth of 10 Winnetou films made in the 1960s and the first in which Stewart Granger, as Old Surehand, replaced Lex Barker, who played Old Shatterhand.

Terence Hill — still using his real name Mario Girotti — has a small role as the son of the wagon train master.

While plotting the attack on the wagon train, George Preston points to a spot on the map labeled Murdering Pool and calls it White Rock.

Pierre Brice said this about his Winnetou experience: “I got on very well with almost all my colleagues, especially my friend Lex Barker. With Stewart Granger, on the other hand, it was hard, I could not handle him at all.”