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Comparison between the censored British version and the uncensored original version, both included in the Blu-ray set ‘Adventure Calls! Karl May at CCC’ by Eureka
- 9 cuts
The 1964 film Old Shatterhand kicked off the second series of films based on Karl May’s characters but (at least some of them) not on specific stories or novels. Producer Artur Brauner secured the necessary rights for his studio CCC-Filmkunst and, using largely the same cast, quickly produced his own titles, which were naturally intended to build on the success of his rival Horst Wendlandt. Particularly for this opening film, the studio invested heavily - or rather, sought to win over audiences with a record budget. In Germany, the films have already been released individually and in a complete box set containing all the Karl May-related films from both studios some time ago. In the UK, on the other hand, a box set containing only the 7 CCC productions was released in May 2026 by the Eureka label. The Eureka box set is also of interest to German/international fans because it features new 4K restorations for the first time. It’s not a night-and-day difference, but it’s certainly an improvement. The original German audio is included, of course, along with some English dubs (though some of these were produced only for cut versions and thus filled in with German audio), newly produced and archival bonus material, and a booklet with several quite informative essays. But the main reason this box set naturally caught our attention is this: three films had to be censored due to BBFC guidelines on animal violence. As with many other titles affected in this way, however, Eureka presented the films uncensored in the edition released simultaneously on the US market - and the best part is that the same disc contains both versions. Anyone with a Code A or region-free player (or a compatible drive) can thus enjoy the uncensored versions even as a UK buyer. In the case of this Old Shatterhand, all the cuts are found in the finale. Various scenes of horses falling during the big battle had to be removed. Here (and also in the other affected films), this was resolved by simply leaving the screen briefly black during the relevant shots in the UK version. The audio continues to play, and admittedly, this actually seems even more distracting than in cases of outright cuts, which often go largely unnoticed in such UK releases without one realizing it. But that’s probably also a matter of taste. On a technical note, since these edits are spread over only a few minutes of film, it made sense to use playlists / seamless branching to replace only the short segment in the UK/US version, while the rest of the film uses the same material with good compression to save space. It’s always curious that German labels, in particular, regularly use separate video streams for each version instead, thereby inflating the release to multiple discs that actually wouldn’t have been necessary. But that’s just a side note.
Runtime information applies to both versions on the Eureka Blu-ray Note: The British Blu-ray begins with a reference to the restoration company, which explains the slightly different runtime of 7 sec compared to the German Blu-ray (which starts immediately without such a reference).
105:42-105:44 After a frontal shot, a long shot is missing in which a horse falls on the right side of the frame. Applies to all subsequent deviations: The audio continues, and the footage was replaced with a black screen without any difference in runtime. The specified duration therefore refers only to the correspondingly censored material. 1.7 sec
For comparison, here is the same scene from the German Universum Blu-ray with an older scan, which had slightly paler colors and less image information at the edges:
105:51-105:54 After one of the shooters has been taken out, there is again a missing long shot in which a horse on the right is knocked to the ground and gets back up, while the rider remains on the ground. 3.1 sec
106:03-106:05 A rider (and horse) falls in a close-up. 1.9 sec
106:17-106:19 In another side shot, a white horse must now take a hard fall. 1.9 sec
106:34-106:36 Here, a rider in the center-left falls headfirst to the ground, and the horse at least gets back on its feet quickly. 1.6 sec
107:16-107:22 Following the cannon shot, there is first a wide shot showing a fall in the center-left, followed by a close-up in which the animal’s legs buckle ungracefully. 5.6 sec
107:35-107:37 Two falls in one. 1.8 sec
107:47-107:49 A horse is brought down from behind. 1.7 sec
109:57-110:00 Another white horse suffers following yet another cannon shot. 3 sec
While the opening credits were identical, the closing credits are, interestingly, different - presumably recreated for the German Blu-ray, but shown in the original version on Eureka. Incidentally, the framing here is also different: on Universum, it’s slightly more to the left, but less to the right.
After that, the Eureka Blu-ray plays the title song for a long time against a black screen, which explains the additional runtime difference of over two minutes between the Blu-rays. Throughout the film, there are also 3 seconds fewer of inconsequential still frames here and there on the Universum version. |
