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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
- 1 cut
The 1965 film Treasure of the Aztecs was made at virtually the same time as its sequel, Pyramid of the Sun God, and is part of the second series of films based on the characters or novels of Karl May. Producer Artur Brauner secured the necessary rights for his studio, CCC-Filmkunst, and quickly produced his own films with largely the same cast, which were naturally intended to build on the success of his colleague Horst Wendlandt. In this film, Winnetou and Old Shatterhand were omitted, but Lex Barker plays the lead role, and there was a solid source material by May titled Schloss Rodriganda. 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. After Old Shatterhand, Treasure of the Aztecs is the second title affected. In this case, only a single shot at the end was removed. Blink and you'll miss it. Once again, a solution using playlists was technically straightforward to implement, so that only the short segment is played - depending on the UK or US version - to save space, while the rest of the film is available in high-quality compression. Here (and also with the other affected films), this was resolved by simply leaving the screen black for a brief moment during the relevant shots in the UK version, while the audio continues to play.
Runtime information applies to both versions on the Eureka Blu-ray Note: The British Blu-ray begins with a reference to the film subsidy, which explains the slightly different runtime of 7 sec compared to the German Blu-ray (which starts immediately without such a reference).
98:58-99:00 After someone in the foreground (implied) falls into the water, a medium long shot is missing in which a horse stumbles and the rider falls headfirst. The audio continues, and the footage has been replaced with a black screen without any difference in runtime. The specified duration therefore refers only to the correspondingly censored material. 1.6 sec
It should also be noted here that a few horse falls were visible earlier, which were either deemed non-critical in their depiction or simply overlooked. Particularly in 96:26-96:27, an animal is clearly brought down in a manner that would otherwise have been censored, but the scene is also visible in the UK version.
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