Die Goldsucher von Arkansas (1964)

This is an oater Western plenty of action , hatred , gun-play, an agreeable love story...in a word : emotion ; besides it contains effective action sequences as the Indian raids on the town and over a train wagon . The film is totally set in Arkansas and in a town called Marble City , during the ¨Gold Fever¨ that reunited gunfighters , outlaws as well as killings , vice , drinking and corruption . There the rowdy , free-spending cowboys attracted saloon keepers , gamblers , brothels and all types of frontier riff-raff , the town became notorious for its lawlessness . Gunmen were hired for a time to keep the peace in Marble City . With the numerous presence of homesteaders the town prospered , stabilized and grew , its lawabiding citizens decided to discourage the troublesome cattle trade with his transient cowboys . It follows the exploits of two adventurers , Phil Stone (Brad Harris) and Dan McCormick (Horst Frank) who attempt to seek peace and justice and to return tranquillity and calmness that characterized Marble City . They take on a mean card player and saloon owner , Matt Ellis , (Mario Adorf) and ambitious gold seekers who kill Phil's father . Later on , Indian Mescaleros raid a wagon train , but the settlers are helped by Phil and Dan . Meanwhile , Phil falls in love for the gorgeous Mary Brendel (Olga Schoberová , in real life married Brad Harris) .

The picture gets Western action , crossfire , Indian attacks , a love story , and results to be entertaining , but mediocre . It's a medium budget film with passable actors , technicians, production values and ordinary results . Of course , there are ritual shootouts among gunslingers confronting each other in some quick-draw duels in the accepted Western movie fashion . This is an average Spaghetti/Snitchzel Western with some moments genuinely entertaining if you can avoid thinking too much . Being realized in the wake of ¨Karl May's Winnetou and Old Surehand¨ series , a lot of movies produced in the sixties by the powerful German company ¨Constantin Films¨ , starred by Pierre Brice , Lex Barker , and Stewart Granger . In fact , in ¨Massacre at Marble City¨ there is even an Indian chief dressed in similar style to Winnetou/Pierre Brice . It stars Brad Harris who began doing stunt work , in the late 50s he traveled to Europe and he soon found himself working in Musclemen epics such as ¨Sansone¨ , ¨Goliath against the giants¨ , ¨Fury of Hércules¨ and he eventually moved into Spaghetti Western and spy movies . Brad Harris married the beautiful co-starring Olga Schoberová . Olga became the Czech sex-symbol because she was the first beauty from Czechoslovakia to appear on Playboy, and made it on the front cover, too . After winning the leading role in The vengeance of She (1968), Paramount renamed her Olinka Berova . She and Brad Harris have one daughter . Olinka played several films along with his husband Brad , such as "Poppea's Hot Nights" , ¨Formula 1¨ , "Kommissar X¨ or ¨Kill me gently¨ and a Western titled "Black Eagle of Santa Fe" . Secondary cast is formed by some familiar faces from Spaghetti Western such as Joseph Egger , Serge Marquand and Ralf Wolter , the latter ordinary in Winnetou films . And Horst Frank , usually playing bad guys , here he plays a good guy .

The picture displays a resounding and inappropriate musical score by Francesco De Masi , being composer of the Italian version except main title , while Heinz Gietz was composer all country versions except Italian rendition . This film titled ¨Die Goldsucher Von Arkansas¨ or ¨Alla Conquista dell'Arkansas¨ or ¨Conquerors of Arkansas¨ or ¨Massacre at Marble City¨ was middlingly directed by Paul Martin , a craftsman who directed all kind of genres as ¨Diamond Walkers¨ , ¨Lucky Kids¨, ¨La Paloma¨, ¨Marina¨, ¨O Sole Mio¨, ¨Ramona¨ , among others .