In the Kingdom of the Silver Lion Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

In the Kingdom of the Silver Lion Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 9, 2026

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of the Adventure Calls! Karl May at CCC set from Eureka! Entertainment.

Eureka! Entertainment has been releasing box sets with an unusual tether: Germany's Central Cinema Compagnie-Film GmbH, otherwise known under its acronym CCC, a studio founded by Artur Brauner in 1946. Brauner had just survived the Holocaust and desperately wanted to make films depicting the horrendous Nazi era, but post World War II Germany was simply not in the mood for such fare, and early Brauner efforts like Morituri (not the Brando - Brynner spy opus from years later) bombed pretty spectacularly, leaving Brauner not just seriously in debt but perilously close to declaring bankruptcy almost as soon as his studio had been founded. That resulted in a rejiggering of sorts where Brauner realized he had to appeal to the "unwashed masses" before moving on to so-called "message films". While Brauner did in fact offer some Nazi adjacent material in the 1950s with films like 1955's The Plot to Assassinate Hitler, he also significantly broadened the studio's output, ending the decade by offering a Fritz Lang "two fer", The Tiger of Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb. Brauner continued to coax legendary expat German directors back to Germany to work for him at CCC, and he also started to produce what might be called "franchises", though rather interestingly some of these perceived series were built around authors rather than characters, including the films Eureka! released in its Terror in the Fog: Wallace Krimi at CCC set in 2025. That said, there was at least one franchise built around a memorable character who is in fact at the center of the other CCC related set Eureka! has offered home media enthusiasts, Mabuse Lives! Dr. Mabuse at CCC: 1960-1964. This third CCC set from Eureka! returns to "author territory", highlighting the work of Karl May, a man many in the United States may not be overly familiar with, but who was evidently pretty much required reading for German schoolchildren. As some of the supplements on this set get into, many of Brauner's May adaptations were marketed as big "family films" which were released during the holiday season to help maximize attendance. That said, several of these films do in fact feature some recurring characters, and all of them star Lex Barker, in several cases playing the same supposed character May more or less claimed was based on himself, though offered in the various films under a couple of different aliases.

In the Kingdom of the Silver Lion is probably even more of a sequel to Through Wild Kurdistan than Through Wild Kurdistan was to The Shoot. That tether extends to a number of major characters on both the hero and villain sides of the aisle (and/or canyon), with once again Kara Ben Nemsi (Lex Barker), Hadschi Halef Omar (Ralf Wolter), Ingdscha (Marie Versini), Sir David Lindsay (Dieter Borsche) and Archie (Chris Howland) confronting (or in the case of some of the comic supporting characters, attempting to confront) returning supervillain Machredsch of Mosul (Djordje Nenadovic). There's some additional subtext here since patently ridiculous plot machinations have made Kara Ben Nemsi suspected of treason.

The major problem with Kingdom of the Silver Lion is the undeniable repetitive aspects it offers, especially when compared to its immediate predecessor, a film which was already arguably a step down from The Shoot. This is still often breezily enjoyable, if the supposed "comedy" is just as forced as in Through Wild Kurdistan, and as with the two preceding Kara Ben Nemsi efforts, it's often incredibly scenic.

In the Kingdom of the Silver Lion Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

In the Kingdom of the Silver Lion is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka! Entertainment's Masters of Cinema imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. As tends to be the case with the Masters of Cinema line, Eureka! really doesn't provide any substantial technical information, though kind of weirdly (at least from a marketing perspective) their website does mention 4K scans of the original negatives for all of the films in this set. This is another quite nice looking transfer, with one perhaps major exception noted below, with a healthily suffused palette and some very appealing detail levels on things like sets and costumes. There is one really strange anomaly that I've attempted to show in screenshot 9. If you look at that screenshot in full resolution, you'll see a very curious anomaly running across the top of the mountain ridge in the background. It looks almost like old style Technicolor fringing, except it doesn't follow the contours of the hill exactly, and what's totally weird about it is it kind of undulates like it's an "oasis" hallucination of water. I'd say it may be related to light values on the hills and is simply shadows, but on a big screen it actually looks like someone tried to alter the backgrounds with a really ineffective attempt at matte work that went horribly wrong. It's a very odd distraction in an otherwise pretty solid looking presentation.

In the Kingdom of the Silver Lion Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Like its immediate predecessor, In the Kingdom of the Silver Lion does not have an alternate English dub, and the sole audio option here is the German track in LPCM 2.0 Mono. This is another generally full bodied sounding track that has an especially vibrant midrange that helps to support scoring and effects in particular. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

In the Kingdom of the Silver Lion Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Note: In the Kingdom of the Silver Lion is the sole film in this set granted its own separate disc.

• Introduction by Sir Christopher Frayling (HD; 3:05) is offered on the Main Menu as a standalone supplement. Per how the other discs are authored, it's also accessible under the Play Menu, where it's authored to lead directly to the main feature.


• Heroes on Horseback (HD; 15:29) is another interesting sit down with Artur Brauner's daughter, Dr. Alice Brauner. In German with English subtitles.


• Archival Restoration Featurette (HD; 3:08) is a German piece which states the restorations of the Orient films was taking place some 40 years after their production, which would place the restorations in the early aughts of this century (the piece references HDTV quality). In German with English subtitles.


• Trailer (HD; 4:21)

In the Kingdom of the Silver Lion Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Once Artur Brauner discovered a winning formula, he liked to churn out "product" to meet a perceived demand, and this third Ben Nemsi outing shows some signs of diminishing returns. Technical merits are mostly solid, with the one glaring exception referred to above, and the supplements on this disc are very appealing, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.