In all these movies, Winnetou was played by French actor Pierre Brice, who was usually teamed with Lex Barker as Old Shatterhand. The music for all Winnetou movies (with its famous title melody played on the harmonica by Johnny Müller) was composed by German composer Martin Böttcher, except "Old Shatterhand", composed by Italian composer Riz Ortolani, and "Winnetou und sein Freund Old Firehand", composed by German composer Peter Thomas. The films were so successful in Germany, their budgets could be increased almost every time. Principal shooting usually took place in Paklenica karst river canyon national park, Croatia. The early films preceded the Spaghetti Western.