Hannibal Brooks

AT LAST - FINALLY ON DVD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At last, this wonderful movie is finally available on DVD. Made by Michael Winner in 1968 in the days when he was making films for the family that didn't involve women being raped and tortured. The story of a British P.O.W. in 1944 helping to lead an elephant over the Alps to freedom in Switzerland was devised by Winner and former P.O.W. Tom Wright and blessed by a great script full of quotable lines by "Likely Lads" writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. Oliver Reed (and the rest of the cast) are great, although the film is stolen by Michael J. Pollard, who has never been better than he is in this film. With great picture postcard photography of Austria (by Robert Paynter) and a terrific score by "Love Story" composer Francis Lai, this is great entertainment and deserves to be better known than it is.

This DVD is on the DVD-R format which thankfully means that it is Region Free (I can confirm this having played it on a Region 2 DVD player). It is a clean print (apart...

Winner and Reed come through yet again! STUNNING FILM!
This is mostly Winner's last European love letter style film before becoming an ex pat Hollywood director. It is transitional in that sense as it features many intense action sequences and situations not seen in his earlier London/UK centric work yet the love of scenery is still apparent. The action work would be played up in his later film like Death Wish. STUNNING SHOTS OF THE ALPS! Great acting, Francis Lai score and of course the elephant is WONDERFUL without being sentimental. another unsung gem of cinema by Winner and Reed. GET THIS FILM!

Michael Winner's losing battle...
["Hannibal Brooks" - (1968) - Directed by Michael Winner - 102 min. approx.] As a fan of Oliver Reed, Michael J. Pollard, 60's war flicks and 4-legged mammals, I read the two reviews prior to mine and scarfed this one up greedily. It had all the earmarks of a great film, but fell flat every chance it was offered. It wasn't terrible - mildly entertaining if one's expectations are kept extremely low, or if a night of mindless family-friendly viewing is in mind - but it is disappointing, on several levels in fact.

There's not much of a set-up, story-wise. Within the first five minutes, British soldier Brooks (Reed) is captured and whisked off to a German POW camp and assigned as caregiver to a Munich zoo Elephant named Lucy. They bond immediately (highly unlikely) and, moments later, are shipped off to the north and safer digs for Lucy (also highly unlikely) after an air raid almost destroys the zoo. When an SS officer commandeers the train car designated for the pachyderm,...

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