Review of Hannibal Brooks (1969) by Van R — 17 Dec 2009

Before British director Michael Winner made his world-famous or.

Infamous Charles Bronson revenge thriller DEATH WISH, he made a most.

Unusual World War II movie. Imagine a British P.O.W., played by Oliver.

Reed, escaping to Switzerland with an Indian elephant that he has been.

Ordered to evacuate from a German zoo and you have got the basic plot of.

HANNIBAL BROOKS. In his autobiography WINNER TAKE ALL, Winner.

Remembers that Aida, the elephant, had to be accompanied by another.

Elephant, each of them tipping the scales at two and half tons! Between.

The elephant, the rowdy Reed, and drug-addled Michael J. Pollard,.

Winner wound up helming the usual firefights between the Germans and.

The escaped prisoners-of-war that make up this slightly overlong war.

Movie. Winner stages a convoy ambush, a train derailment, avalanches of.

Logs and stones, and ultimately the destruction of a massive border.

Guard post with verve. Although it does not qualify as a really big.

World War II epic like THE GUNS OF NAVARONE or WHERE EAGLES DARE, HANNIBAL BROOKS is still above-average because it is so refreshingly different.

Patriotism does not click its heels together and storm to the front of.

The action. Indeed, James Donald of THE GREAT ESCAPE where he.

Portrayed the Allied P.O.W. Commandant has the only role in HANNIBAL BROOKS that vocalizes any sentiments about patriotism. Meanwhile, the Germansâ??especially the S.S.â??are not demonized. Appropriately enough, Winner relied on Pollardâ??fresh from his Oscar nominated role in BONNIE & CLYDEâ??to serve as comic relief, and Pollard easily steals the show from Reed and his gigantic co-star. French composer Francis Lai furnishes a majestic orchestral score that sounds like something the 101 Strings would have no problem immortalizing. Nevertheless, like the pachyderm, HANNIBAL BROOKS amounts to a slow-moving melodrama which makes it easy to pause it and walk off for a while to attend to other necessities. There is no burning urgency, but the film dutifully arrives at its grand finale.

The Germans captured Stephen Brooks (Oliver Reed of THE THREE MUSKETEERS) in the beginning after he has repaired a vehicle and.

They shoot it the tires out, taking him prisoner. Cue the Francis Lai.

Music and lenser Robert Paynter, who worked with Winner on most of his.

Pictures, regales us with scenic long shots of Germany as a period.

Train trundles through it. During the train ride, British enlisted man.

Brooks meets American enlisted man Packy (Michael J. Pollard of DIRTY LITTLE BILLY) and persuades him to serve as their look-out while they try.

To loosen some planks in the ceiling of a train. The escape attempt is.

Short-lived, but for the remainder of this 101-minute actioneer, Packy.

And Brooks cross paths at the best and worst times. Once they have been.

Settled into Stalag 7-A, our heroes learn that the Germans are looking.

For men to work for them in the nearby town of Munich. The vicar (James.

Donald of THE GREAT ESCAPE) suggests they pass up this opportunity.

Because they are still on the British Army payroll, but Brooks takes.

The Germans up on their offer and finds himself tending an elephant.

Named Lucy (Aida in her only starring role) when he is not in camp.

Packy manages to escape when the Allies drop bombs on the zoo. Brooks refuses to abandon Lucy. A piece of shapnel lodges in her side,.

But our hero nurses her back to health. The bombing killed the German.

Elephant so Lucy is entrusted entirely to Brooks. Indeed, the zoo.

Curator arranges for Brooksâ??under guard of courseâ??to take Lucy to.

Innsbruck and so the journey of hardship begins for both man and beast.

Kurt, the German soldier (Peter Carsten of DARK OF THE SUN) who.

Supervises their trip, rubs Brooks raw and neither man has respect for.

The other. Eventually, Brooks can longer abide Kurt, and they tangle in the middle of the woods when Kurt makes a foolish move to shoot Lucy. The second time that they trade blows, Kurt falls down a hillside and the woman, Vronia (Karin Baal of DEAD EYES OF LONDON), who accompanies them discovers that Kurt is kaput. Brooks decides to make a dash for Switzerland. Vronia and a sympathetic German guard, Willy (Teutonic actor Helmut Lohner), go their different ways. The closest character to being a villainâ??other than the drunken Kurtâ??is German Colonel von Haller. One of the most recognized German character actors to play officers in World War II movies for 30 yearsâ??Wolfgang Priessâ??is instantly credible and twice as villainous. Initially, he forces Lucy, Brooks, and Kurt vacate a train freight car that was assigned to accommdate them during their trip to a quiet part of Germany that Allied bombers would not devastate. Later, when they are crossing a narrow bridge, our heroes encounter the unsavory von Haller again. This time Brooks does not capitulate to von Haller. He explains to the colonel while Kurt stands by impotently that you cannot turn an elephant around on a narrow bridge and that Lucy cannot walk backwards.

HANNIBAL BROOKS will not top any list of memorable World War II.

Movies. This is war as an adventure with few opportunities to cast.

Combat in an unglamorous look. Nevertheless, Winner does make war seem.

Ironic. After they knock over an eight truck German convoy, Packy.

Discovers the Jerries were carrying cans of bully beef. This color picture is.

Still entertaining and most of all different compared to most combat.

Movies. Winner recounts in his autobiography that he collaborated on.

The script treatment of HANNIBAL BROOKS with a Norwich house painter.

Who tended an elephant in Munich during the war.