Hannibal Brooks

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 from a few speckles in the closing moments) and in Widescreen (1:1.66). One minor quibble is that when the German characters speak in German, there are no subtitles (the version I previously recorded from BBC 2 does have these subtitles although they are not vital as the German is often translated by some of the other characters). Still it is enough that this film is finally available on DVD and not in the slightly cut version previously shown on BBC2 (the scene in the barn featuring the amorous lovers is shown in full here, although it is nothing to frighten the horses about - this is a family film after all). Fantastic!!!!

This is the one for you. Actually, there might be a handful of others, but once you take away The Three and Four Musketeers movies that number is VERY low. I love Oliver Reed, I think he was an excellent actor, and an amazing man (alcohol induced alter ego aside).This movie is strange.It starts out as a war movie. Oliver Reed plays "Brooks" a soldier who at the start of the movie is captured and taken prisoner by the Germans. He winds up working at a zoo in Munich, taking responsibility of an elephant. His assorted company, aside from the elephant, include two German soldiers, a girl, and an American POW with a goofy grin, a reedy, unassuming voice, and a pronounced case of pyromania. The zoo is bombed, the head caretaker of the elephant killed, and the zoo director decides to move Lucy the elephant, with Brooks, the two German soldiers, and the girl accompanying her. The train is taken over by a German colonel and they are forced to walk the journey.That's the plot. Things get stranger. People get shot. People get caught. The American keeps turning up in very bizarre places, Lucy the elephant takes down a building. It literally ends with "And they all lived happily ever after."It's a good movie, not fantastic, but entertaining, and I have watched it multiple times and enjoy it thoroughly.

It was a gift. I have not seen the movie but my friend was happy to see this was for her!

Thrills! Spills! Chills! Comedy! Action! Romance! Drama! Things blowing up real good! "Hannibal Brooks" has it all. Oliver Reed in the title role is one the coolest macho guys of all time. Puckish Michael J. Pollard is a classic character actor in the strictest sense of the term. The central premise would crumble if you didn't believe in the relationship between Reed and Lucy the Elephant. I've seen less on screen chemistry between humans than Reed and Lucy's. This is the "Citizen Kane" for movies of this kind. Ummm....there is no other movie of this kind. No matter it's terrific.

I remembered seeing this movie when it was released and I liked the story. It was not as entertaining as I remembered however, but it is still ok.

I know Brit sense of humour & sentimentality often doesn't match that in the US, but for those of you who like Local Hero, 11 Harrowhouse, Malcolm & other similar movies, you'll love this.

I saw this movie about 30 or so years ago and I enjoyed this DVD as much now as I did then. It was a new take on Hannibal crossing the mountains eons ago.

One of my old time favorites set in the midst of WWII

Hannibal Brooks is a 1969 British war film about a prisoner of war attempt to escape from Nazi Germany to Switzerland during World War II, accompanied by an Asian elephant. It stars Oliver Reed, Michael J. Pollard and Wolfgang Preiss. It was directed by Michael Winner. The beginning is based on the experiences of the writer Tom Wright, who whilst a prisoner of war, worked at Munich Zoo to care for their elephant "Lucy". Some attribute it to the true story of Olga the elephant rescued from Vienna Zoo in 1944. The title is a reference to the Carthaginian military commander Hannibal who led an army of war elephants over the Alps.SPOILER ALERT what follows is a basic plot synopsis:Stephen "Hannibal" Brooks (Oliver Reed) is a British prisoner of war officer put to work in a Munich zoo, looking after an Asian elephant called Lucy. When the zoo is bombed by the Americans the zoo's director (Eric Jelde) determines it is unsafe for the elephant to remain there. So he sends Brooks along with hostile German soldier Kurt (Peter Carsten), a friendly German soldier named Willy (Helmut Lohner) and Vronia (Karin Baal), a female cook to accompany the elephant to Innsbruck Zoo via train.They are forced to walk when an SS commander (Wolfgang Preiss) tells Brooks that the elephant is not allowed on the train. In Austria, Kurt threatens to shoot Lucy whilst drunk and Brooks accidentally kills Kurt. Brooks, Lucy, Willy and Vronia are forced to run towards the Swiss border. They are helped along the way by an American escapee named Packy (Michael J. Pollard) who has formed a group of partisans to fight the Germans in Austria and have many run-ins with the Nazis.Half way there, Lucy gets mumps, so Brooks has to get an Austrian doctor (Ralf Wolter) to look after her, whilst Vronia and Willy run to Willy's parents house. Vronia and Willy are captured, and later are joined by Brooks. Brooks and Willy are rescued by Packy and continue to race towards Switzerland with Lucy. Unfortunately, along the way Willy is shot by the Nazis whilst helping Brooks to escape.When Brooks gets close to the border with Lucy, he is met with German Col. von Haller (Preiss), the SS commander who told him to walk to Switzerland and Vronia, who has changed sides after being captured. After another long fight with the Germans, Brooks and Lucy eventually make it to Switzerland with Packy and his partisans.I remember seeing this film a few times on the TV as a child (I'm now in my 40's) strangely it's not shown nowadays, which is a great shame, as IMO its a brilliant film to stick on a Sunday afternoon and keep the whole family entertained.Now onto the DVD itself it is a region free format so shows perfectly on UK players, but be aware it is a Korean import so the packaging is half English - half Korean AND there are NO English subtitles (Korean only from the menu page) There is however the original trailer also on menu page as a nice little extra.From what I can tell and remember nothing has been cut, and it seems to be from an original print so the picture and sound quality is as good as your going to get without someone doing a full restoration job on it. (Again IMO its a shame MGM or someone hasn't done this) BUT there was nothing on the copy I received that spoiled my viewing pleasure especially when you consider the age of the film.Bought via Amazon Prime no problems (ordered on a Saturday and it arrived before 10.00 on Sunday morning)

Although I've watched a lot of WW2 movies, this one somehow passed me by until now, and I'm glad I've finally caught up with it. The story is highly improbable, but there's lots of excitement and action along the way, with Oliver Reed turning in a convincing performance as an escaped POW leading an elephant to freedom through all kinds of adventures in the last months of the war. The picture and sound quality are excellent, and the film also benefits considerably from great locations in southern Germany and Austria. When this DVD arrived and I saw the writing on the cover written in Korean I feared the worst, half expecting the film to be a substandard copy, but this was not the case. The DVD proved to be excellent quality, and I'm very happy with my purchase.

Great film when ever it came on me and my dad always watched it great fun action film with a sense of humour with the great Oliver Reed

Good film when seen a long time ago, the DVD Sound Quality is poor and it took several attempt to make it play; overall a lot of money for a badly reproduced copy, obviously not intended for the UK Market.