Monday, 8 November 2021

Hannibal Brooks (1968 released 1969 Michael Winner)

Captured by Germans, who announce the obligatory "For you, ze war is over", to which Oliver Reed responds "Thank God for that", setting the tone for WWII comedy-drama, in which Reed bonds with cute elephant. Written by Clement and La Frenais, from a story by Winner and Tom Wright. Michael J Pollard is on quirky form and Robert Paynter catches nice German and Austrian locations (often with a powerful zoom lens) to Francis Lai's tunes. 

Fashionable anti-war bits, e.g. Pollard's resistance force has annihilated a German platoon carrying tins of corned beef .

With Wolfgang Preiss, John Alderton, Helmuth Lohner, Peter Carsten, Karin Baal, Aida (the elephant).

Editor Peter Austen-Hunt is not editor / director Peter Hunt, who would have been busy making OHMSS at the time.


I was relieved it didn't have one of those fashionably downbeat endings.

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