Victor Mature's Hannibal was the first drive-in movie I ever saw, about 1960. My recollections of the original was that the film was bigger than life. This digitalized version was nowhere near as panoramic.
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"Hannibal (1960) ... Victor Mature ... VCI Ent. (2004)"
Added 12/9/2007
VCI Entertainment presents "HANNIBAL" (1960) (100 mins/Color) --- (Dolby digitally remastered) --- Under Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia (Director), Edgar G. Ulmer (Director), Ottavio Poggi (Producer), Mortimer Braus (Screenwriter), Raffaele Masciocchi (Cinematographer), Franco Ferrara (Musical Direction/Supervision), Carlo Rustichelli (Composer (Music Score), Renato Cinquini (Editor), Ernesto Kromberg (Art Director), Carlo Gentili (Set Designer), G. Gentili (Set Designer), Giancarlo Bartolini-Salimbene (Costume Designer) - - - - our plot and story line follows the series of battles from 218 to 216 BC which culminated in Hannibal's victorious, heavy defeat of the biggest ever assembled Roman Army of 80,000 (Battle of Cannae) --- take not it mentions the siege of Saguntum (Rome's Ally in Spain) which brought on the second Punic War when the Carthaginian senate refused to surrender Hannibal Barca to them --- rather they would skirmish and harass Hannibal and not engage in open battle as the Roman senate tries to persuade after briefly showing the events of the Battle of Trebia (December 218 BC) and the battle of Lake Trasimene (June 217 BC) there are political scenes involving both the Carthaginians and the Romans as Fabius Maximus --- Victor Mature captures the character of Hannibal well --- the only draw back of the film was that it did not appear to command the same budget available for it's production as "The 300 Spartans" or "Spartacus" --- so the battle of Cannae, Hannibal's finest hour (or hours) did not come across as the battle would have done --- they would have needed to assemble AT LEAST 130,000 extras in order to portray the events at Cannae --- But it still came across in a fine fashion.
the cast includes:
Victor Mature ... Hannibal
Gabriele Ferzetti ... Fabius Maximus
Rita Gam ... Sylvia
Milly Vitale ... Danila
Rik Battaglia ... Hasdrubal
Franco Silva ... Maharbal
Terence Hill ... Quintilius (as Mario Girotti)
Mirko Ellis ... Mago
Andrea Aureli ... Varro
Andrea Fantasia
Renzo Cesana (as Renato Cesana)
Bud Spencer (as Carlo Pedersoli)
Pina Bottin
Remo De Angelis
Piero Mitri
Mario Pisu
Franco Dominici
Enzo Fiermonte
BIOS:
Victor Mature (aka: Victor John Mature)
Date of Birth: 29 January 1913 - Louisville, Kentucky
Date of Death: 4 August 1999 - Rancho Santa Fe, California
SPECIAL BONUS FEATURES:
1. Anamorphic Widescreen Enhanced for 16 x 9 Monitors
2. Photo & Poster Gallery
3. Original Theatrical Trailer
4. Bios
5. Scene Selection Menu
Great job by VCI Entertaiment --- looking forward to more Nostalgic Collections --- order your copy now from Amazon or VCI Entertainment where there are plenty of copies available on DVD, stay tuned once again for top notch releases --- where they are experts in releasing long forgotten films and treasures to the collector.
Total Time: 100 mins on DVD ~ VCI Entertainment ~ (10/19/2004)
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Watch it and make you own option. I think this would have been a great movie for the drive-in back in the day.
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Mature At His Funniest
Added 8/14/2005
First thing first! Peter O'tool would make Mature look like a N.Y. back street boy in disgrace. This character is not even worthy of Mature's tallents. For Hannibal being one the 5 greatest generals in the world over of all time in line with Rommel, Patton, Mcarthur,and Napoleion is made a complete joke when portrayed by Mature. It takes a man of staunch mobility such as Russle Crowe, Charleston Heston or Henry Fonda to take on this awesome character's event.
The film had some ok action sequences. Not very dramatic love scenes. crappy sound and picture quality. Needs Steven Spielburg's attention bad.
Don't even bother with it. Blackbeard even in all his glory looked better in a patch!
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Hannibal After Too Many Cocktails
Added 6/17/2005
A very contrived rendition of the Second Punic War between Carthage and Rome in the 3rd century B.C. The fact that Victor Mature plays the lead role is enough to discourage anyone from buying this shallow film. This film is also outmatched in every respect except color by another production and so not really worth one's time or money unless you're a die-hard Mature fanor accept only the color medium for a film.
The screenplay is disjointed as it doesn't really convey the reasons why Hannibal hated Rome so much or why he led an army of almost 100,000 men to trample over the Italian countryside for 18 years. The battle reenactments are small, sparing, and second-rate. The acting stinks especially by Mature whose presence always appears as if he just came out of a cocktail lounge around 3:00 a.m. Victor Mature was barely competent as a back-up actor not to speak of a lead role in a historical epic. Even more shame on the Italians who contrived this silly film about their own history. The direction is purely conventional for the period and so unimaginative. The screenplay is terrible and focuses on a ridiculous love story instead of the historical events for dramatism. History here is simply the backdrop for the romance. The anachronisms of the film themselves would require modern anachronisms to interpret as this film is horribly out-of-date. Wayne's 'Genghis Kahn' is better than this film. At least you have The Duke instead of 'Manure' to watch in a bad film.
A vastly superior film on Hannibal is Carmine Gallone's 1939 'Scipio Africanus' that looks at the conflict from the character Scipio's point of view in which the climax comes with Hannibal's defeat at Zama. Unlike this film, 'Scipio' primarily emphasizes on the history for the drama as opposed to romance. Although the few romantic scenes in 'Scipio' are truly arch-melodrama as one reviewer has commented, they are fortunately fewer than in this film. The character of Hannibal is treated as a tragic hero and honorable foe who, like his Roman antagonist and unlike Mature's character, doesn't waste much time on trivial romance when the life or death of his nation is at stake. Although not in color, at least 'Scipio' was done on an epic scale with 50 elephants, over a thousand horses, and 30,0000 extras under the direction of a competent Gallone. The battle scene for Zama was more a replication rather than a re-enactment and so exceptionally brutal even by some of today's standards. I guarantee you that few professional stuntmen of today would be doing what ordinary guys did in that reenactment. So lavish are the sets and battles that they remained unmatched in film until no sooner than Kubrick's 'Spartacus' or Mankiewick's 'Cleopatra' 25 years later. Despite the film's occasional overdrama, believe me, you will get a lot more accuracy, lavishness, and a breathtaking battle scene from that film on Hannibal. This one with Mature isn't even worth seeing free as it is just a waste of time.
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