Hannibal (1960)
Picture: B-
Sound: C Extras: C+ Film: C+
The epic and even glamorous Biblical and Historical
widescreen epics of the 1950s were so numerous, that burn out was inevitable,
but a few films came out of it along that decline and began to deconstruct
these films beginning in 1960. When
Stanley Kubrick took over the epic Kirk Douglas Spartacus, he made it
into more than the obnoxious Communist/Socialist diatribe its writers intended,
making for the least of all Kubrick’s films as he did not have the kind of
control he should have had on it. Like
Kubrick, Edgar J. Ulmer had been working in low-budget films for years, but
Ulmer thrived there and stayed there for his career. The fact that in the same year, he made Hannibal with
Victor Mature shows that the cycle was heading for a direction where it was
looking for its peak and wanted to “get it over with” by delivering the
ultimate film in the cycle.
Of course, It would be 20th Century-Fox that
would end the cycle in spectacular fashion that almost ended the studio with
Rudolph Maté’s underrated 300 Spartans (1962, which did mixed business,
reviewed elsewhere on this site) and Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Cleopatra
(1963) with Elizabeth Taylor that nearly bankrupt the studio for good. Since their CinemaScope process brought on
the cycle, that makes sense. Warner
Bros. originally released this Ulmer film, which is unusual alone for allowing
a B-film director to work in any scope format, let alone this genre and makes
for interesting viewing.
We have looked at his work before (see Ulmer – King Of
The Bs on this site) and know how remarkable his productions were on such
tight budgets. He had more money to
work with here, but this was still low budget by the standards of such films in
the cycle. Ultimately, it is not the
greatest film, but the limits and flaws are far more interesting than you would
find in such films. The fight scenes,
for instance, are almost campy at times, but there is a certain effort here
that makes them unique in that they come off like no other such sequence you
will see in the films made then or in revivals of the genre now. Also, that they are not digital and there is
some ambition makes it all much more interesting.
Also, there are Ulmer’s unique, distinctive choices in
what is put on screen. No matter what
succeeds or fails, the one constant is that he is always trying to do what he
thinks will work best on a big screen and widescreen canvas. He knew this might be the only time he would
do scope and the result is that he breaks rules that needed to be broken,
causing this film not to age as badly as more highly budgeted examples of the
genre. As compared to the cheapest
shooting on Cleopatra, this is better and it is a shame that film did
not take a closer look at this one. And
yes, that is Gabriele Ferzetti, who would appear 9 years later in the James
Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, reviewed elsewhere on this
site.
The anamorphically enhanced image yellows at times, making
one wonder how an analog video element slipped through into the new digital
master, but the 2.35 X 1 image is often clean and clear just the same. The print used is not bad, but the color
shifting between scenes shows that some serious work will need to be done on
this film before a High Definition version can be made. It is also important to note that the
SuperCinescope process used actual squeeze lenses, but the process was barely
as good as CinemaScope and the advancements of better Panavision lenses killed
off any hope that the process would take off.
For the record, the only other films that used the process were The
Warrior & The Slave Girl (1959), Trapped In Tangiers (both
1960), and Queen Of The Nile (1962/4 with Vincent Price). Out of the four films shot this way, Hannibal
was the only one issued in three-strip dye-transfer Technicolor, something this
DVD occasionally reveals despite the age of the print.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 is monophonic, though it is not
certain if the film was ever available in any kind of stereo, but the bad
dubbing spells out mono in 99% of the cases.
The acting is not awful, but dubbed or not, is again interesting like al
of Ulmer’s output. Extras include an
audio-only interview by Peter Bogdanovich with Ulmer, stills/poster gallery,
three trailers for other VCI DVD titles, a promo for their Sword & sandal
series, and filmo/biographies on lead Mature, female lead Rita Gam and
Ulmer. This is the kind of film that is
compelling viewing, even when it is not great, which is why Ulmer’s Hannibal
is worth seeing again.
- Nicholas Sheffo
