This old fashioned service comedy is suitable for the whole family. It is set in Vietnam during the war and chronicles the efforts of a small band of Green Berets as they endeavor to help out a beleaguered village located next to a major supply route for the Viet Cong. The leader, Capt. Sam Cahill has been working overtime to create good relations between the American soldiers and the villagers so he can use their little town to monitor enemy activities. Unfortunately, Cahill is slated to retire and his replacement is shaping up to be the classic Ugly American. It is he who accidentally lets the North Vietnamese know that the hapless villagers have been harboring American soldiers. To punish them, the VC shoot the only elephant in the village. To help the villagers, Cahill goes against the wishes of the new leader and promises to replace the slaughtered beast in time for an important local ritual. The trouble is, the Americans have only five days in which to find and bring back an elephant; they find one, but it is 200 miles from the village. The men decide the only way to do it is to load the beast aboard a transport plane and send it to the village via parachute. Now all they have to do is figure how to engineer this feat.
~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide