1958 forgotten film, Roots of Heaven, already talks about combatting elephant extinction.

Patrice Greanville

Humanity's disgraceful record toward nature and animals is confirmed by the fact many of these terrible issues have been known to media and governments for generations, and yet nothing has been done to effectively put an end to the outrages. 

The Roots of Heaven (1958)

Final comment:
Marred as this movie was by its melodramatic treatment, at least it was not yet another remake of an old classic, or an escapist, idiotic infantile flick exploiting franchises like Spider Man, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and many others of the same cloth, the latest artistic fungus afflicting Hollywood and Broadway, in this age of full, capitalist domination. 

This film, unfortunately packaged as a melodrama to make it commercially viable, and surprisingly made by John Huston, himself a trophy hunter, shows an idealist fighting to save elephants in a good light. As some may recall, in 1958 the very concept of animal rights had not been born yet, and hunting of great animals in Africa was common and seen as normal.

PRECIS
The Roots of Heaven is a 1958 American adventure film in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Colormade by 20th Century Fox, directed by John Huston and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. The screenplay by Romain Gary and Patrick Leigh Fermor is based on Romain Gary's 1956 Prix Goncourt winning novel The Roots of Heaven (Les racines du ciel).

The film starred Errol Flynn, Juliette Gréco, Trevor Howard, Eddie Albert, Orson Welles, Paul Lukas, Herbert Lom and Gregoire Aslan. The film itself was shot on location in French Equatorial Africa.^[3]