thinker1691 The surprising writer who wrote this stirring action film is none other than Alstair Maclean and was later directed by Etienne Perier. What will be surprising is the selected star of the movie, Anthony Hopkins. That's right, SIR Anthony Hopkins. He plays Philip Calvert, a Royal Navy Officer who fits right in every element selected. For instance, he's at home underwater, in Scuba tanks, flying about in Helicopters, steering yachts or confront thugs with guns, knives or harpoons. His commanding officer is Robert Morley who'd like more respect from his rebellious underling, but receives little. The Maclean story has him trailing a group of vicious modern day pirates who will stop at nothing to secure a stolen shipment of Gold Bullion. The movie is fraught with exciting gunfire scenes, high explosions, physical confrontations, shootings, and innocent killings, many stem from the novel. In almost a Bond type film, Sir Calvert does encourage the audience to think of our hero as a spy. Unusual for Hopkin, but nevertheless, he performs convincingly and is insured by his cast members which include Jack Hawkins and Robert Morley. All in all, this is one film which should allow audiences to believe that young Hopkins could and did establish himself as a man of action. Recommended to all his fans. ****

TheLittleSongbird While When Eight Bells Toll is not a masterpiece in my eyes, I myself would hardly call it a dud. Perhaps a little too short, and I do agree that some of the fight scenes leave you wanting more and some scenes such as the wooden boat exploding do make you raise your eyebrows as if to say "just why did they do that?", however there is a huge amount to redeem it.I have to say When Eight Bells Toll is likable and entertaining for what it is. It has superb location shooting and a rousing score. It has an interesting and exciting plot, brisk pacing, decent direction and sharp and cynical dialogue. It also has the great Anthony Hopkins playing a role atypical to any other he's played. No-nonsense and a hero in a sense, Calvert as a character is very entertaining and likable and Hopkins is exactly that too. Even better is Robert Morley who provides a deliciously comic turn as Calvert's spy-master, while Nathalie Delon is beautiful and luscious as the lovely Charlotte.Overall, an entertaining film. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Terrell-4 Even at 34 Anthony Hopkins made an unlikely hero for a rousing adventure thriller such as When Eight Bells Toll, based on the book by Alistair Maclean. Hopkins face looks so young, with even a hint of cherubic baby fat. His height and build are only average. And 36 years later it's hard to erase the knowledge of the future Hannibal Lecter, James Stevens, Henry Wilcox and Titus Andronicus, or for that matter much of the dreck he's been appearing in these last few years. Still, Hopkins carries off the role of Commander Philip Calvert, an agent for British Naval Intelligence, with aplomb. First, Hopkins can act. He's completely assured in a role which sometimes calls for the suspension of belief. His voice is quick and confident. He knows how to underplay. Second, he's physically quick. The role calls for a lot of clambering up and down cliffs, running up staircases and along paths, swimming in a scuba outfit and engaging bad guys in fistfights. There are enough medium shots to see that Hopkins is doing a great deal of the action himself. Third, he's intelligent and gives an intelligent performance. Why is Calvert doing all this stuff? Because gold bullion is being pirated from ships off the coast of Scotland's western highlands. Calvert, tough, disrespectful of authority, as unintimidated by Naval bureaucracy as he is by killers, is sent in undercover to investigate. What he finds, aided by a young Naval helper (and we know the fate that always awaits young helpers), involves Sir Anthony Skouras (Jack Hawkins), a very rich tycoon on a plush yacht anchored in a stormy loch, Charlotte (Nathalie Delon), introduced as Sir Anthony's young wife, and Lord Charnley (Derek Bond), who appears to be Sir Anthony's great and good friend. Occasionally checking in with Calvert is his boss in London, a fat and seemingly complaisant spymaster called Uncle Albert (Robert Morley). When Calvert, suspicions aroused, requests that Sir Anthony be vetted, Uncle Albert is deeply offended. "He's a member of my club! He's on the wine committee!" In an amusing plot development, Uncle Albert winds up coming to the loch to find out what's really going on. Since by now Calvert's young sidekick (played by a young Corin Redgrave) is no longer with us, Uncle Albert winds up doing a bit of careful violence. Considering Morley's corpulence and often officious roles he usually played, it was a pleasure witnessing his cautious but ready steadfastness. The search for the gold and for the mastermind takes Philip Calvert through some of Scotland's mistiest, coldest-looking and rockiest sea-swept scenery, from a desolate cemetery and a desperate fight with two goons to deep under water in a scuba outfit and into the bowels of a deliberately sunken ship and another desperate fight, this time with a goon in a diving suit. There's even a flaming helicopter crash into the cold, murky loch waters. Calvert eventually puzzles out the murderous scheme, but not before there are plot twists, turns and roundabouts. Along the way, Calvert deals out death by shooting and knifing, by throwing overboard, by neck cracking, by underwater acetylene torch and even by crossbow. Calvert is not a man to find yourself between him and his objective. When Eight Bells Toll isn't a great adventure thriller, but within its own limits it's entertaining. Those limits are the same as in most of the many other adventure thrillers by Maclean...headlong plots that don't stop for anything, regular intervals of vivid violence and escapes, unexpected betrayals, loose ends that stay loose, a certain level of confusion about what exactly is happening, minimal significant female involvement and no sex. He wrote the screenplay for this one and often worked on the screenplays for the movies made from his books. Think Ice Station Zebra, The Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare and quite a few others. Personally, I still like his first, HMS Ulysses, published in 1955. He cranked out nearly a book a year until he died in 1987. The last 20 or so, in my opinion, were little more than recycled quickies, predictable and uninteresting. The one disquieting and poignant note is watching Jack Hawkins, a first-rate actor, as Sir Anthony Skouras. Hawkins was a beefy man with a distinctive, raspy voice. He smoked 60 cigarettes a day at one time. In 1965 surgeons removed his larynx because of cancer. He no longer could speak. Hawkins continued to act until his death in 1973. Charles Gray, a character actor and friend of Hawkins, usually dubbed his voice. Gray provides Hawkins' voice in When Eight Bells Toll.

gbenskin It seems that the whole world and their dogs know of Commander Bond, who takes his martinis shaken and not stirred, has his dalliances with the ladies, and manages to save the world before dawn.Agent Calvert (played most suitably by Anthony Hopkins) is how I believe Bond should have been. Both are Commanders of the British Navy I believe, both educated 'working class' and with both, you get a sense of being slight sociopaths. Don't get me wrong, I really am a fan of the Bond genre, but this performance by Hopkins seems gritty and more realistic a character and compares quite favourably to the Bond character played by other actors.There is some great dialogue between the upper middle class boss of Agent Calvert (Uncle Arthur played by Robert Morley) and Agent Calvert, which helps keep interest in the film between the action scenes. Compared to many of the scenes produced by action heroes of the last 10 years, some are a little dated, although there were still enough to keep me interested.Nathalie Delon was a great choice as the leading lady requiring rescue from the sea (were her intentions good or bad?), and its a pity that most outside of her native country did not see much more of her in other things.One of my personal favourite pieces of work by Anthony Hopkins.If you're an action fan, I still think this is worth a look. Long overdue a worthy remake I think.