497e39180f In a vein similar to James Bond movies, British Agent Philip Calvert is on a mission to determine the whereabouts of a ship that disappeared near the coast of Scotland. During the period since long distance travel became much more widespread in the 1950&#39;s, paperback thriller novels have become an increasingly important part of newly published friction. Before any long journey, we go into the bookstall in the airport, railway station or bus station from which we are departing and choose a paperback to keep us occupied during our journey. In many cases the choice is a thriller which is discarded on our return home. But before this how often have we seen a page at the end saying something like &quot;Now to become a major motion picture starring……….&quot; The coupling of paperback and movie versions of new thrillers has become increasingly important during recent decades. Over the years old writers have retired and new writers have built big reputations, but the process is ongoing. As soona successful new thriller appears in the bookstalls, movie studios compete to buy up the film rights. Not all the books for which film rights have been purchased actually finish upmovies but many of them do; so we now have movies, readily available for home viewing, which are based on novels from such highly respected writers of thrillersHammond Innes, Alistair MacLean, Tom Clancy and many others. In total these constitute a significant portion of the new movies that are now released each year. Alistair MacLean is credited by IMDb with 17 novels which have been filmed for either the cinema or television. It is reported that he was unhappy with the screenplay written for the earlier movies made from his novels and insisted on participating in writing the screenplay for all the later ones. &quot;When Eight Bells Toll&quot; was one of the movies for which he receives creditsboth the author of the book and the writer of the screenplay. It is very interesting to find that several IMDb users have still been sharply critical of this film on the basis that much of it is too slow and spends too long in character development, leaving the action sequences too short and too far apart for the viewers interest to be fully maintained. In general I am not an enthusiast for movies made from thriller novels, which are usually a hybrid of who-dun-it and action sequences - the latter generally seem to involve gun battles or more basic hand to hand combats that are usually unpleasantly noisy, digitally enhanced to the point where they appear highly improbable, and far too lengthy in duration. I find that the prominence given to the shoot-out action sequences in such movies usually means that there is no time for gradually revealing the complexities of character that made the original novel interesting. In contrast to most of the other IMDb users who have commented on this film, this would be my chief criticism of &quot;When Eight Bells Toll&quot;; so my comments, or rating, would appear to be of little value to readers who have a different appreciation for this type of film.<br/><br/> For me the most enjoyable parts of this film were the splendid photography of the Scottish west coast scenery, and some evocative sequences involving small craft handling which brought back many memories. Somehow the story never clicked although this film has a great cast and some very taut dialogue. I particularly enjoyed the interplay of character between Anthony Hopkins playing a very dour investigator, Corin Redgrave playing his sidekick, and Robert Morley who gives a great performancetheir superior officer. Aided by its sharp, realistic and down to earth dialogue, most of the film was quite readily believable but unfortunately I did not find the final shootout in a concealed rocky inlet very convincing. As a film I would rate it somewhere in the middle of the scale,a reasonably competent pot-boiler but no more. I am a great fan of Alastair MacLean&#39;s novels, but will not be rushing out to buy a videotape or DVD of any of the others that I have read, even if he was responsible for the screenplay himself. Recap: At the northern coast of Scotland ships transporting large amounts of gold start to disappear. The Royal Navy and send for men to investigate. They place two men aboard the ship, and the other two to follow the ship. When the two men aboard is murdered, along with the rest of the crew, Calvert, a military commando and Hunslett, naval intelligence, continues to investigate and find themselves continuously harassed by henchmen to a wealthy skipper, Sir Skouras. To Calvert, this is just incentive to intensify his search within or outside regulations. It all comes to a violent end when Calvert must storm a castle to rescue a hostage and stop Skouras. But in the middle of the operation he gets aware of that he has been set up, and gotten most wrong.<br/><br/>Comments: A spy thriller based on the novel by Alistair Maclean, with the same title. Made in the early seventies it shares many elements with the Bond movies of the same era. Calvert is an agent not very concerned with rules or regulations, but highly efficient in undercover assignments. As such it got a good story with new developments all along, some more surprising twists than others, but some twists nonetheless.<br/><br/>It good some action too, even though some fight scenes and shoot outs leave a little more to wish for. Special effects have developed a lot since, but even judged by its own standards a few scenes feel a little too low budget or lack of means or effort. Mostly it is quite OK, though. But sometimes it just get silly, for example when a wooden small boat explodes upon crashing on some rocks.<br/><br/>Starring in this movie is Anthony Hopkins in a very early role. It is almost hard to recognize him but his characteristic voice gives him away. I&#39;m not sure I could say his performance speaks of the great star he was about to become, but it was fun to see him in a role of action hero, a role I&#39;ve never seen him play before.<br/><br/>6/10
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