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      When Eight Bells Toll

      PG 1971 1h 34m Action List
      Reviews 52% 500+ Ratings Audience Score An English secret agent (Anthony Hopkins) links hijackings of gold bullion to a Greek tycoon and an underwater cave. Read More Read Less

      Audience Reviews

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      Audience Member Anthony Hopkins stars in one of his earliest flicks. This one falls in line with the old James Bond movies. Secret agent Philip Calvert is a navy officer hired by the British government. His latest mission is to track down gold bullion smugglers involving sunken ships. Sir Anthony Skouras is the one in charge in Greece. With Calvert assigned to monitor him on the Scottish coast are his findings legit? Skouras is a respected member of society among the locals so he might not be able to touch him. Calvert also gets help from Charlotte, Skouras' wife who finds out about his shady business Calvert does his job breaking the rules not following orders but doing it well A good agent goes beyond the call of duty This is an above average spy flick for a great Thespian actor Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/10/24 Full Review Part_time_pirate I wish I could say that this movie is so bad that it is good but it is just plain miserably bad. Every character, every word of dialog, every scene...simply every single thing about this film needs to be taken 200miles from shore, weighted down with old scrap steel and deep sized from the face of the planet! Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/17/24 Full Review jon c Anthony Hopkins stars in one of his earliest flicks. This one falls in line with the old James Bond movies. Secret agent Philip Calvert is a navy officer hired by the British government. His latest mission is to track down gold bullion smugglers involving sunken ships. Sir Anthony Skouras is the one in charge in Greece. With Calvert assigned to monitor him on the Scottish coast are his findings legit? Skouras is a respected member of society among the locals so he might not be able to touch him. Calvert also gets help from Charlotte, Skouras' wife who finds out about his shady business Calvert does his job breaking the rules not following orders but doing it well A good agent goes beyond the call of duty This is an above average spy flick for a great Thespian actor Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member British Treasury secret agent Phillip Calvert (Anthony Hopkins) is sent to investigate the hijacking of five cargo ships in the Irish Sea, tracking the latest hijacked ship-the Nantesville, carrying £8 million in gold bullion-to the Scottish Highlands and the sleepy port town of "Torbay" on the "Isle of Torbay". Posing as marine biologists, Calvert and his partner Hunslett (Corin Redgrave) find the local inhabitants suspicious and hostile. They suspect that Cypriot tycoon and shipping magnate Sir Anthony Skouras (Jack Hawkins), whose luxury yacht Shangri-La is anchored off the coast, may be behind the pirating of the gold bullion. While searching the surrounding area in a Royal Navy Helicopter, Calvert makes contact with a group of remote shark fishermen who appear more friendly than Torbay's locals. Calvert also meets the occupants of a Castle, Lord Kirkside and his teenage daughter, who behave strangely as well as being hostile... "When Eight Bells Toll" was made and released about five years after its source novel of the same name by Alistair MacLean was first published in 1966. This was MacLean's eleventh novel and this movie was the sixth film adaptation of one of MacLean's stories. This picture was planned as being the first of a series of spy movies featuring the character of Philip Calvert. Around this time, it was known that Sean Connery would not be doing another James Bond film after Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and there was speculation that the Bond franchise might end. As such, a potential vacuum was sensed by rival producer Elliott Kastner. But when this movie failed at the box-office, plans for a film franchise to succeed the James Bond movies were scrapped. This is obviously made in the wake of James Bond as said and this attempt to put British Treasury secret agent Phillip Calvert on the map as a competitor to Bond is a failure in many ways. First of all the character hardly sends sparks around him (even if Hopkins can act, but makes less sense as a secret agent), the story is pretty linear (loose ends that stay loose) with planted atypical British farcical add ons that doesn´t work at all, the action is along the line of "we can see that it´s a stuntman" and "When Eight Bells Toll" never becomes that exciting. This is just mediocre, uninteresting and forgettable. Hardly the best Alistair MacLean material nor movie adaptation. And you got to love the over the top movie poster that was made for the film which seems to belong to an entirely different film. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/21/23 Full Review Audience Member Ask your standard movie fan which Alistair MacLean adaptation they prefer and the vote would most likely be split between THE GUNS OF NAVARONE and WHERE EAGLES DARE, but, whilst I absolutely love the latter of those two, my personal favorite has been for many years WHEN EIGHT BELLS TOLL - a spy thriller penned by MacLean in the late 1960s and filmed with Anthony Hopkins in the lead role in 1971. I saw the movie many years ago on British television and always longed to see it once more. Watching it once again after all these years my passion for this action adventure is unfailing, I consider this to be the best spy thriller that [Bond producers] EON Productions NEVER made. With a simply superb cast that sees Hopkins joined by Robert Morley (as a rather snobbish boss) and Jack Hawkins (as a suspicious millionaire) this movie is simply brimming over with "Bondian" elements that include beautiful girls (bad and good), thrilling action, underwater battles, building suspense and a roaring soundtrack. It's the most entertaining couple of hours of spy thriller action that I have had the opportunity to enjoy in almost two decades. Hopkins plays secret agent Calvert who travels to the coast of Scotland disguised as a marine biologist to investigate the disappearance of bullion ships in the Irish Sea. There he encounters a colorful array of characters, both friend and foe before a climactic battle in an underground boathouse. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Audience Member The "Professional Bastard" Played By Sir Anthony Hopkins Is As Try-Hard Bond As You May Get. This Is Then Made Worse By The Uncle Arthur (Sir Arthur??) Character Being A Dorky-Dunst Actor, His Character Turns From Serious Government Bureaucrat To Side-Kick Village Idiot, I Found It Infuriatingly Dumb...Then To Boot, The Plan Is All Foiled With No Real Fuss Or Drama In 6-7 Minutes. Just A Shoot Out & That's It. Sheezus This Was Just Bad! Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/21/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      When Eight Bells Toll

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      Critics Reviews

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      Eddie Harrison film-authority.com This is derring-do and Queen and Country stuff, but leavened with a healthy air of cynicism... Rated: 4/5 Mar 10, 2021 Full Review Tony Mastroianni Cleveland Press Most of what happens and what is said wouldn't sound like much on paper, but on film it works. The entire British company is up to whatever is needed to make such a movie. Oct 3, 2018 Full Review Matt Brunson Creative Loafing The picture occasionally feels like warmed-over 007, and Anthony Hopkins strains to prove himself an agile and devil-may-care hero. But several of the action sequences are effectively staged, and it's always a pleasure to see Robert Morley. Rated: 2.5/4 Mar 12, 2016 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis An English secret agent (Anthony Hopkins) links hijackings of gold bullion to a Greek tycoon and an underwater cave.
      Director
      Etienne Périer
      Screenwriter
      Alistair MacLean, Alistair MacLean
      Production Co
      Winkast Film Productions, Gershwin-Kastner Productions
      Rating
      PG
      Genre
      Action
      Original Language
      English (United Kingdom)
      Release Date (DVD)
      Mar 8, 2016
      Runtime
      1h 34m