Product: When Eight Bells Toll [VHS] (1972)
Rating: 4.0
Highland fling...
Alistair Maclean's 1966 thriller "When Eight Bells Toll" gets the cinematic treatment in this 1971 British effort, now available on DVD in the UK and US (this particular DVD is the UK version). Maclean did the screenplay, adapting loosely but effectively from his novel. A young Anthony Hopkins is worth watching as a ruthless British agent battling a nasty and ruthless gang of gold bullion thieves in the Scottish Highlands.As the story opens, Naval officer and secret agent Philip Calvert (Hopkins) boards a hijacked ship, only to find his fellow agents murdered on board. Calvert himself barely escapes with his life, after a struggle with one of the bullion thieves. Calvert will find himself on notice with his boss, hunted by the gold thieves, and struggling to make sense of the case. A helicopter flight around the Western Highlands will solidify his suspicions but place him in mortal danger. Calvert's relentless pursuit of the thieves will lead to a dramatic final showdown.The action sequences in this movie are pretty good, the more so for not looking like staged martial arts exhibitions. The underwater scenes, especially one in which a leading character is trapped underwater, are quite effective. The location shooting in Scotland is terrific. Fans of the novel are duly warned that Maclean altered the way some of the leading characters are played between the book and the movie, and the ending plays out a little differently. "When Eight Bells Toll" is a decent movie, and practically a 70's period piece; recommended.