When Eight Bells Toll (1971)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Etienne Périer

Writer:

Alistair MacLean (screenplay)

Release Date:

23 August 1971 (Norway)

Genre:

Mystery | Crime

Plot Keywords:

Underwater | Treasure | Pirate | Gold | Britain

Cast

Anthony Hopkins	...	Philip Calvert
Robert Morley	...	Uncle Arthur
Nathalie Delon	...	Charlotte
Jack Hawkins	...	Sir Anthony Skouras
Corin Redgrave	...	Hunslett
Derek Bond	...	Lord Charnley
Ferdy Mayne	...	Lavorski
Maurice Roëves	...	Helicopter Pilot
Leon Collins	...	Tim Hutchinson
Wendy Allnutt	...	Sue Kirkside
Peter Arne	...	Imrie
Oliver MacGreevy	...	Quinn (as Oliver Macgreevy)
Jon Croft	...	Durran
Tom Chatto	...	Lord Kirkside
Charlie Stewart	...	Sgt. Macdonald

Also Known As:

Alistair Maclean's When Eight Bells Toll (UK) (complete title)

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 (1971) | Sweden:15 | UK:15 (video rating) (1990) | UK:A (original rating) | USA:GP

Filming Locations:

Brown's ironmongers shop, Tobermory, Mull, Argyll, Scotland, UK

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Towards the end of the film Calvert fires a rocket powered grappling-hook to help scale the cliff. This is clearly attached to a box of thin twine which is shown rapidly emptying as the rocket head upwards. When the hook lands and catches onto the base of a cannon, the twine has magically evolved into a 1 inch thick rope which Calvert then uses to climb the cliff.

Quotes:

[Calvert comes in covered in mud and blood, having been beaten up]
Hunslett: What happened to you?
Philip Calvert: I met a wild gypsy girl in the heather.

Hard to fault, but this film just did not click

During the period since long distance travel became much more widespread in the 1950'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 "Now to become a major motion picture starring.........." 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 soon as a 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 up as movies 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 thrillers as Hammond 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. "When Eight Bells Toll" was one of the movies for which he receives credits as both 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 "When Eight Bells Toll"; so my comments, or rating, would appear to be of little value to readers who have a different appreciation for this type of film.

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 performance as their 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, as a reasonably competent pot-boiler but no more. I am a great fan of Alastair MacLean'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.