When Eight Bells Toll

When Eight Bells Toll (1971)

Danger runs deeper than the sea bed!

Phillip Calvert is a British Treasury secret service agent assigned to stop the ruthless pirating of millions in gold bullion off the western coast of the Scottish highlands. His search takes him to the small port town of Torbay on the Isle of Torbay where numerous fishing boats, yachts and people have been mysteriously disappearing. A trail of deceit and subterfuge leads him to Cypriot tycoon and shipping magnate Sir Anthony Skouras and his beautiful wife, Charlotte aboard their luxury yacht anchored off the coast, who may hold the answers to the truth.

Date of release
1971-04-30
TMDB
5.7 / 10 (62)
Runtime
1h 34m
Genres
Action, Adventure, Crime, Mystery
Director
Étienne Périer

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: When Eight Bells Toll
  • Filmed in: Malta and Pinewood Studios

When Eight Bells Toll is a 1971 British action film directed by Étienne Périer and starring Anthony Hopkins, Jack Hawkins, Robert Morley, and Nathalie Delon. Set in Scotland, it is based upon Scottish author Alistair MacLean's 1965 novel of the same name. Producer Elliott Kastner planned to produce a string of realistic gritty espionage thrillers to rival the James Bond series, but the film's poor box office receipts ended his plans.

Production

In July 1966, Kastner and his producing partner Jerry Gershwin had purchased five screenplays from MacLean: Where Eagles Dare, When Eight Bells Toll, and three other unnamed ones. In November Kastner announced they would make the film as part of a 14-film slate over two years. Among the 14 movies were Maclean's Where Eagles Dare, which was a big hit in 1968, leading to high expectations for When Eight Bells Toll.

Kastner saw When Eight Bells Toll as a combination of The Guns of Navarone, Gunga Din and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. "There was a strong character and a great adventure in there," recalled Kastner.

MacLean elected to adapt his novel for the cinema himself, and kept the adaptation close to the novel. The story is very close to the source text, and features some of the same witty dialogue. Some of the twists in the ending have been changed, however, and a shootout replaces MacLean's original Agatha Christie-style summation.

Elliott Kastner hoped that the film would be the first of a series of spy adventures films featuring MacLean's Philip Calvert character by capturing James Bond series fans after the anticipated demise of that series (Sean Connery was believed to be planning to quit the Bond role, and some thought that the Bond series would end after his departure).

The director was a Belgian, Etienne Perier who had done low budget movies. Kastner later said hiring him was "probably the one mistake" he made on the film.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended