Believe it or not, Anthony Hopkins wasn’t always an old-ass man.
NOTE: Netflix is taking down a boatload of titles on May 1st, so I thought it might be fun to see how many I can watch in the next two weeks, and then post quick, little hit-and-run reviews here. Hope you enjoy, and if you want to see any of these movies and have Netflix, better watch ’em now!
Another spy tale from the master of espionage and adventure himself Alistair MacLean, When Eight Bells Toll misses the swinging spy craze by about three or four years - although you couldn’t tell by the jazzy, muscular score. Much like Michael Caine and his Harry Palmer series, the producers here hoped to create a more realistic take on a James Bond-like character, with Anthony Hopkins in the title role of Phillip Calvert. Calvert’s assigned to find a missing shipment of gold bullion, which takes him to a small Scottish isle where the citizens are closed-off and seem to be hiding something. Hopkins is great here, swimming and running and generally gallivanting about like a badass, and the plot takes one or two fun twists along the way - true to MacLean fashion. Also great are Robert Morley as Calvert’s bumbling superior and Nathalie Delon as the damsel-in-distress who’s really more of a femme fatale. The action and stunts are impressive, and at an hour and a half, the film zips by without an ounce of fat on the plot to be found.
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