Commando pour un homme seul

Having trouble in engaging myself in the start of this movie, being a dramatization of the Alistair MacLean novel, it soon grew on me. The funny understatements back at the headquarters I immediately started loving.

On the cover of this Norwegian edition DVD it's stated that MacLean has had18 of his novels made into films. I think this a successful adaption, though over shone by "The guns of Navarone" and "Where eagles dare". That said, it's a pity that his most exiting novel "Night without end" from 1959. Shurely it would be a great film to make even today.

This is very like an 70'ies James Bond-film, where we meet Anthony Hopkins as an agent, not very unlike James Bond. There's even a Bond-girl. He is sent up to a rural part of coastal Scotland, MacLeans native country, to investigate why there are so many ships getting lost up there. He gets to find himself not very well welcome.

I think Robert Morley is magnificent in his role as Uncle Arthur, and so is Anthony Hopkins as agent Philip Calvert, which have naturally bad manners, according to his boss, being born to a lesser class. Uncle Arthur's Lines are hilarious, and much wittier than his equals in James Bond-movies.

Agent Calvert kills off bad guys like puppets on a chain (!), and the film keeps the mystery for a long time, making the ride an interesting one. This tells me Hopkins could have been a great Bond.

The film is very time typical of early 70'ies, and it's a lovely coast and salty water film. You literary smell the salty sea water. It gets more entertaining and exciting as the film proceeds, and I think that it's a great period piece to watch.

Recommended for those enjoying classics!

I saw this at the cinema when it was first released. I was nine at the time and I notice the DVD has now been released with a '15' certificate. Oh, well. I suppose there are some scenes (helpless men shot from a boat as 'payback' for a dead colleague, a very graphic harpooning) that are best not seen by children. In 1971 it just seemed very exciting (and had an 'A' certificate).

I enjoyed the film when I first saw it and while it seems rather dated now, I think it's still worth viewing. It sets out to provide escapist entertainment and on that level it succeeds. My memories of seeing the film 34 years ago (help!) was of the waves crashing against huge black cliffs and *feeling* the cold dampness of North-West Scotland on the edge of the Atlantic. The locations are very well used indeed, the viewer gets a real sense of place.

The cast perform their roles well, Anthony Hopkins and Robert Morley particularly playing mutual antagonism with some nice comic touches.

One reviewer mentioned that Charles Gray's dubbing of Jack Hawkins's voice seemed a bit slapdash. When Charles Gray was interviewed about dubbing Hawkins (which he did quite regularly after the mid-60's) he said that Hawkins insisted on *speaking* his lines even after his voice was gone. The result was to make his delivery very erratic and therefore difficult to voice-over. Jack Hawkins was one of the best actors we've had (Cruel Sea, Bridge on the River Kwai, Ben-Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, etc., etc.) and these supporting roles made a rather sad postscript to his career.

A not bad interpretation of an interesting book by thriller writer Alistair Maclean, who has also written the screenplay in this instance. If this adaptation has anything going for it, it must surely be that it at least attempts to keep to the essential essence of the original novel, which was quite a page-turner. So many adaptations based on books by Maclean have been apparently destroyed in the writing or re-writing stage that little sense remains of the original concept. The thrill is often removed from the thriller. The essence of these books have often been hacked to pieces in an attempt to transform them into something cinematic. When things go wrong, it´s Maclean´s name that gets dragged through the mud!. Were this film to be made today, I believe it could be made much better, but still, it is an enjoyable romp made more enjoyable by the pairing of Anthony Hopkins with the luscious Nathalie Delon. Recommended.

With only a couple of exceptions I've never been disappointed in film adaptions of Alastair McLean's work. As some authors are difficult to translate to the screen, McLean's action novels seem to be ready made for adaption. Just look at some of his work, The Guns Of Navarone, Breakheart Pass, Where Eagles Dare, Ice Station Zebra. I've loved all of them and When Eight Bells Toll came out it joins the list albeit in a more minor vein.

This film gave a young Anthony Hopkins a chance to be an action hero. His character has more of a rebellious streak than James Bond ever did, but he gets results. His assignment is to get to the bottom of a series of ship hijackings, the last one was a freighter carrying a fortune in gold bullion. He's teamed with Corin Redgrave who takes a more cerebral approach to crime fighting.

That however leaves Redgrave dead and Hopkins looking to take down who did it. He himself is almost killed when a helicopter he was in was shot down. All the action takes place in and around the islands of Northern Scotland where the locals seem to be helping the bad guys. And in McLean tradition, just who are the bad guys.

In most of McLean's work there is always a twist or two and which side the players are on is a mystery through much of the film. When Eight Bells Toll is no exception.

Robert Morley plays the spymaster supervisor of Hopkins and is less avuncular than usual. Jack Hawkins is a Greek shipping tycoon with a young trophy wife. As we know Hawkins had lost his voice box to cancer and his last eight or so years he was dubbed. Whoever dubbed him sounded to me remarkably like Alec Guinness.

When Eight Bells Toll is not as good as some of the other McLean inspired films I mentioned before. But it's still a pretty good action film.

Recently, I've been commenting on films I haven't seen for years. At my age, It just seems about right to remark films that left decided impressions on me, many years ago.

As one reviewer remarked, this film was released shortly after Sean Connery's last appearance in the original James Bond series, with "Diamonds Are forever". I know of more than one friend who finds "DAF" an entertaining film. I was appalled when I first saw it and I am still appalled, a truly wretched film, and prophetic of the dip in class in the Bond films represented by Roger Moore.

So I was utterly delighted when I saw this film in an old movie-house in my home town a short while later. The experience was so pleasurable, I still remember that it was a snowy night, but not too cold; I remember the original poster advertising the film; and I remember that I felt personally disappointed that so few others were in the audience - the film disappeared within a week.

Hopkins' performance especially made the film memorable. I can still see his walk, how he carried a machine-gun, and his wry, somewhat jaded smile.

Everything about the film is "Bond on a low budget"; and the fact that MacLean actually wrote the script tells me that this was probably intentional - the Bond films, after all, had borrowed heavily from earlier films based on Maclean novels, while at the same time effectively burying them - "The Guns of Navarone" is well-remembered, but only brought out of mothballs for the Turner Movie Channel every now and again, but everyone owns a copy of "Goldfinger".

Yet it is this quality - which I recognized at once on initial viewing - that endeared the film for me forever - Producer Albert Brocolli had turned Bond into a clown; MacLean returned my hero to me as I always imagined him.

I think that says something positive about this one.