'When Eight Bells Toll' (1971) - Etienne Périer.

When the larcenous activities of an especially daring and ruthless syndicate of hardened, gold bullion stealing thugs finally come to the attention of the powers that be, they decide to send in their very best man, the no less brutally efficient special agent Philip Calvert (Anthony Hopkins) to stop them. Alistair Maclean's thrillingly volatile tale of bullet-shredded piracy is brought to stark, bracingly vivid life by boisterous director Périer, with the steely-eyed, blunt talking sir Anthony Hopkins dominating the screen as the insolent,fleet-fisted special agent Philip Calvert, and Robert Morley is a sheer delight as his pompous, desk-bound superior 'Uncle Arthur'.

With hair-trigger tension, devilish intrigue, explosive action and a gruesomely high body count, what the tantalizingly violent thriller 'When Eight Bells Toll' lacks in subtlety is more than compensated by an excess of semtex-saturated spectacle! And fabulous Femme Nathalie Delon exudes all the devastatingly fatal charm of a poisoned rose as the sultry, sinisterly scheming Charlotte Skouras. Both the bitterly inclement, storm-lashed Hebridean setting and the blood-pumpingly energized score by maestro Angela Morley confers upon the bellicose 'When Eight Bells Toll' an additionally beguiling atmospheric lustre of dramatic tension. Avid film facts might be interested to note that films composer Angela Morley (William Scott) was the the very first openly transgender person to win an Oscar.

'When Eight Bells Toll' is a gripping, frequently underappreciated, rewardingly mean-spirited 70s action classic, with Hopkins titanium tough, Berretta blasting agent Calvert making Bond look like an arthritic tea lady. - Tor Bronson @ 'The Heroic Blood Shed'.

'In this rare instance, a film's overall lack of subtlety proves to its greatest asset, as Étienne Périer's gritty, cadaver-strewn action classic 'When Eight Bells Toll' strikes a darkly resonating note of uniquely 70s nastiness!' - Weirdlingwolf / Dirty Kunst Video.

'When Eight Bells Toll' delivers more of a kick than a mercury laced Martini! - Goosey Lucy@Buxom Bloodfiends.