Hopkins could have been Bond and I think he'd have made a good one. In fact, a review at the time of his performance in When Eight Bells Toll proclaimed he played his character Calvert in a way that "made James Bond look like a lounge lizard." The film is a fondly remembered actioner from my childhood (well, early teens). Although there's no way in which the pyrotechnics on show could bear realistic comparison with the CGI-dominated eye-candy extravagance of today's equivalents (witness the studio bound finale in the boat house if you really need convincing),it remains a brisk, fun way to idle away the best part of two hours.

The script is sharp, the dialogue cynical, the action belts along nicely - and Robert Morely's Whitehall mandarin thrust into the field is an eccentric delight. Nathalie Delon (whatever happened to her?) is an icy femme fatale who couldn't act to save her life (or anyone elses) and Jack Hawkins, who had throat cancer, is voiced by Charles Gray. Jack's lip-synching is well-duff to say the least. He's almost a good five minutes behind. Add Old Vic stalwart Corin Redgrave as Calvert's pragmatism-challenged sidekick and you have a recipe for some top fun.

The plot (McGuffin) is some nonsense about missing bullion ships, but it's no more than a hook to hang the action on. For me, this is a case of nostalgia most certainly being what it used to be. I just love it.

For anyone who likes the early seventies Bond movies, it's almost an essential accoutrement.

Right, next stops on the Alistair MacLean '70s movie DVD trail - Fear Is The Key, Caravan To Vaccares and the sublime Puppet On A Chain.

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.

WHEN EIGHT BELLS TOLL is one of the lesser-known Alistair Maclean novel adaptations out there, and that's purely because it looks and feels rather insignificant when compared to the real classics of the genre like WHERE EAGLES DARE or THE GUNS OF NAVARONE. A cast-against-type Anthony Hopkins plays a gruff special agent on the track of a criminal mastermind who's been bumping off British agents, and the setting is a watery one with lots of diving and action on and beneath the waves. It's lively stuff and provides a neat contrast to Bond by emphasising realism over style. Hopkins is good value but his thunder is stolen a little by a pitch-perfect Robert Morley who is a hoot as the comedy relief.