Made at an early stage in Anthony Hopkins’s film career, this Alistair MacLean adventure gave him a rare opportunity to play an action hero. Hopkins plays Philip Calvert, a single-minded Royal Navy secret agent and diving expert who is sent, with his aide, Hunslet (Corin Redgrave), to investigate the piracy of gold-bullion ships in the Irish Sea.
Calvert’s plan is to plant two friendly agents in the crew of the next bullion ship, the Nantesville, to report anything untoward to Calvert and Hunslet, who will shadow the ship disguised as marine biologists.
When the agents aren’t heard from, Calvert slips aboard the ship and finds both men dead. He unravels the mystery by bucking authority, overcoming the shifty, mumbling locals, disobeying orders and generally raising hell, leading to an action climax in the villains’ hideaway.
Overseeing the investigation is Sir Anthony Arnford-Jones (Robert Morley at his most petulant) – known as ‘Uncle Arthur’ – the intelligence chief from Whitehall who sees Calvert as “a terrible fellow . . . from a Northern grammar school”.
Calvert is intent on doing the job without falling for the high-life distractions that other spies are prone to. Consequently, he comes across as rather charmless and we find ourselves longing for more of Morley’s delicious comic turn as Calvert’s spymaster.
Jack Hawkins plays the red herring villain as well as he can after losing his larynx to cancer a few years before (Charles Gray speaks his lines).
French starlet Nathalie Delon is Charlotte Skouras, a sultry adventuress willing to doublecross anyone to get her hands on the stolen fortune.
The principal location shooting took place on the Isle of Mull on the west coast of Scotland (including the village of Tobermory, the old Ferry House at Grasspoint, and Duart Castle). The underwater fight scenes were filmed in Malta, where the Mediterranean has the advantages of light and warmth over Scottish waters.
The interior shots were completed at Pinewood Studios.
Philip Calvert
Anthony Hopkins Sir Arthur Arnold-Jones (‘Uncle Arthur’)
Robert Morley Sir Anthony Skouras
Jack Hawkins
Charles Gray (dubbed voice) Charlotte Skouras
Nathalie Delon Hunslet
Corin Redgrave Lord Charnley
Derek Bond Lavorski
Ferdy Mayne Tim Hutchinson
Leon Collins Sue Kirkside
Wendy Allnutt Imrie
Peter Arne
Director
Etienne Périer
Video
You May Also Like
Clash Of The Titans (1981) Greek mythology returned to the big screen in 1981's Clash of the Titans, a bid to lure…
Jumping for Joy (1956) Racetrack dogsbody Willie Joy (Frankie Howerd) loses his job at the greyhound stadium, acquires a sick…
Tommy Steele Story, The (1957) Having learnt to play the guitar while in hospital, Bermondsey boy Tommy Steele discovers his ability…
Hot Enough for June (1964) This British spy comedy casts Dirk Bogarde as Nicholas Whistler, a work-shy would-be writer who is…
Kidnappers, The (1953) Scotsman Jim MacKenzie (Duncan Macrae) lives in a primitive homestead in the Canadian province of Nova…
Crossplot (1969) The plot of this old-style comedy/thriller was written by occasional Saint writers John Kruse and Leigh Vance, and…
When the agents aren’t heard from, Calvert slips aboard the ship and finds both men dead. He unravels the mystery by bucking authority, overcoming the shifty, mumbling locals, disobeying orders and generally raising hell, leading to an action climax in the villains’ hideaway.
Philip Calvert
Hunslet
