You have to be on one side, the winners.
The story of this film is quite interesting, so I will give it a few lines along with my own impressions of it. Alistair McLean, the author of many action-packed novels, has always been loved by Hollywood, but in the case of “Sklyanks”, producer Elliott Kastner was full of truly Gargantuan plans. At that time, the favorite of the audience and the star of “bondiana” Sean Connery decided to move away from the series that made him famous, and what is Bond without Connery? The franchise was supposed to curtail, which means that a tempting and gold-bearing niche called “a series of spy-adventure thrillers with a charismatic protagonist” will be released. Kastner, as a man who knows that nature does not tolerate emptiness, decided to occupy this niche before he was ahead. The hero who will eclipse the very “Bond, James Bond”, was to be agent Philip Calvert – the hero of MacLean’s novels.
According to the results of careful casting, the star of the planned new franchise was still very young and did not taste the little man in the image of Dr. Lecter Anthony Hopkins. Quite an unexpected choice, but we must pay tribute to young Anthony: he is very sweet, ironic and determined to win the hearts of the audience. Although before that, Hopkins had several roles in little-known films and TV series, I think it was “When 8 bottles break” that became a real springboard for him. If the actor did not try to look like Bond (perhaps it is not his fault, but a clever trick of marketers), then there would be nothing to blame him for.
In addition to Anthony, the picture boasts the presence of magnificent and very gloomy Scottish landscapes, elusively reminiscent of Angelina Jolie actress Natalie Delon, in English unflappable Robert Morley, “usually embodied on the screen the secondary images of pompous British gentlemen” ((c) Wikipedia) and ominous soundtrack from Angela Morley. As for the plot, it is not up to the level of Fleming’s work and, perhaps, too straightforward. Despite this, the film is interesting and not protracted, as is often seen in spy films of the seventies. Personally, I watched it with great pleasure ... yet Anthony turned out to be the perfect option for the role of Calvert - his one game atones for a simple plot.
Unfortunately, Mr. Kastner's ambitions were unsatisfied: the rental did not bring the expected profit, but what is worse - the film did not cause a stir, hurling popcorn and shouting "We want a sequel!". So the project stalled, not having time to gain momentum (and even Sir Connery was able to agree to another series of “bonds”, driving the last nail into the coffin of inflated expectations of the hapless producer). It's a pity, there was potential, and not bad. I wouldn’t mind getting to know Philip Calvert better – in some ways he’s even nicer than James Bond.