Best movies like Eight Bells

Merchant seaman Archie Gibbs manages to survive when his ship is torpedoed by a German submarine. Disguising himself in the uniform of a dead Nazi spy, Gibbs is picked up by the Nazi U-boat. He manages to convince the German sailors that he's the spy, and in this guise he tries to rescue a group of captured Allied scientists.

Josephine Spiggins is thinking of marrying John Spear, the stuffed-shirt son of a department store owner. When John's free-spirit brother Tony returns from touring the South Seas in his boat, the "Vagabond Lady," Jo is attracted to him instead.

In this war drama, a brave reporter tries to remain detached while covering the war in Shanghai. While there, he falls for an ex-streetwalker, but must compete with a mercenary pilot for her love. By the end, the correspondent loses his objectivity after he helps the pilot save the woman from the enemy. The rescue costs the pilot his life.

This one has Nylon, an American dancer fleeing Morocco after her employer gets into trouble with the police, and she stops off at Tangiers on her way to Gibraltar. $50,000, in gold, is stolen from the ship's safe and the captain tells the police that the purser was the thief and that he had to kill him in self defense, but the purser must have hidden the money before he got dead. The purser isn't in any position to make a disclaimer. Everybody buys that with the exception of an insurance detective, Shapley, who, along with the audience, suspects the captain of being the thief shows up to investigate further. Written By Les Adams

Two deep-sea divers, known only by their nicknames of "Three-Time" and "Forty-Fathoms," find that no place on earth is big enough for both of them at the same time, even the bottom of the ocean. All day long they fight to salvage sunken gold at forty fathoms deep in the ocean, and all night long they fight over dames. This situation continues even when they both go to work for Helen Young, the owner of a tug-boat and a salvage business.

Three castaways all from differing levels of society reach and board a deserted schooner in mid-ocean.

Joyce Reid, a wealthy young debutante, stows away on a cargo ship to China, carrying as passengers her dashing aviator sweetheart, Dan Bailey and and her munitions-producing father, E. J. Reid and an assortment of the usual south-seas characters along with some Asians with varying agendas. The cargo included a shipment of bombs and machine guns. She soon finds herself being held hostage and they will free her only if Dan agrees to pilot a bombing plane for some Chinese bandits.

Posing as relatives, Ralph and Helen Gordon visit Col. Moncrief Gordon's Kentucky mansion, hoping to marry Helen to the colonel's son, Donald. The colonel agrees, but Donald balks at the suggestion, then reveals his secret marriage to Alice Brown. The colonel turns them out, and Ralph conspires with Bob Thurston to frame Donald for theft of Colonel Gordon's wager money and to shanghai him. After 3 years Donald discovers the source of his misfortune, returns, finds his wife, hears of a plot against his father's best racehorse, wrings a complete confession from Thurston, and saves the Derby for his repentant father.

Panic arises among Allied POWs aboard a Japanese freighter when they learn that the ship is actually a decoy target for American submarines on night patrol. The prisoners unite and attack their Japanese captors just as an American sub surfaces and, not knowing the prisoners are aboard, prepares to torpedo the ship.

A murder is committed aboard a cruise ship just before it sinks in a storm. The survivors, including the killer, land on a mysterious jungle island.

The S. S. Claridon is scheduled for her five last voyages after thirty-eight years of service. After an explosion in the boiler room, Captain Robert Adams is reluctant to evacuate the steamship. While the crew fights to hold a bulkhead between the flooded boiler room and the engine room and avoid the sinking of the vessel, the passenger Cliff Henderson struggles against time trying to save his beloved wife Laurie Henderson, who is trapped under a steel beam in her cabin, with the support of the crew member Hank Lawson.

Arthur Wells, an impoverished poet, impersonates a big-game hunter in an attempt to locate the missing link. However, the poet has an aversion to animals...tame or wild.

A passenger ship unexpectedly runs into a typhoon.

Wealthy young man Ramon Laredo is abducted and put into service aboard a ship commanded by a none-too-scrupulous smuggler. When the ship encounters the foundering "Lady Letty," some of the Letty's crew is brought aboard, including Letty 'Moran' Sternerson, feisty daughter of the Letty's captain. Moran and Ramon have little use for each other, but when trouble erupts and the smuggler Captain Kitchell turns his evil eye on Moran, it is Ramon who comes to her rescue.

John Raglan is a seal hunter being hounded by hijackers, so he strands himself on an isolated island in the Bering Sea that is owned by a corporation. During a fierce sea-storm, Raglan rescues the passengers of a floundering ship, which includes the owner of the island, his daughter and her fiancée. The owner threatens to charge Ragland with poaching on private property, and then a gang of seal-skin thieves make an entrance.

A cruel sea captain (Charles Middleton) oversees a rough crew.

The MacIver brothers (Michael Redgrave, Griffith Jones) build the first ship to cross the Atlantic by steam power alone.

A naval officer gets more than he bargained for when he adopts a recently orphaned young boy, the son of his late best friends. Despite the resistance of the lad's surviving relatives, who worry that growing in the Navy will be hard on the boy, the officer loves and takes good care of the boy. At least he does until the child is abducted by a gangster who has mistaken him for his long-lost boy. Fortunately for the young fellow, the officer rallies the entire Navy and comes to the rescue.

The Jones Family heads to Gay Paree in celebration of the 25th wedding anniversary of Pa and Ma Jones. It doesn't take long for the Joneses to be victimized by clever Parisian con artists.

John Moore, a young sea captain has a romance with Kay Wheeler, daughter of a trusted trader, "Pop" Wheeler, on a Pacific island. He also acquire the enmity of "Shanghai" Morgan, a notorious sea captain who shanghais his crew and his women.

Anita Gray is the spoiled daughter of a millionaire. Returning home from a party, her car breaks down and she is picked up by a stranger, who sells her his car for a diamond bracelet. The car has been stolen and the police arrest her, but she escapes and takes refuge on a freighter bound for China. She has no money and has to work her way there. Her father learns of her destination and hires Hamlin to bring her safely home.

Made during the early days of sound cinema, this tense submarine adventure is an intriguing example of a hybrid silent-talkie. A disgraced English sub commander changes his name to Burke and joins the American Navy. When the U.S. submarine on which he is serving as a torpedo launcher begins to sink, Burke must make the ultimate sacrifice to save as many crew men as possible..

The title character, played by John Payne, is a ship's captain whose embittered behavior after losing his lady love seemingly leads to tragedy. Accused of deliberately scuttling his ship during a typhoon, Captain China hopes to clear himself by signing on as a common seaman on a vessel captain by his former first mate Brendensen. There's no love lost between the two men, and their mutual animosity is intensified when both fall in love with beautiful passenger.

Estranged brothers (John Payne, Richard Arlen) find themselves on the same lumberjack crew hired by a feisty widow to clear the timber from her Nevada property.

A young divinity student helps and protects a down and out prostitute, at the cost of his own standing in the community.

Comical exploits of two Navy pals, at sea and on shore.

A convict who has just escaped from Alcatraz Prison takes over a passenger ship. Two of the ship's crew hatch a plot to overpower him and rescue the ship's passengers.

Hornblower and the other officers of the Renown must return to Jamaica to face a court-martial and possible execution for their actions in relieving their unstable captain.

Author writes about his experiences sailing at sea, struggles to get his work published.

An outbreak of cholera threatens a luxury liner in this surprisingly low-budget melodrama from RKO. En route from Shanghai to San Francisco, chief engineer Crusher McKay (Victor McLaglen) and shipboard doctor Tony Craig (Chester Morris) become rivals for the attention of nurse Ann Grayson (Wendy Barrie). A Chinese stowaway, meanwhile, infects the stokehold with cholera and it is left to Crusher to keep the engines at full throttle until reaching harbor. But morale sinks to an all-time low when Crusher himself is stricken and the overworked men threaten with mutiny. Tony attempts to keep the stokers in check but the situation is growing more dangerous by the minute when a heroic Crusher rises from his sickbed. Leaving their previous petty squabbles behind, Tony and Crusher manage to guide the ship safely to harbor, where the doc and Ann rekindle their romance.

Mobster Thomas Nagle and his gang take over a ship to use running guns and counterfeit money into Lisbon.

An island fugitive and his bride make room for a shipwrecked detective.

A shipful of fugitives from justice pulls up on a Pacific Island where there are no extradition laws. The island is a magnet for the scum of the earth, as well as a few honest guys who were framed. Into this den of iniquity swims socialite Dorothy Sebastian, who jumped off a yacht after apparently murdering her lecherous host. To remain on the Island, Sebastian is told that she must pay $5,000 to head honcho Fred Kohler -- and if she hasn't got the money, it is implied, there are other methods of collection.

A sea captain comes to rescue of a prostitute in Shanghai, who is being run out of town. He takes her aboard his ship and heads out to sea. Not long afterwards the ship sinks but the pair manage to get into a lifeboat before it goes under. They are later picked up by a passing ship, but it turns out that the crew had just mutinied against their captain and taken over the ship.

A fishing-boat captain's bride eyes his first mate at sea.