Review: Telefon


Russian agents who were hypnotised, programmed to kill and then planted as US citizens who have laid dormant for years (the plan was apparently scrapped, but the agents never deprogrammed) are suddenly awakened/activated by the reading of a certain Robert Frost passage by nutty Stalinist Donald Pleasence who gets them to carry out kamikaze sabotage missions across the US. Charles Bronson is the dour Russian agent sent to stop all the mayhem, with Lee Remick as his contact in the States. Tyne Daly is a plucky computer expert working for the American Feds, Patrick Magee is a Soviet intelligence chief.



Drab-looking but enjoyable little espionage thriller from 1977 directed by Don Siegel (“Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, “Hell is For Heroes”, “Dirty Harry”) boasts fine performances from well-cast Bronson and Pleasence, a sturdy cameo by Magee, and lively work by Daly in an ultimately superfluous role. It all sounds very silly, but Siegel and Bronson handle it all with grim-faced seriousness and dedication, so that it doesn’t quite enter camp territory.



As scripted by Peter Hyams (writer-director of “Outland” and “Capricorn One”) and Stirling Silliphant (“In the Heat of the Night”, “The Poseidon Adventure”, “The Towering Inferno”), it’s nothing brilliant, hell you probably won’t even remember it a week later, but it does intrigue in the moment. A lot of films don’t even do that. The script is based on the novel by Walter Wager (whose novel 58 Minutes served as the basis for “Die Hard 2: Die Harder”). Worth a look.



Rating: B-

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chil...
Read more

Review: Cinderella (1950)

The story of poor young Cinderella (voiced by Ilene Woods), treated as a servant by her nasty stepmother (voiced by Eleanor Audley), and dismissed by her thoroughly rotten, ugly stepsisters. Her only friends are a group of mice, who are forever being menaced by a cat named Lucifer (or as I call him, Grumpy Cheshire Cat). The King (hoping to find a wife for his charming son) is throwing a ball and every available young woman is invited to attend, and Cinderella is most excited to go. However, her stepmother and stepsisters do all they can to prevent this from happening. But with help from the mice and one fairy godmother (voiced by Verna Felton) later, and Cinderella looks set to attend the ball. You know the rest, folks.   Lovely 1950 Disney animated movie from directors Clyde Geronimi ( “Peter Pan” , “Lady and the Tramp” ), Wilfred Jackson ( “Fantasia” , “Alice in Wonderland” , “Peter Pan” ) & Hamilton Luske ( “Pinocchio” , “Fantasia” , “Peter Pan” ), that is a bit t...
Read more

Review: Jinnah

The story of Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Sir Christopher Lee) the politically moderate founder of Pakistan. A Muslim lawyer, Jinnah fought to form a separate nation from India for the Muslim minority, whilst Mahatma Gandhi (Sam Dastor) wished for India to stay united and proposed Jinnah as the new PM as a compromise. James Fox plays British viceroy Lord Mountbatten, Indira Varma plays Jinnah’s wife, and veteran bit player Vernon Dobtcheff plays a British dignitary.   Although Christopher Lee’s title performance received some critical notice and the actor himself was very proud of the work, this modestly budgeted 1998 biopic from director Jamil Dehlavi ( “Immaculate Conception” with Melissa Leo) and co-writer Farrukh Dhondy ( “Red Mercury” with Stockard Channing and Ron Silver) was largely ignored at the time and still very little-known today. Part of that is probably due to the poor marketing of the film, and difficulty in finding a distributor. It’s hard to get people to talk abo...
Read more