Main Cast: Charles Bronson, Lee Remick, Donald Pleasence, Tyne Daly, Alan Badel
Release Year: 1977
Country: US
Run Time: 103 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Don Siegel took over the directing chores from Peter Hyams on this taut cold war action film, based on the novel by Walter Wager. With the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union thawing, old KGB hard-liner Nicolai Dalchimsky (Donald Pleasence) activates a group of Americans who were brainwashed twenty years earlier to blow up United States defenses when a passage from a Robert Frost poem is recited to them. When bombs go off at an abandoned United States defense installation, the Kremlin realizes that they have a rogue KGB agent on their hands who is trying to re-ignite the cold war. To stop him, the Russians send out KGB agent Grigori Borzov (Charles Bronson). Accompanying him is KGB double agent Barbara (Lee Remick). As the two agents try to stop Nicolai from starting World War III, they find time to fall in love with each other. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Review
This Cold War thriller has plenty of spy intrigue and action yet is strangely uninvolving. The reason for this problem lies in Telefon's script, which focuses on plot at the expense of characterization: The viewer never gets a chance to understand what drove Dalchimsky to his genocidal mania or why Borzov struggles to avoid any personal involvements in his life. As a result, the film's array of twists and action scenes lack dramatic weight because there is no human element to give them a spark. Despite this key flaw, Telefon remains watchable for a few reasons. The first is Don Siegel's skillful direction, which keeps things rolling at a snappy pace and creates a number of snazzy action set pieces in the process (the best is a hotel chase that is capped with a memorable car stunt in the hotel garage). The second reason is the stellar cast: Bronson is a typically solid action hero, Pleasence manages to make his stock character believably creepy, and Remick gives the film some much-needed warmth as Borzov's mismatched but skillful American ally. All in all, Telefon is probably a little too dated and tame for most modern viewers but it offers enough well-crafted thrills to please action buffs. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide
Patrick Magee - Gen. Strelsky; Sheree North - Marie Wills; John Mitchum - Bascom; Ed Bakey - Carl Hassler; Hank Brandt - William Enders; Carl Byrd - Navy Lieutenant; Helen Page Camp - Emma Stark; Regis J. Cordic - Doctor; Jeff David - Maitre d'; Cliff Emmich - Highway Patrolman; Burton Gilliam - Gas Station Attendant; John Hambrick - TV Newsman; Roy Jenson - Doug Stark; Ake Lindman - Lt. Alexandrov; Frank Marth - Harley Sandberg; Jim Nolan - Appliance Store Clerk; Kathleen O'Malley - Mrs. Maloney; George Petrie - Hotel Receptionist; Robert Phillips - Highway Patrolman; Tom Runyon; Derek Rydall - Mrs. Wills' Child; Jacqueline Scott - Mrs. Hassler; Iggie Wolfington - Father Stuart Diller; Carmen Zapata - Nurse; Alex Sharp - Martin Callender; Peter Weiss - Radar Operator; Al Dunlap - Taxi Driver; John Carter - Stroller; Ville-Veikko Salminen - Russian Steward; Lew Brown - Petty Officer
Credit
William F. O'Brien - Art Director, Jane Robinson - Costume Designer, Luster Bayless - Costume Designer, Edna Taylor - Costume Designer, David Shamroy Hamburger - First Assistant Director, Don Siegel - Director, Douglas Stewart - Editor, Lalo Schifrin - Composer (Music Score), Ted Haworth - Production Designer, Michael C. Butler - Cinematographer, James B. Harris - Producer, Robert R. Benton - Set Designer, Joe Day - Special Effects, Michael J. Kohut - Sound/Sound Designer, Wiliam L. McCaughey - Sound/Sound Designer, Aaron Rochin - Sound/Sound Designer, Alfred J. Overton - Sound/Sound Designer, Paul R. Baxley, Jr. - Stunts Coordinator, Peter Hyams - Screenwriter, Stirling Silliphant - Screenwriter, Walter Wager - Book Author
During the Cold War of the 1950s, the Soviet Union planted a number of long-term, deep-cover sleeper agents all over the United States, spies so thoroughly brainwashed that even they didn't know they were agents; they could only be activated by a special code phrase (a line from Robert Frost's poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" followed by their real given names). Their mission was to sabotage crucial parts of the civil and military infrastructure in the event of nuclear war.
Over twenty years pass, and the Cold War gradually gives way to détente. Nikolai Dalchimsky (Donald Pleasence), a rogue KGB officer, defects to America, taking with him the Telefon Book, which contains the names, addresses and telephone numbers of all the agents. He starts activating them one by one. American counterintelligence is thrown into confusion when seemingly-ordinary citizens (even a clergyman) start blowing up what are, in some cases, long-abandoned facilities and commit suicide right afterwards.
The KGB dares not tell its political leaders, much less the Americans, about its negligence in not deactivating the spy network. Major Grigori Borizov (Charles Bronson), who is selected for his photographic memory, memorizes the contents of the only other copy of the Telefon Book and is sent to find and stop Nikolai Dalchimsky quickly and quietly, before the politicians on either side learn what is going on and either embarrass the KGB or start a full scale nuclear war. He is given the assistance of only a single agent planted in America, Barbara (Lee Remick).
Eventually, Borizov discovers the method behind Dalchimsky's madness: he chooses the agents by the first letters of their hometowns, "writing" his own name in sabotage across America. Using this information, Borizov is finally able to track Dalchimsky down and kill him.
However, there are a number of twists. Barbara has orders from the KGB to assassinate Borizov once he succeeds in his mission, in order to get rid of a dangerous loose end. She is a double agent, but when she informs her American superiors, they also tell her to kill Borizov; they want her to gain the confidence of the KGB. However, she has fallen in love with her would-be target. She informs Borizov, and together they blackmail both sides into leaving them alone, holding the threat of the remaining Telefon agents over their heads.
As parts of the film were shot in Finland, there are several cameo appearances by Finnish movie stars, most notably Ansa Ikonen, arguably the most popular leading lady in the history of the country's cinema.
The city skyline depicting Houston, Texas in the film is actually Great Falls, Montana, where the majority of the film was shot. The exploding building in one scene is actually the controlled demolition of the old Paris Gibson Junior High School in Great Falls.
