Telefon (1977)

	Directed by: Don Siegel	COUNTRY USA GENRE Spy/Action NORWEGIAN TITLE Telefon RUNNING TIME 103 minutes
	Produced by: James B. Harris
	Written by (based on the novel by Walter Wager): Peter Hyams Stirling Silliphant

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Major Grigori Borzov	Charles Bronson	½
Barbara	Lee Remick	½
Nikolai Dalchimsky	Donald Pleasence	½
Dorothy Putterman	Tyne Daly
Colonel Malchenko	Alan Badel
General Strelsky	Patrick Magee	½
Marie Wills	Sheree North	-
Harley Sandburg	Frank Marth	-
Emma Stark	Helen Page Camp	-
Doug Stark	Roy Jenson	-
Mrs. Hassler	Jacqueline Scott	-
Carl Hassler	Ed Bakey	-
Harry Bascom	John Mitchum	-

Review

Don Siegel tried his hand at the political paranoia thriller which was in vogue at the time, and this time we're served the Cold War spy version. Siegel recruited the two most Soviet-looking things he could find short of the real thing: Finland and Charlie Bronson. And this along with an absolute disregard for the language barrier is ample proof of the film's utter Americanness. You may think that pitting Bronson as a Soviet agent against another arch-Russian baddie (Donald Pleasence) and placing them both in the United States would be a good idea, but it soon becomes clear that a tired-looking Bronson is miscast and a little out of his depth here. He and Siegel steer what could have been an enjoyable script into rather boring spy pulp territory, with unimpressive action and visual effects to boot. The only actors who really make the most of what they've got to work with are Lee Remick and Tyne Daly. The script was written by Peter Hyams (Capricorn One) and Stirling Silliphant (In the Heat of the Night).