A suspenseful and thrilling spy movie with chills , frantic action , explosion , pursuits , plot twists and excitement enough .A KGB agent named Maj. Grigori Borzov (Charles Bronson) is assigned to stop the nefarious activities in America of a hardline Stalinist agent (Donald Pleasence) who has practical and very sinister plans of his own to reinstigate the Cold War by using infiltrated agents who reactivate themselves when they hear certain coded words. They're seemingly ordinary people after receiving a phone call go out and destroy key American military installations. They'll do anything to stop Telefon !. The operation that can trigger 51 human time bombs. The Most Explosive Picture of the Year! They'll do anything to stop Telefon. Your next phone call may be your last!
Wonderful toughly eccentric thriller with noisy action, nail-biting scenes, violence, twists and turns. The story moves with pace from Russia -though actually shot in Finland well photographed by Robert Butler- to a wide variety of places in the US. Something rather out of the ordinary run of spy thrillers, this movie also covers a lot of territory so far as locations concerned. Charles Bronson gives a nice acting in his usual style as a Russian officer is sent to the U. S. to try and stop sleeper agents who will mindlessly attack government entities. Charles Bronson in his ordinary tough role , he was at his best period with the ¨Death Wish¨series and while playing some 70s westerns ; his westerns made during the 1970s include Chino by John Sturges (1973) , Red sun (1971) , Chato the Apache by Michael Winner (1972), From noon till three by Francis D Gilroy (1976), Nevada Express by Tom Gries (1975) and The White Buffalo by J. L. Thompson (1977) . The star is partnered by attractive Lee Remick who almost steals the show , Donald Pleasence as as the diabolical mastermind who attempts to use hypnotized Americans to commit sabotage , while Alan Badel , Patrick Magee are really effective as high officials in the Russian secret police and the dynamic Tyne Daly , later of TV's Cagney and Lacey, as CIA computer analyst is memorable , giving a very sympathetic acting . Along with other secondaries such as Sheree North, Frank Marth , Helen Camp , Roy Jenson, John Carter, Jacqueline Scott, and John Mitchum.
Still on a roll after ¨Dirty Harry¨ hit , Donald Siegel turns into an on-the-mark classic and well-paced yarn about cold war espionage and a threatening world conspiracy . Donald was a splendid director who excelled in all kinds of genres as Thriller : ¨Escape from Alcatraz¨, ¨Telefon¨, ¨Madigan¨, ¨Rough cut¨, ¨Private hell¨, ¨The black windmill¨, ¨Coogan's bluff¨, ¨Jinxed¨ . Noir Film as ¨The big steal¨, ¨Riot in cell block eleven¨ . Western as ¨Flamingo Star¨, ¨The shootist¨, ¨The beguiled¨, ¨Two mules for Sister Sara¨. And the classy SciFi : ¨Invasion of body snatchers¨, among others. Rating : 6.5/10 . Worthwhile watching. Essential and indispensable seeing for Charles Bronson and Lee Remick fans.
Wonderful toughly eccentric thriller with noisy action, nail-biting scenes, violence, twists and turns. The story moves with pace from Russia -though actually shot in Finland well photographed by Robert Butler- to a wide variety of places in the US. Something rather out of the ordinary run of spy thrillers, this movie also covers a lot of territory so far as locations concerned. Charles Bronson gives a nice acting in his usual style as a Russian officer is sent to the U. S. to try and stop sleeper agents who will mindlessly attack government entities. Charles Bronson in his ordinary tough role , he was at his best period with the ¨Death Wish¨series and while playing some 70s westerns ; his westerns made during the 1970s include Chino by John Sturges (1973) , Red sun (1971) , Chato the Apache by Michael Winner (1972), From noon till three by Francis D Gilroy (1976), Nevada Express by Tom Gries (1975) and The White Buffalo by J. L. Thompson (1977) . The star is partnered by attractive Lee Remick who almost steals the show , Donald Pleasence as as the diabolical mastermind who attempts to use hypnotized Americans to commit sabotage , while Alan Badel , Patrick Magee are really effective as high officials in the Russian secret police and the dynamic Tyne Daly , later of TV's Cagney and Lacey, as CIA computer analyst is memorable , giving a very sympathetic acting . Along with other secondaries such as Sheree North, Frank Marth , Helen Camp , Roy Jenson, John Carter, Jacqueline Scott, and John Mitchum.
Still on a roll after ¨Dirty Harry¨ hit , Donald Siegel turns into an on-the-mark classic and well-paced yarn about cold war espionage and a threatening world conspiracy . Donald was a splendid director who excelled in all kinds of genres as Thriller : ¨Escape from Alcatraz¨, ¨Telefon¨, ¨Madigan¨, ¨Rough cut¨, ¨Private hell¨, ¨The black windmill¨, ¨Coogan's bluff¨, ¨Jinxed¨ . Noir Film as ¨The big steal¨, ¨Riot in cell block eleven¨ . Western as ¨Flamingo Star¨, ¨The shootist¨, ¨The beguiled¨, ¨Two mules for Sister Sara¨. And the classy SciFi : ¨Invasion of body snatchers¨, among others. Rating : 6.5/10 . Worthwhile watching. Essential and indispensable seeing for Charles Bronson and Lee Remick fans.