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 place 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 here are Lee Remick and Tyne Daly. The script was written by Peter Hyams (Capricorn One) and Stirling Silliphant (In the Heat of the Night).
Review of Telefon
