Based on the novel by Walter Wager, "Telefon" has not aged well because it’s so dependent on the cold war tension that existed between the USSR and the US in the Seventies. The film is basically a cat-and-mouse game with Soviet agent Major Grigori Borzov (Charles Bronson, that's right Bronson is a commie) tracking rogue Russian scientist Nicolai Dalmchimsky (Donald Pleasence) across America to prevent him from activating sleeper agents. Borzov is assisted by Barbara (Lee Remick. fresh from "The Omen") who asks more annoying questions than necessary, leading the audience to believe she may not be completely true to the motherland.
The film's middle section is dragged down by repetitive bomb scares. Dalmichimsky is working from outdated intelligence so his targets are all de-classified U.S. Military installations. Once Borzov realizes the pattern and hones in the next target the action shifts to a more linear chase that’s further heightened by Barbara’s loyalties. But the ultimate showdown is deflating because beyond some silly disguises Pleasence's Dalmichimsky is never built up to be a threat.
Director Don Siegel uses his flair for montage to craft a his action sequences without dialogue. "Telefon" is a road movie, much like Alfred Hitchcock's "Saboteur" and "North by Northwest" had their leads criss-crossing America here we see plenty of seventies architecture including San Francisco's Hyatt Regency Hotel (used in "The Towering Inferno") and a modernist house resting on top of a barren rock outcropping.
The supporting cast is uniformly good (but trapped in underwritten roles), and it’s nice to see veteran character actors Alan Badel and Patrick Magee playing snotty KGB strategists, and Tyne Daly in a small (and ultimately irrelevant role) as a computer geek.
Trivia note: The poem that activates the Russian sleeper agents was used by Quentin Tarantino in "Death Proof" as the lines Jungle Julia has her listeners recite to Butterfly. The lines are an excerpt of the poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost. "The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep."
Trivia note: The poem that activates the Russian sleeper agents was used by Quentin Tarantino in "Death Proof" as the lines Jungle Julia has her listeners recite to Butterfly. The lines are an excerpt of the poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost. "The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep."
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