This is How Movies Should Be Made

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

It isn't often that I run into a Bette Davis film that I haven't seen, but when I do, it's a real treat. This time, however, Davis is only part of an ensemble, and the actors and actresses put together a wonderful story.The premise is rather simple -- a husband (Gary Merrill) who has walked out on his adulterous wife is on an air flight which has to make an emergency landing overnight (wow, was air travel primitive in 1952!) and gets to know three other passengers fairly well -- a stripper (Shelley Winters), a disgraced doctor (Michael Rennie), and a somewhat overbearing jokester salesman (Keenan Wynn). The next morning, after taking off again, the plane crashes, and of the four, only Merrill survives. Merrill then decides to contact each of the other's closest relative to tell them about their loved one's last hours. Rennie's son has run away thinking that his mother didn't love his father and drove him out...he solves that issue. Winters' second rate son-singer (Craig Stevens) and mother-in-law (Evelyn Varden)...well, let's just say that this segment is done in a very entertaining way. And finally, Keenan Wynn's wife is now a bedridden cripple...and she helps Merrill save his own marriage. I remember Gary Merrill mostly as a good television actor. The last time I saw him in a film ("Another Man's Poison), I thought he was so bad that I gave the movie a "1" rating. But here, in this film, I thought he was great, and of course, at the time he was married to Bette Davis. I've never been a fan of Shelley Winters, but she does "okay" here). I always felt Michael Rennie was underrated as an actor; he's good here. I never cared for Keenan Wynn, but he does his job here. Evelyn Varden is a hoot here! Beatrice Straight is a character actress I usually enjoy, but here I felt there was something forced in her performance as Rennie's wife. This film demonstrates why Craig Stevens was never much more than a B actor, despite his good looks. Bette Davis -- who doesn't get top billing here -- is good, although I did not find this to be one of her memorable roles. Interestingly, Hugh Beaumont (the father in "Leave It To Beaver" has a small, uncredited -- though important -- role here; I never understood why he wasn't a more successful character actor.I liked this film quite a bit. In a sense it was one of the very early disaster films!

A tearjerker directed in a lavish, leisured style by Negulesco, it has one of Shelley Winters' most playful and appealing roles. The flashback at the Carr Club, when Evelyn Varden remembers how her son's wife left home, is riveting comedy.Gary Merrill, who plays the runaway husband, reminded me a bit of Mitică Popescu's resigned, calm style. He was the kind of man who would marry an intelligent woman.Shelley Winters, Beatrice Straight and Bette Davis are wonderful.Bette Davis is breathtaking as the bedridden widow. There's also a hint that her heartrending story was as embellished as the counselor's owns.Keenan Wynn delivers a colorful performance.Binky, Hoke, Fortness' widow are delightful characters.The movie has a healing effectiveness, first of all because of its decent and likable characters, and is, indeed, a pinnacle of old school craft; therefore, it seems to have disappointed the leading American reviewers, but was a success at the Venice Festival. Crowther's quibbling, curmudgeon review shows that even experienced critics had came to object to flawless craftsmanship, and to be disappointed by goodness .I have enjoyed it enormously, and felt restored. I have found it believable as drama, and reasonably classy.

This is a lesser-known movie that was slipped in with The Bette Davis Collection, Vol. 2 but hers was really a supporting role. It's more of an ensemble piece, with good performances all around, but especially by the three Oscar-winning actresses, who play different sorts of wives.Bette Davis gives a restrained and touching performance as a paraplegic widow who tells the story of how her devoted husband took her back despite her unfaithfulness prior to her accident. Beatrice Straight, in her first movie role, is convincing in her straightforward (haha) role of a woman who has just lost her husband and might also be losing her child.Shelley Winters, because of whom I had bought this movie, brings her real-life bubbliness (I've read her autobiography) to her role of a wife who was returning to her husband after trying and failing at a showbiz career. She has a fun fantasy sequence that shows off her bouncy side, but more importantly, she also gets to reveal her vulnerable side when she wonders if her husband will take her back.Phone Call might've been planned to be a tear-jerker, but I feel its story - though entertaining - doesn't quite reach either melodrama or genuine poignancy, so it's more of a showcase of stars, especially if you're a Davis or Winters fan.

"Phone call from a stranger" is an unique movie.However much I search my memory,I cannot find a movie like this one,with the exception of Peter Weir's remarkable (and overlooked ,people liking weepies such as "dead poets society" best)"Fearless"(1993) where James Bridge,being a survivor from a plane crash ,calls his life into question.Exactly what Gary Merill does in "Phone call" :there's no doubt about it,Negulesco's work was ahead of its time .Using "subjective "flashbacks (the over possessive mother remembering her daughter-in-law in an almost eerie scene),a disturbing atmosphere in the first part -in spite of a good share of humor- on the plane or in the airport,a complex screenplay including an unexpected last scene - The photograph of Bette Davis wearing a swimsuit is a stroke of genius-,Negulesco made a sleeper which young generations will discover (no remake needed ,please).When we meet the hero,he is not that nice .By changing the others' life (the last picture of Beatrice Straight and Ted Donaldson is deeply moving ,and at the same time avoids pathos which mars melodrama so badly with any lesser talent)he will learn sympathy for the others,compassion and above all forgiving.That will be his last call for tonight :words of pardon;when you see broken families,all you've got to do is thank God to have yours.As Christ said: He who never sinned ......