I love this movie so much

Load of rubbish!!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

No-nonsense Russian agent Major Grigori Borvoz (a credible performance by Charles Bronson) gets assigned to stop deranged renegade Stalinist defector Nicolai Dalchimsky (the always reliable Donald Pleasence in fine sinister form) from carrying out his nefarious plan to trigger brainwashed sleeper undercover agents hidden throughout America from committing extreme acts of terrorism.Director Don Siegel keeps the far-fetched, but still engrossing and exciting story moving at a steady pace, makes neat use of numerous exotic locations, and stages the action scenes with his trademark skill and aplomb. Lee Remick adds plenty of charm and vitality as cheery and helpful American agent Barbara. Tyne Daly likewise delights as spunky computer whiz Dorothy Putterman. Moreover, there are sound supporting contributions from Sheree North as harried housewife Marie Wills, Patrick Magee as the stern General Strelsky, Frank Marth as shady CIA head honcho Harley Sandburg, John Mitchum as amiable mechanic Harry Bascom, Roy Jenson as the hearty Doug Stark, and Jacqueline Scott as the shrewish Mrs. Hassler. The depiction of the sleeper agents as plain everyday folks gives this picture an extra chilling edge. Lalo Schifrin's robust score does the rousing trick. Michael C. Butler's slick cinematography provides a pleasing polished look. A fun film.

The radical Russian Nicolai Dalchimsky (Donald Pleasence) steals some names and codes and flees to the United States of America with the intention of beginning the Third World War. The list is formed by ordinary American citizens that are actually brainwashed Russian agents that have been programmed fifteen years ago to destroy military bases and facilities and are triggered through a phone call with a message. The responsible for the secret program, General Strelsky (Oatrick Magee) and Colonel Malchenko (Alan Badel) summon Major Grigori "Gregg" Borzov (Charles Bronson) to travel to the United States to eliminate Dalchimsky. Gregg teams up with the Russian agent Barbara (Lee Remick) that was instructed to obey his orders but does not know what is happening. But Barbara has a secret agenda from her superiors to accomplish by the end of their assignment. "Telefon" is presently a dated rip-off of the central idea of "The Manchurian Candidate", with Russian agents with sleepy instructions and programmed to destroy but it is still engaging. Don Siegel was a master of action and "Telefon" never disappoints. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "O Telefone" ("The Telephone")

Telefon casts Charles Bronson as a KGB agent on assignment in America trying to stop Donald Pleasance from igniting World War III. Bronson is aided and abetted uneasily by CIA agent Lee Remick and the two of them get involved with each other as well as the mission at hand.It's quite a mission they have, Pleasance is an old line Stalinist and he's noticed the new regime is slowly doing away with his kind. So he knows about this operation involving 51 Manchurian candidates who are Russian sleeper agents the way Laurence Harvey was in the Manchurian Candidate. With the proper phrase these people who are under hypnosis and just living regular humdrum lives get a signal to complete a mission involving sabotage of some military installation in their area. Pleasance has come to America to set these agents off.It might have been a whole lot easier to just dial long distance once he was out of the Soviet Union, but apparently Pleasance is also getting a few jollies and really wants to see his handiwork. Bronson gets the list and follows Pleasance's trail hoping to head him off.A nice cast of talented players pulls off and makes entertaining when you think about it, a really silly Cold War era story. Pleasance as usual pulls all the stops out as the villain and Bronson is his usual menacing self. His loyal legion of fans might like Telefon, I'm kind of partial to it myself, but I recognize it's illogicality.

Good movie, good acting, well paced, somewhat rude bad guys-gosh-lots of profoundly disturbing paranoia about Russia but what they hey they are not the boy scouts, and overall an ending better than a TV dinner. Maybe not as scrumptiously delicious as Shakespeare singing Stairway in a hot tub-naughty naughty-but perhaps not as good as Star Wars either.I doubt anyone would turn into a large shrubbery watching this movie, but perhaps they might became a small eastern European compact car, if the film is not watched properly.I would expect that some people have turned into giant walnuts watching this movie, but I doubt that type of things happens much anymore.