Don't Answer the Phone!

Plot synopsis:
Former Vietnam vet, amateur bodybuilder, and talented porno-photographer Kirk Smith is a crazed killer who stalks the streets of Los Angeles, picking up young women, strangling them in lurid fashion, and sexually abusing their dead bodies. Between murders, he carries out twisted religious ceremonies, has imaginary conversations with his dead father, and weeps like a baby. He repeatedly contacts Dr. Lindsay Gale, a psychologist with a radio show as well as a private therapy practice. He calls her show, speaking with an assumed Spanish accent and complaining of chronic headaches and blackouts. He follows one of Dr. Gale's female patients home from her therapy session, and tortures her (the patient) to death. He also murders a prostitute while on the phone to Dr. Gale's show, forcing Dr. Gale to listen to the victim's cries.
Two goofy detectives named Hatcher and McCabe are charged with the task of tracking him down. When McCabe first questions Dr. Gale, his manner is brusque and unsympathetic. She develops a strong dislike for him. However, he later prevents one of her patients from committing suicide, after which Dr. Gale becomes fond of McCabe and they have a brief love affair.
Hatcher and McCabe visit a whore-and-drug-house in search of a witness who has seen the strangler leaving the scene of one of his murders, but the witness (who is a pimp and a drug dealer) attacks them and they shoot him to death without being able to question him.
Kirk Smith is interrupted at the scene of his next murder by the victim's landlady, and he leaves a portfolio of photographs behind as he flees the scene. Hatcher and McCabe show the photographs to the local pornography dealer (played by Chuck Mitchell, who would later star in Porky's); he identifies them as the work of Kirk Smith, who has provided him with high-quality pornographic pictures in the past. When the detectives search Smith's apartment, they find his pictures of Dr. Gale and realize that he has selected her to be his next victim. During this time, Smith invades Dr. Gale's home, ties her up, and terrorizes her for hours, ranting about his childhood, grabbing her breast and shouting "Shut up or I'll tear your tit off!"
McCabe goes to Dr. Gale's home just in time to rescue her. At the end of a protracted struggle, McCabe shoots Smith many times, including several times in the back. The film ends with a shot of Smith's bullet-ridden body floating in Dr. Gale's garden pool, while McCabe snarls: "Adios, creep!"

Tags: violence, cult, murder, sadist

Review:
This was obviously meant to be a standard late-70s total-waste-of-time movie, an excuse to show topless women squirming and thrashing while being strangled, but Nicholas Worth turns it into a must-see.
Don't Answer the Phone is yet another film from the late 70s and early 80s about a psychotic, demented, socially awkward killer who brutalizes women because of his "problems" - whatever those problems might be.
The police detectives who are looking for Worth - one which falls in love with the pretty radio psychiatrist that can shed light on the killer's identity - were particularly bad.
Writer / producer / director Robert Hammer builds no suspense, since we know who the killer is.He shows virtually no gore, as so much of the violence is off-screen.Yet he still manages to deliver a powerful, creepy, sleazy and disturbing movie.Nicholas Worth makes this movie as the depraved Vietnam veteran / "The Strangler."' Every scene with him is incredible to watch as he runs the emotional gamut.
Nevertheless, it also works when he shows us his "soft side" as a seemingly trustworthy Kurt Smith, photographer.The electronic music is spot-on, for the times (remember, this is the late 70s early 80s); and, the pacing and tempo is perfect for moving the story forward.Others may offer their vote for "Worst Performance" to James Westmoreland; but the fight scene at the end is brilliant; and, believable.
Another thing to note is the soundtrack, which sounds like it was lifted from a B-grade porno flick, complete with wah-wah synthesizers and the "bow-chicka-bow-bow" reprisal.Nicholas Worth, listed in the credits as "The Killer", or "The Strangler"' depending on which set you look at, delivers one of the most unintentionally hilarious performances as a deranged Vietnam veteran who likes killing young, beautiful women and then hovering over their bodies while laughing with his trademark wheezing...the guy is brilliant!
James Westmoreland does a serviceable job in the lead as a composed detective hunting a certified nut-job who's strangling (and then some) vulnerable women and phoning in his conquests to a local psychiatrist's (Gerrish) radio programme.Worth is hyper-maniacal in the antagonist role, his hulking appearance fulfilling the intimidation quotient well, whilst a few familiar faces (Haze, Frank et al) round out a capable cast.
Contrary to other reviewer's remarks, I personally didn't have a problem with Westmoreland's performance nor did I think Worth was especially remarkable in his characterisation; they and the rest of the cast manage with some fairly drab dialogue padding out what is essentially, a paper thin plot (if you excised the pointless scene fillers, DATP would barely make theatrical length).
DATP just seems like a run of the mill slasher pic with all the typical elements, including nudity, sadism, nurse stalking, PTSD, some occasional light humour (check out the brothel scene which was a laugh) and every other cliché you've ever seen in films of the ilk.
With the '07 passing of Nicholas Worth, we lost an actor whose work on Don't Answer the Phone (DATP) informed a generation of the dangerous psychological effects of war and the horrifying results of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in American troops.Still as intense as when it was first released on the gritty 42nd street trash houses of the day, DATP, though dated in respects to its treatment of women and psychology, still delivers some hardcore death scenes, not to mention a "killer" (if not repetitive) soundtrack.James Westmoreland (of "Undertaker" fame) leads a cast in what ultimately is the most scene stealing of his career (in that he has the most scenes, by number, than any other movie of his career).
Snickering Vietnam vet Kirk Smith (Nicholas Worth) is one hell of a sicko: for a living, he shoots obscene pornographic photos, and in his spare time, he strangles pretty young women BEFORE raping them.
LA detectives Lt. Chris McCabe (James Westmoreland) and Sgt. Hatcher (Ben Frank) are hot on the maniac's heels, but can they catch him before he kills his latest target, radio psychologist Dr. Lindsay Gale (Flo Lawrence)?With such a sleazy premise, Don't Answer The Phone looks set to be a classic slice of extremely offensive exploitation, but with director Robert Hammer reluctant to go that extra mile to offend, the film falls short of the high (or should that be low?) standards set by his contemporary William Lustig, whose similarly themed film, Maniac, goes all out to shock the viewer.Worth's character, Kirk Smith, is an undeniably repugnant fellow, and what he gets up to certainly ain't nice, but Hammer's approach to his patently sensationalist material is surprisingly cautious: whilst he doesn't mind showing the audience a little nudity (for example, all of the victims have their tops torn off before being choked to death), he doesn't quite seem to possess the cojonas necessary to present his sex and violence in the no-nonsense manner the genre demands.Instead, his characters simply fill us in on the salacious details through conversation: a psychic gives a graphic account of the murder and rape of one girl, offering lurid tidbits of info about Kirk's modus operandi, and several characters pass comment on the particularly explicit nature of his photography.
A few throttlings and some tits only qualify this as exploitation lite!To be fair, Don't Answer The Phone does manage to deliver a couple of scenes that almost make the grade—Kirk strangles a junkie hooker whilst she is live on air with Dr. Gale, and one topless victim is subjected to scalding by melted candle wax— but with too many other scenes pulling their punches, this film is most likely going to disappoint fans of degenerate cinema.5.5 out of 10, generously rounded up to 6 for IMDb..
Inspired by the real-life Hillside Strangler murders, it stars James Westmoreland ("Stacey") and Ben Frank ("Death Wish II") as two police detectives searching for a maniacal rapist-murderer, played to the hilt by the late, great character actor Nicholas Worth.
Worth plays Kirk Smith, a photographer by trade who in between his depraved killings likes to phone a radio psychologist named Lindsay Gale (Flo Gerrish).
Filmed largely guerrilla style in approximately 18 days, "Don't Answer the Phone" gets off to a great start; we're introduced to Smith right away, and then witness him knocking off a young nurse.
In a nutshell, this film's "plot" revolves around mentally deranged Vietnam veteran and porno photographer Kirk Smith (Nicholas Worth), who likes to ritualistically torture, rape, and strangle to death hapless young women.
For some odd reason, he becomes obsessed with radio psychiatrist Dr. Lindsay Gale (Flo Gerrish), and he soon starts knocking off her patients until he comes to her.Although it is classified as a horror film, DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE should not be compared to FRIDAY THE 13TH or HALLOWEEN.
Don't be fooled by the title: the classic slasher movie theme of phone stalking plays almost no role in the film.
At the same time, this isn't a "so bad it's good" movie, because its nasty themes (torture, rape, misogyny) are just not things that should be laughed at.
You know a movie is bad when the only halfway decent performance comes from the guy playing the killer.
The creep in "Don't Answer the Phone!", Kirk Smith, works as a pornography photographer in Hollywood, so he has easy access to credulous victims whom he stalks or picks up and then subsequently strangles and rapes post-mortem whilst performing an awkward religious ritual involving candles.
"Don't Answer the Phone" is a poor film, but it nevertheless remains endurable thanks to Nicolas Worth's oddball performance as the deranged killer.
It too much feels like writer/director Robert Hammer deliberately wants to provoke people with his almost prehistoric views on psychiatry, the LA modeling business, primitive police work and  of course  violence against women.
He likes to call in to a radio psychologist, faking a latino accent and calling himself Ramon, complaining of a headache.At least half of the movie seems devoted to the cops trying to learn who he is and stop him.
Meanwhile, psychologist Lindsay Gale receives phone calls from him under a fake accent, and works to help detectives catch the criminal.With a hokey exploitation title like "Don't Answer the Phone!," which has essentially nothing to do with the film, expectations of what this movie could offer are barred to a certain level.
Awful horror film about a Vietnam veteran (Nicholas Worth) posing as a photographer who stalks Los Angeles by strangling (and sometimes raping) young women and taunting a radio psychologist (Flo Gerrish) afterwards.
What separates this movie from the rest is the totally gonzo performance by Nicholas Worth as Kirk Smith the Hollywood strangler.
This feels like a less-exploitive version of "The Toolbox Murders", but its still pretty sleazy and ridiculous and contains within it perhaps the most deranged psycho killer performance in history.
In "Don't Answer the Phone" sleazy and fat photographer masked behind pantyhose rapes and strangles women in a various state of undress.The action takes place in the city of sin Hollywood.He lures some of his victims to his photography studio.In his spare time he enjoys lifting weights and calling in to a radio show hosted by Lindsay Gale.Sleazy and sordid serial killer movie with truly demented central performance of Nicholas Worth.The police procedural section of "Don't Answer the Phone" is deadly dull,but the stalking scenes are great and the misogyny is rampant.The film is not as gruesome as "Maniac","Don't Go in the House" or "Nightmare in a Damaged Brain",however if you like them sleazy and nasty you can't miss it.8 out of 10 because the rating should be higher..
There were a lot of horror films with the word "Don't" in the title made in the eighties, and Don't Answer the Phone is surely one of the worst of them.
The title, 'Don't Answer the Phone', doesn't really make much sense; and the only real connection between the plot and the title comes in the form of the killer's phone calls to his intended victim who works on a radio call-in show.
In "Don't Answer The Phone", just say, "You have been warned!" Kirk Smith(Nicholas Worth,"Darkman,1990" 1937-2007) is a former Vietnam War veteran who also does pornographic photography is also a strangler.
This is one of the most interesting films to be released by low budget purveyors Crown International Pictures, and it's the first one I've watched from the studio that has real power.It's reasonable to expect DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE!
If you don't get this joke right away, then go to the movie page of "The Boston Strangler" (1968) and check out the cast.It's for little things like this that "Don't Answer The Phone" gains points all over the place.
One of the movies of this era that almost joins the ranks of these movies is Robert Hammer's nasty but all around flawed 1980 film "Don't Answer the Phone!" A deeply disturbed Vietnam veteran named Kirk Smith (Nicholas Worth) has taken a shining to strangling scantily clad women in Los Angeles, all while taunting a young psychologist named Lindsey Gale (Flo Lawrence) on the radio.
This just feels like a jumbled mess from a director whose unsure of himself.In the end, "Don't Answer the Phone" is a movie caught between two worlds: it wants to be a grim psychological study, but it doesn't seem very sure of itself.
It can get quite harrowing, especially in scenes where the killer pours hot wax over a pleading naked victim.After a sudden name change to cash in on the Don't cycle (Don't Ride on Late Night Trains, Don't Look in the Basement, Don't Open the Window, Don't Go in the Woods, Don't Go Near the Park, Don't Go in the Houseetc.) The Hollywood Strangler became Don't Answer the Phone.
Killing women he believes are in need of a moral lesson, playing a cat and mouse game with an agony-aunt-type DJ after tuning into her radio station and screaming at himself in the mirror, this is one psychopath you won't forget.The lead performance by, Worth (Darkman, Dark Angel: The Accentetc.) goes so OTT in his role as Kirk Smith it makes this film worth seeking out, although Don't Answer the Phone certainly is not for all sensibilities.
Beefy, plug-ugly character actor Nicholas ("Swamp Thing," "Darkman") Worth hits marvelously messed-up maniacal mondo disgusto wacko paydirt with his juicy starring role as Kirk Smith, an impotent, psychotic, misogynistic, schizophrenic and utterly unhinged 'Nam vet rapist/strangler photographer who viciously murders assorted luckless lovely young ladies in this terrifically tawdry'n'trashy low-budget Los Angeles-set exploitation psycho horror howler.
The film follows this nasty psychopath, and his methods for finding and killing women & the detectives, McCabe & Hatcher(James Westmoreland & Ben Frank)trying to catch him.
Inept cops Lieutenant Chris McCabe (James Westmoreland) & his partner Sgt. Hatcher (Ben Frank) are on the case but going nowhere fast, when Kirk murders a prostitute on-air during psychiatrist Dr. Lindsay Gale's (Flo Gerrish) radio show she teams up with the two cops to track the killer down before he strikes again...Originally shot under the title 'The Hollywood Strangler' only for the distribution company Crown International to change it to Don't Answer the Phone!
(IE if you own a DVD player, but a DVD copy) 2) COme to IMDb.com and COme to this Page for "DONT ANSWER THE PHONE!" 3) While the movie is playing, read the comments and reviews made by people who have watched this film.Seriously, it is one of the Funniest things in the world(Especially with shots of whiskey).
Talking to a family friend about Horror movies that they were searching for on DVD,I was surprised to hear them give details about a film,which sounded like a more extreme take on an under rated Slasher Thriller called Eyes of a Stranger.Searching round on Amazon UK,I was pleased to find,that along with the cut UK edition of the movie,a completely uncut version of the film had also come out on DVD in the US,which lead to me deciding that this would be a call worth listening in to.The plot:Hearing on the news about the police discovering his 5th rape/murder victim,serial killer Kirk Smith decides to celebrate by phoning up a local radio station,and talk to the host of a psychologist program called Dr.Lindsay Gale.Putting on a fake voice and using the name "Ramone",Smith is thrilled to hear Gale give him a nervous reaction,until Lindsay begins to ask "Ramone" if he has taken the medical advice that she gave him,when "Ramone" last phoned up the show.Angered over Gale ruining his fun,Smith decides that is time for him to start searching for a new victim.Being placed by their chief officer as the investigators of the mysterious serial killer's spree,Lt. Chris McCabe and Sgt.Hatcher find themselves completely out of their dept in predicting the killer's next move.Focusing on doing extensive evidence gathering at the murder scenes,and also knocking down a number of doors,McCabe and Hatcher begin to suspect that the killer might be a fan of a local radio showView on the film:Before getting to the movie itself,I first have to give a special mention to the Scorpion Releasing DVD,which along with offering a terrific,clean uncut print of the film,also fill the DVD with a number of very informative extras,which include a great commentary by Co- producer/Co-writer/ (along with Michael Castle and actor Nicolas Worth) director Robert Hammer-who sounds like one of the most mild mannered directors of the last 20 years!.Shooting his first,and only film in 18 days,Hammer impressively overcomes the tired,misogynistic Slasher elements of the movie,by turning the second half of the film into a GrindHouse Slasher!,with Hammer and Castle giving McCabe and Hatcher's search for the killer an unexpected comedic edge,whilst also making sure that the blood of Smith's victim's solely runs in the gutter,thanks to Hammer illegal filming on the dirty,grime-covered streets of Las Angeles,which lead to this phone call being one that you wont forget for a good while..
I guess there was one time he was planning on killing, er, strangling, a woman and he had her telephone the on-air doctor, but that was her job: to answer the phone.Other than the odd and no-reason for film's title, The Strangler kinda wanders aimlessly around town looking for his next female victim – even though he claimed to had done "a lot of research (on his victims.)" All the while, two cops run around, also randomly, to catch this bad man, but in the process they mouth off the most hideously bad and intentional jokes.
I'm guessing in 1980, it was okay to make light of and joke about a man who rapes and kills women – sometimes the other way around.Now, if I didn't have such a odd thing for the mostly shirtless "the Killer/Stranger" actor, Nicholas Worth and the surprisingly good acting and depth from the obvious final victim, Flo Lawrence's Dr. Gale, this movie would be a solid 1/5 Stars.Okay, beyond my attraction, this horrible throwaway movie shan't be seen by anyone for it has no real redeeming qualities.
i didn't mind this movie.it's no classic or anything but in my opinion,it is worth watching.the acting is surprisingly good for this genre.the killer is pretty wacko.the 2 main cops are kind of humorous at times.this movie did not feel like a horror movie to me.it wasn't really graphic enough for that designation,in my opinion.but it was a good suspense movie.it's a lot better than many movies of the genre and certainly was well worth my time.it won't win any awards for originality(even for being made in 1980)but what horror movie would?i wouldn't call it a classic,though it may have that designation from some critics and viewers.one thing i will say,and I'm not sure if this is a spoiler but the movie has nothing to do with the title.for me, "Don't Answer the Phone" is a 7/10.
I also liked James Westmoreland as Detective Chris McCabe, the lead officer in the investigation, and Flo Gerrish as the beleaguered Dr. Lindsay Gale.By today's standards, DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE!