Telefon
Tags: brainwashing

Plot synopsis:
After the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviet Union planted a number of long-term, deep-cover sleeper agents all over the United States, spies so thoroughly brainwashed that even they did not know they were agents and can be activated only by a special code phrase (a line from Robert Frost's poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," followed by their real given names). Their mission was to sabotage crucial parts of the civil and military infrastructure in the event of conflict.
More than 20 years pass, and the Cold War gradually gives way to détente. Narrowly escaping a relentless purge of old Stalinism loyalists, Nikolai Dalchimsky (Donald Pleasence), a rogue KGB headquarters clerk, travels to America, taking with him the Telefon Book, which contains the names, addresses and telephone numbers of all the sleeper agents. He starts activating them, one by one. American counterintelligence is thrown into confusion when seemingly ordinary citizens blow up what are formerly top secret facilities that were declassified or abandoned years before, then commit suicide.
The KGB dares not tell its political leaders, much less the Americans, about its negligence in not deactivating the spy network. Major Grigori Borzov (Charles Bronson), who is selected for his photographic memory, memorizes the contents of the only other copy of the Telefon Book. He is then sent to find and stop Dalchimsky quietly before either side learns what is happening and embarrasses the KGB or possibly starts a nuclear war. He is given the assistance of only a single agent planted in America, Barbara (Lee Remick).
Eventually, Borzov discovers the method behind Dalchimsky's madness: he chooses the agents by the first letters of their hometowns, "writing" his own name in sabotage across America. Using that information, Borzov is finally able to locate Dalchimsky and kill him.
However, there are a number of twists. Barbara has orders from the KGB to assassinate Borzov once he succeeds to get rid of a dangerous loose end. She is a double agent, but when she informs her American superior, Sandburg (Frank Marth), he also tells her to kill Borzov, so she will gain the confidence of the KGB. However, she has fallen in love with her would-be target. She informs Borzov, and together, they blackmail both sides into leaving them alone, holding the threat of the remaining Telefon agents over their heads.

Review: The Robert Frost poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," utilized to trigger the drug-induced hypnotized Soviet agents to finish their mission becomes a pun for KGB agent Maj. Grigori Borzov (Bronson)when ready to give alluring Barbara (Lee Remick) a tumble in the hay.
Borzov looks KGB agent Barbara lustfully in the eyes and emphatically affirms, "Miles to go before we sleep."Though many consider the story fanciful, it is not as far fetched as some of the actual schemes concocted by overly zealous CIA and KGB officials during the Cold War, especially at the time of the eyeball to eyeball confrontation between the Soviets and the Americans during the days of U-2, the Bay of Pigs, and the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The fifty KGB agents trained at the time of the U-2 Incident to replace recently deceased Americans with similar profiles, to take out key installation sites when receiving the oral code, lines from the Robert Frost poem, are put on what seems to be permanent hold until one KGB trainer goes berserk and reopens the can of worms over a decade later, when many of the installations have been closed, converted, or moved.
Enter agents Borzov and his supposed helper, Barbara, to stop the madman, Nicolai Dalchimsky, played with his usual nefariousness by Donald Pleasence.
There's plenty of spills and thrills along the way with the seasoned actors given intelligent and often humorous lines by writer Peter Hyams whose script is based on the novel by Walter Wager.Though no one in the cast falters, even in the bit parts, Tyne Daly steals the show as Dorothy Putterman (oh, how the name fits), a computer nerd in those glorious DOS days of old before the world heard of Bill Gates.
One effect of watching this one is that you will always read Frost's "Stopping By Woods" from a very different point of view.No question, there's a whole lot of good acting in Don Siegel's "Telefon" (from Tyne Daly, for instance), but the story, from Walter Wager's novel, is, at least partly, ridiculous.
The film has got Charles Bronson in its center and he does his usual fine job as an ultra-cool Soviet major smuggled into the U.S. in order to exterminate a fellow KGB agent (Donald Pleasence) who has gone crazy there and is now endangering the whole Cold War balance system.Please note the important rôle telephones play throughout the whole film, not just for Pleasence's ambitions.
I am not going to rehash the entire plot, but let it suffice to say that we have a top Soviet Army General (played by Charles Bronson who mercifully does not even attempt a Russian accent) working together with American double agent Lee Remick, to battle forces more sinister than the current leadership of either the US or the USSR.
The renegade (Pleasence) has unearthed a 15 year-old plot that the Soviets had put into place and then abandoned in which 51 agents were brainwashed into believing that they were Americans, but who can be reactivated through verbal command to complete their missions.
Her character is not always particularly credible, but she adds tastefulness to any film and can always be counted on for good reactions (her eyes captured more light than practically anyone before or since, except maybe Meg Foster.)  There are some other decent performances in the film (such as Magee as a weary Russian general) but one that grates is Daly as a know-it-all CIA computer technician.
I have no doubt about it: I went to the U.S. premier of "Naked Gun 33 1/3" in Milwaukee (the hometown of myself and the filmmakers) at which David Zucker said that for each of their movies, they would copy plot lines directly from serious, sometimes obscure genre films like this.
The ideas this movie adapted from Walter Wager's original novel were quite creative, but I recall the acting of everyone here to be pretty bad (especially leads Bronson and Remick).
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.
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.
Bronson's double-agent assistant is Lee Remick.The plot, though not hard to follow, is a bit intricate and involves the solution of several puzzles and a good deal of travel around the country, from Denver to Akron to Los Angeles to Cambridge (NM), to some dumpy bar in rural Texas with a rattlesnake in a cage.
I think spending the dough it would have taken to include the book's ending would have helped mitigate the low budget "TV Movie" feeling "Telefon" often suffers from.
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.
"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.
"Telefon" isn't exactly the most plausible espionage thriller ever made, but it was particularly the far-fetched and flamboyant plot line, along with the acting performances and harsh violence, that kept me glued to the screen.
The "Telefon" project got pretty much forgotten during the détente era, but now the dangerously berserk Stalinist Nicolai Dalchimsky single-handedly decide to awake the "sleeper" agents and leave a trail of destruction throughout America.
Still, "Telefon" is good solid Charlie Bronson entertainment with a totally bonkers plot line!.
His performances were usually always one note.Of the few films of his I have enjoyed (see also "The Mechanic" and "Hard Times") from that era, "Telefon is a surprisingly gripping thriller even though the story is downright silly at times.
Donald Pleasance convincingly plays the bad guy and that, I think, is what makes the movie work.
Also on hand is Lee Remick as an American agent assigned to help Bronson but who also has a hidden agenda of her own.Director Don Seigel handles the silly material in a straightforward manner never taking things too seriously.
Dalchimski heads to America to begin the process, so the Soviets send Colonel Borzov over there to put a stop to it before it causes a world war three.A curiously low-key, but plodding espionage cold war thriller (taken off Walter Wager's novel) by stalwart director Don Siegel.
It's quite a spotty cross-country trip (spending a lot of time with Charles Bronson and Lee Remick), which gathers a head of steam before letting go the in the final third when the two parties finally come to blows (some underground car parking) and then delivering a well-staged, but underwhelming climax.The plot-work (by Peter Hyams and Stirling Silliphant) is quite constructive (if outrageous) with its sober script consisting of humorous quirks, but Siegel's efficiently grounded direction tries to cleverly milk out the dramatic suspense, but is forced to sourcing the material in an mechanical fashion.
The music was composed by no other Lalo Schifrin (who's done quite a few scores for Siegel --- "Dirty Harry" (1971) comes to mind), as he chips in with an engrossingly simmering and characteristic score that works with its dangerous tone.The performances are acceptably spot-on with a sturdy as ever Charles Bronson and Lee Remick shines with her affable presence.
Donald Pleasance gleefully turns it up as the rogue Russian agent, but in the end I wished there was a little more to his character.
Also if you look at the cast there are some regulars, if only used in small parts that feature in other Bronson and Clint Eastwood films with the likes of character actors Ed Bakey, John Mitchum and Roy Jenson.Hypnotically established gear work that's leisurely paced, but bestows little to no fireworks..
Charles Bronson, (Maj. Grigori Borzov),"Twinky",'69 played a Russian KGB agent who was assigned to stop a possible World Ward III with the United States.
Lee Remick,(Barbara),"No Way to Treat A Lady",'68, played the role of an agent for the United States and was assigned to work with Maj. Grigori.
Charles Bronson plays a KGB agent with a mission to stop deranged (whatelse?) Donald Pleasence from setting off a group of terrorists attacks by activating brain-washed agents via the telephone.
The film has a lot of good things going for it, like a great plot.
Bronson plays a Russian intelligence major assigned to stop programmed Stalinist agents from carrying out a possible doomsday plan.
Problem is if Pleasance is not stopped he could well set off a nuclear catastrophe.The movie has two elements from earlier Cold War films: The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and Dr. Strangelove (1964).
Fair Bronson movie that drags due to bad screenplay and bad script.But the story was good and so were the performances by the lead actors.Tough Bronson and sexy Remick have good chemistry here and we kind of wish to see more of them together at the end of the movie.Regarding the accent of Bronson,there are Russians out there (contrary to popular ignorant belief) that know how to speak fluent English thank you and when we have the scenes where he is talking to a fellow Soviet comrade,that is what is called conveient interpretation.Of coarse it would be much better if they forced Bronson to speak Russian for those particular scenes and then have subtitles in English but that was unfortunately not done.Youy can tell the budget here was limited but it is effective for pleasing the spy story fans as well as fans of suspense and the man Charles Bronson.......
It's not really followed up) Bronson was strictly "mission first" during 90 % of the movie, and immediately set the tone by asking Barbara not to be "so damned cheerful." But the American sun and beautiful all American girl Lee Remick had no trouble at all to melt the Soviet ice, and working at a détente at personal level.
Charles Bronson usually excels when he's surrounded by top talent on his action films, and on this explosive political thriller he has Don Siegel as director, Peter Hyams and Stirling Silliphant as the screenwriters (adapting Walter Wager's novel) and Lee Remick as his co-star (one assumes Bronson might have preferred wife and frequent co-star Jill Ireland for this role, but Remick fills the bill nicely).
Plot concerns "sleeper agents" (or Russian spies) placed all over the US during the Cold War, average-seeming men and women who have been brainwashed into believing they are ordinary but who can be 'activated' by special code into sabotaging military or civil structures and facilities--followed by their own suicides.
Donald Pleasence is the sinister KGB clerk who has come to America in hopes of straining US-Russian relations by methodically setting off agents over the telephone to cause destruction in various American cities.
Then I remembered having read the novel which was quite good but the movie went in another way and my disappointment was to see that the young main characters from the book were transformed into middle aged spies.
The middle is quite boring in some parts."Telefon" tells the story of a uncontrolled Stalinist Soviet agent named Dalchimsky (Donald Pleasence) who wants to cause the 3rd World War by activating Communist field agents living in U.S. and making them explode strategical military targets.
Following his tracks are a Soviet Major played by Charles Bronson and a American CIA Agent played by Lee Remick.
The good reason to watch this movie is that you're gonna see a different side of Charles Bronson, here he doesn't have that image of tough guy and he has some funny lines in the scenes with Remick.
Donald Pleasence plays the usual sinister guy but the problem was that his character wasn't too much developed in the book and throughout the movie you're gonna see him repeating Frost's poem and you'll never gonna see his character's motivations.
Tough guy Charles Bronson tries to track down nerdy Donald Pleasance before he triggers World War III via activating brain-washed, embedded KGB-planted saboteurs.
The beautiful Lee Remick plays an American double-agent as Bronson's US partner, who's willing to kill *if* it will stop WWIII.
The plot is good and the actors Bronson, General Strelsky (Patrick Mcgee) are good but the movie has gone out of time.
Charles Bronson as a Russian KGB agent....?.
as a recent fan of charlie bronson, i'd have to say this was a little bit of a stretch for me....personally i think charlie is the all american man, not to handsome, not ugly, soft spoken and kind of funny lookin'....he reacts wrongly to most situations but i'll be darned if i don't love him anyway.in this installment in the bronson legacy he plays a kgb agent trying to stop the world from being blown up by super socially inept bad guy, donald plesance.
Wanting to stop him at all costs, the KGB sends one of their top agents, "Major Grigori Borzov" (Charles Bronson) to the United States with orders to kill Dalchimsky before he can accomplish this scheme.
Assisting Major Borzov is a beautiful double agent by the name of "Barbara" (Lee Remick) who has orders to kill Major Borzov as soon as he accomplishes his top-secret mission.
Charles Bronson gives one of his better performances and Lee Remick adds some fairly nice scenery as well.
**SPOILERS** Whatever made high ranking KBG office clerk Nicolai Dalchimsky, Donald Pleasence,go off the deep end is never really explained in the movie "Telefon.
What's even worse Dalchisky has the code name for each agent that if he or she is told what it is will set them of to, like a bunch of mindless suicide bombers, blow themselves up together with the US military installations they were programed to destroy!Both the KGB and CIA work together in "Telefon" to stop Dalchimsky's madness by getting their two top agents Major Gigori Borzov, Charles Bronson, and Agent Barbara, Lee Remic, to both work together in stopping him.
Dalchimsky even went as far as having some two dozen top Soviet military and KGB personnel knocked offed which originally alerted the CIA with the help of their top computer whiz Dorothy Pullerman, Tyne Daly, of just what he's up to!***SPOILERS From This Point On**** The movie has Brozov and Brabara, posing as man and wife, chasing the slippery Dalchimsky from one major US city to another until they finally track the crazed psycho down in this little out of the way town in Texas.
Bronson is given more lines in the movie then he usually has which makes his acting far more creditable with him not having to work over or gun down some dozen bad guys to keep him focused.
The beautiful Lee Remic as US CIA Agent Barbara more then holds her own as Bronson's, or Borzov, partner.
To also insure that the both CIA and KGB doesn't get any bright ideas, in offing them, Borzov & Barbara also destroy the list of the remaining Soviet Agents!
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.
It brings to mind the old saying "they don't make them like they used to anymore", as it takes its time to set up the (ingenious) story and build the relationship between the two central characters: Charles Bronson and Lee Remick have a genuine rapport, and Charlie in particular gives one of his best performances, both repeating his usual tough-and-taciturn persona and subtly having fun with it.
On the side of the flaws, Tyne Daly is cute as a computer expert but her scenes don't amount to much, and there is an inexplicable scene near the end where Bronson deliberately "triggers" a sleeper Russian agent (instead of protecting him, or sending him away, or hell, even just knocking him out for a while) and then, of course, he has to kill him.
Donald Pleasance is the rogue spy activating these sleeper agents with a series of phone calls, and Bronson is the bad-ass Russian Major determined to stop him.
He gets sent to America where he partners up with CIA Agent/love-interest Lee Remick.
The production values don't seem very good- like many Bronson quickies- and the movie has a made-for-TV visual look about it.
(Take THAT, PETA!) For a fun movie check out "Telefon," along with Bronson's classic "Death Wish" and the awesome "Mr. Majestyk"!GRADE: B-.
The computerized turquoise font in the credits is a good start (there will be a lot of clicking computer screens, and also techie Tyne Daly thrown in).A long scene between Bronson and Remick takes place in the most hideous motel room in movie history.