I have not seen Telefon, but as I am a fan of the works of director Don Seigel, actor Charles Bronson, and screenwriter Peter Hyams, I am certainly intrigued to see this Cold War tale of espionage. After the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviets set up sleeper agents within the United States. Over 20 years later, rouge KGB agent Nikolai Dalchimsky (Donald Pleasence) starts to activate those agents so they may commit acts of terrorism across the country. Not wanting to tell their leaders or the Americans, the KGB sends Major Grigori Borzov (Charles Bronson) to stop Dalchimsky before his actions launch World War III.
Buy Telefon starring Charles BronsonOther titles of interest:
The Road to Hong Kong: The seventh and final Road picture sees Bing Crosby and Bob Hope take on the spy genre when Hope is inadvertently given the stolen plans for Russian rocket fuel when he is mistaken for an agent of the Third Echelon. Longtime co-star of the series, Dorothy Lamour is replaced by Joan Collins. According to her Lamour’s autobiography, narrow-minded Crosby thought Lamour too old at 48 to be a leading lady, yet somehow was fine with he and Hope being leading men at 59. Hope refused to do the picture without Lamour so she appears in an extended cameo.
Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace: The Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton), Ben, Polly, and Jamie, the latter on his first adventure as a companion after meeting the TARDIS crew in the Scottish Highlands in 1746, arrive in the fabled city of Atlantis. They encounter Zaroff, a scientist who plots to destroy the Earth by draining its ocean supply. Am very curious where Zaroff plans on going if he’s successful. This video release sees the episodes use animation for the missing portions.
Eddie Murphy: Raw: Directed by Robert Townsend, Murphy’s second comedy special was recorded in New York City in 1987. After a pre-recorded sketch, Murphy runs through a numbers of topics, including responses to material in his previous special, Delirious. I imagine it would outrage the social media folks who get outraged at stand-up comedy.
Odds Against Tomorrow: Robert Wise directs this marvelous film noir about ex-cop David Burke (Ed Begley) who plans a bank robbery with ex-con and racist Earle Slater (Robert Ryan) and African-American nightclub entertainer Johnny Ingram (Harry Belafonte). The odds of them getting away with it are against them.
