Don't Answer the Phone! (1980)

Looking into the mind of a strangler is very dark and disturbing. In the streets of Los Angeles, that would be a nightmare. 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. He would pick up young women, strangle them, then have his way with the corpse. His next victims are patients of a radio psychologist/private therapist(Flo Lawrence). He stalks them, terrifies them, strangles them, and perform religious acts. Now two cops form a task force to capture or stop this maniac. The big break comes when Kirk carelessly leaves behind the portfolio near the victim's body. After meeting with an employer of pornographic shop owner, they realized they got their man. It is pretty obvious that they got the creep, it's a very good movie, not for everyone, but perfect for the enthusiasts of thriller movies. I consider this a cult classic. 4 out of 5 stars

I got this movie on the X-Rated Kult label (German) as part of my "big box" collection (i.e. Continental Video, ThrillerVideo, Wizard Video, etc). The closest they have to those boxes in the disc-era come from Germany and Austria. It looks/sounds pretty good, but I haven't compared it to the (newer) US discs.I wasn't expecting much, but this turned out to be a GOOD movie. Not "good" in the sense that it is not stupid. Good in the sense that it keeps you entertained from the start to finish. All of the characters are idiots to some extent and that makes them a lot more fun to watch.It's not a "mystery" any more than your standard "Friday the 13th" sequel, so there's not much in the terms of spoilers I could think of in those terms. You know from the very beginning who the killer is. ...and Nicholas Worth makes one of the coolest "bad guys" you've ever seen. He'd definitely make the Top-10 if there was one. I would try to describe him, but cannot really find the words. This is as good as I could come up with: He is BIG (muscular), SCARY (crazy, crazy, crazy), MEAN (he IS a serial killer) and DUMB. The story mainly just follows the guy around killing women, always leaving a memento with their corpses. He is also obsessed with a female psychiatrist. He will call her radio show often and will seek out her patients as victims. She works with the police, knowing the killer will call again, in order to protect herself and her female patients. The cops and other officials are rather dimwitted, sexist and clueless too boot.A lot of those plot pieces sound like they'd be good in a giallo or some other mystery, only "we" know who the killer is the whole time... So the main thing you do with this movie is just watch the dumb-as-rocks cops and the slightly smarter lady psychiatrist try to figure out who the killer is and stop him. It takes longer than you'd expect, as anybody that catches so much as a glance at Worth knows that he is one screwed-up freak! And he gets out- and-about in the city, not lurking in some shadowy house most of the time or anything like that. I guess complete, creepy weirdos must have been common in LA back then.So you should watch it. It's got great late-1970's LA locations, sleaze, stupidity, trashiness, a little suspense and some cool music.

This film might as well have been titled: "Show Me Your Tits And Then I Kill You", because that's the killer's plain modus operandi, time after time, with no exception. Lots of women bare their breasts in this film, and they all get strangled for it. The disturbed killer is a Vietnam veteran (how original) with severe mommy & daddy issues (even more original) and scarily portrayed by Nicolas Worth (the guy honestly comes across as cunning, unpredictable and plain nuts). Worth has developed a bit of a cult status as an actor himself, having starred in a couple of early Wes Craven films and even Sam Raimi's "Darkman" (1990). The title of "Don't Answer The Phone" is a bit of a head-scratcher, as hardly any phone rings in this film. There's a psychiatrist lady who has a radio show, and at one point Killer Worth calls her up and strangles a woman, live on the air. Perhaps that explains the movie title to some extend. In the end, "Don't Answer The Phone" is glorious trash, both demented & ridiculous. And well, you may add misogynistic to that as well. While watching it, I experienced flashbacks to other films widely ranging from Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver" (1976) over William Lustig's "Maniac" (1980) to Abel Ferrara's "Bad Lieutenant" (1992). But "Don't Answer The Phone" by far can't compete with any of those. It's not exactly a good film, but it manages to keep the attention of the viewer. Aside from the naked women, the strangulations and Worth acting all crazy, there's an amusing homicide cop-duo very determined to capture this maniac. Their adventures alone, are worth it already. And some of the dialogue is grin-inducing (and I'm not even talking about what all Worth gets to utter). At one point the cops are looking for clues out on the streets. Upon interrogating a bum who might know something, one cop sarcastically answers: "The last time this guy gave us a tip, he told us that the Boston Strangler was Tony Curtis.". Way to go script writer! 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. Just wait for that scene where the cop-duo enters a brothel to look for a suspect. In one room there's a coke-deal going on and the criminals get alerted in time. Panic ensues, cocaine starts flying all across the room and one bimbo who wants to get rid of the evidence doesn't know any better than to start snorting the whole amount of spilled coke on the desk. Then when the cops enter and catch her snorting, she goes "Wooowie!" with a big smile on her face while lashing out with a whip. Not much later, the two cops shoot the suspect. Both of them shoot numerous time. He's dead, so one cop sighs while saying something along the lines of "Now we're gonna be stuck all night doing paper work on this one". The other cop goes: "What do you mean, 'we'? I missed." I had no idea total exploitation trash could be this funny. Either way, it makes "Don't Answer The Phone" very much worth a watch.

Don't Answer the Phone (1980)* 1/2 (out of 4) I first watched this film years ago and hated it so why am I watching it again? Because the old Rhino DVD was the edited, TV-cut of the film so I decided to be fair and watch the film uncut. The story is pretty simple as a Vietnam vet (Nicholas Worth) goes around L.A. breaking into houses where he rapes and murders the women inside. A doctor/radio personality (Flo Lawrence) and her boyfriend cop (James Westmoreland) try to find the killer but more and more bodies keep piling up. Even in its uncut form this is still a pretty bland slasher film. It's unique in a few ways but in the end this is just a silly exploitation movie with lots of nudity and some mild violence. Director/writer Hammer was apparently trying to make this based on the case of the Hillside Stranglers but the story here doesn't contain anything overly interesting. It's funny that this would be released the same year as William Lustig's MANIAC as both feature "personal" stories of sick men who kill women. The Lustig film is a masterpiece to me and this here really comes as weak as we really don't get to know anything about the killer. There are scenes of him crying and being upset about what he's doing yet we still don't learn anything. It doesn't help matters that the filmmakers are obviously wanting to cash in on the slasher craze as we get several scenes of him out stalking women yet these scenes are handled so poorly that you have to wonder why no one catches this guy. He stalks one woman during the daylight, wondering all over the outside of her house yet no one notices. He ends up with a hooker in a motel yet no one never notices him leaving and this is after he gets into a fight with her pimp (in a hilarious scene). Even if you wanted to take the personal stuff out, you're still not left with a very good slasher because the film really lacks any gore or creepiness. In the end there's really not much here so I'm still trying to figure out how it has gained a minor cult following over the years. Worth isn't too bad as the killer as he at least makes the guy menacing. Westmoreland gets a few good scenes but he doesn't have too much to work with. Lawrence is bland in her role but this might be blamed on the screenplay as I didn't believe for a second that this woman was this brilliant doctor. Just check out the scene where she tries to convince a woman she doesn't need alcohol. So, I did the fair thing and watched this film in its uncut glory but there's still very little here.