Telefon is a 1977 spy film starring Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence and Lee Remick.

[1] It was
directed by Don Siegel. The film is based on a 1975 novel about mind control by Walter Wager.
Contents
[hide]

1Plot

2Cast

3Production

4See also

5References

6External links

Plot[edit]
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 dtente. Narrowly escaping a
relentless purge of old Stalinismloyalists, 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 Bortsov (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, Bortsov 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, Bortsov is finally able to locate Dalchimsky and kill him.

However, there are a number of twists. Barbara has orders from the KGB to assassinate Bortsov
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 Bortsov, so she will gain the
confidence of the KGB. However, she has fallen in love with her would-be target. She informs
Bortsov, and together, they blackmail both sides into leaving them alone, holding the threat of the
remaining Telefon agents over their heads.

Cast[edit]

Charles Bronson as Bortsov

Lee Remick as Barbara

Donald Pleasence as Dalchimsky

Tyne Daly as Putterman

Alan Badel as Colonel Malchenko

Patrick Magee as General Strelsky

Sheree North as Marie Wills

Frank Marth as Sandburg

John Mitchum as Harry Bascom

Ed Bakey as Carl Hassler

Hank Brandt as William Enders

ke Lindman as Lieutenant Alexandrov

Ansa Ikonen as Dalchimsky's Mother

Kathleen O'Malley as Mrs Maloney

Production[edit]
Principal photography begin in January 1977.
As parts of the film were shot in Finland, there are several cameo appearances by Finnish movie
stars, most notably Ansa Ikonen, arguably the most popular leading lady in the history of the
country's cinema.

The city skyline depicting Houston, where part of the story line occurred, is actually that of Great
Falls, Montana, where the majority of the film was shot. During filming, the crew had to order two
truckloads of snow needed for one of the scenes, because the chinook winds in the area took away
snow they had. They were trucked from the mountains. Filming in downtown Great Falls was also
included. The exploding building in one scene is actually the controlled demolition of the old Paris
Gibson Junior High School. The explosion scene was filmed on February 20th, 1977. The present
day Paris Gibson square was undamaged, but the explosion started roof fires on a couple of nearby
houses that were quickly extinguished by city firefighters hired by the movie company on stand by.
The Houston scenes were shot on a Hollywood backlot, while the interior of the Houston Hyatt
Regency was portrayed by 5 Embarcadero Center in San Francisco, California - the location which
was also used in The Towering Inferno.
The scenes with fires and explosions at a rocket engine test site were filmed at Rocketdyne's Santa
Susana Field Laboratory in the mountains northwest of Los Angeles.
According to director Siegel, actress Lee Remick was terrified of Charles Bronson, and when asked
to touch his face during a scene, responded, "I don't dare. He'll bite me!" [2]

See also[edit]

Novels portal

The Manchurian Candidate

The Simultaneous Man

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, a comedy film whose plot borrows heavily
from Telefon

Salt, an 2010 action film starring Angelina Jolie about Russian sleeper agents

Assassinations in fiction

Conspiracy thriller

Homeland (TV series)