When a Stranger Calls

Columbia Pictures released When a Stranger Calls on 26 October 1979.

Critics didn’t like it at the time. They don’t much like it today. But audiences did. In fact, it did best in its second week of wide release than it did in its first. This is a clear sign that word-of-mouth was good.

I saw the film on TV. I remember almost falling out of my chair when Carol Kane discovers that it is the killer in her bed. But the whole thing is excellent. It is an intense ride.

So why didn’t critics like it? John Carpenter’s Halloween came out a year earlier. The critics liked it. So they couldn’t like When a Stranger Calls. People might think they like slasher films!

What I most love about the film is that it takes a folklore story and does something interesting with it. And the story itself is one of the less interesting of the “teen horror” stories around. I think it isn’t nearly as good as The Hook or The Corpse Under the Bed or The Hanging Boyfriend.

I have a great respect for Halloween. And I love the look of the film. But as I discussed yesterday, it’s padded and pretty dull. When a Stranger Calls is gritty. It doesn’t look nice at all. It looks like the story that it tells.

What’s more, Carol Kane’s face was made for this role. She’s fragile but also determined. And sure, Charles Durning saves her at the end. But for all those critics who say that Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is some kind of feminist icon, she only does what Carol Kane does: fight back. Donald Pleasence shoots Michael Myers. The difference here is that the slasher actually dies as opposed to Halloween where no one knows what the hell happened.

So let’s celebrate the release of When a Stranger Calls by watching it!

Don Siegel

Don Siegel was born on 26 October 1912. He is pretty much a psychotronic icon.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

For the psychotronic fan, Don Siegel is mostly known as the director of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). Of course, we all hate that tacked on “happy” ending. But if you’re quick with a remote control, you can start it at 2:55 and kill it right before the dissolve when Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) is on the highway shouting, “They’re here already! You’re next!” (That’s at 1:18:10, according to my copy.)

The 1978 remake is excellent, but the only way that it really improved the original is in demonstrating the original ending of Bennell losing his mind on a crowded road was the optimistic ending. Screenwriter WD Richter and director Philip Kaufman left no doubt: we are screwed!

Charley Varrick and Others

Don Siegel directed a lot of other great films. He’s probably most remembered for his films with Clint Eastwood: Coogan’s Bluff, Two Mules for Sister Sara, The Beguiled, Dirty Harry, and Escape from Alcatraz.

But my favorite Siegel film is Charley Varrick. That has as much to do with Howard A Rodman’s and Dean Riesner’s screenplay as anything else. But given that Siegel also produced the film (as he often did), he should get part of the credit. And as a director, he makes it all work and never gets in the way of the story.

I think of Siegel as I do George Roy Hill: a really successful director who worked widely with some of the biggest stars of the time but before the job had the kind of cachet that turned film directors into the modern equivalent of novelists. There’s nothing flashy about Siegel. There is no “Siegel style.” He just created some of the best films ever made.

Other 26 October Psychotronic Birthdays & Releases

Filmmakers

• Jackie Coogan (1914-1984): The Uncle Fester in the original TV showThe Addams Family, we also like him for The Kid and Mesa of Lost Women.
• Bob Hoskins (1942-2014): Actor known for The Long Good Friday and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
• Cary Elwes (1962-): Actor known for The Princess Bride, Saw, and more.
• Jon Heder (1977-): Actor best known for Napoleon Dynamite.
• CM Punk (1978-): Wrestler who I thought was great in Girl on the Third Floor.

Films

• The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1929): Early sound Holmes feature.
• The Crimson Ghost (1946): A criminal mastermind threatens to destroy the world’s electricity.
• Unknown World (1951): Scientists try to drill to the center of the Earth.
• Way… Way Out (1966): Sexual politics on the Moon.
• Trog (1970): Joan Crawford really wants to talk to a caveman.
• Body Double (1984): A house sitter becomes obsessed with a sexy neighbor who he eventually sees murdered.
• Silent Madness (1984): Basically Halloween but with a mistaken release.
• The Terminator (1984): Robots send a robot back in time to kill the mother of their human foe.
• Graveyard Shift (1990): Workers try to rid a factor of rats only to discover a giant human-eating rat.
• Soultaker (1990): Two people in a car accident try to cheat death.
• Donnie Darko (2001): A man in a rabbit suit tells a young man to commit crimes.
• Thir13en Ghosts (2001): Elaborate remake of the William Castle film.
• Mark of the Astro-Zombies (2002): Space aliens plant computer chips in human brains.
• Bite Me! (2004): Imported cannabis comes with deadly insects.

When a Stranger Calls poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use. Image of Don Siegel cropped from Don Siegel via IMDb under Fair Use.