Time To Head Back To 42nd Street For A Grindhouse Classic!
Time to celebrate an era in film when the offbeat, experimental and just plain CRAZY could get films – and released! Time to head to New York’s Times Square for an unbelievable cinematic adventure!
There was a time when you could wander down New York’s 42nd street and find some of the most bizarre and bizarrely entertaining movies ever…here is an example of one of the greatest!
Sexy Sarah!
First, meet Sarah Kennedy, the most adorable star you could ever hope for in a film…in a breakout role – a role that sees her in virtually every scene in the film, usually saying stuff like this in a very innocent voice:
Now, imagine her in a film where she fall in love with –
THIS GUY!
Well, time to go back to a time when some of the world’s most unique films managed to get released – and thanks to a terrific home video company, they still live on today!
A Lost Cult Classic Is On The Phone! You Have To Answer This Call!
“The Telehone Book” is a mind-blowing camp classic! It’s a day in the life of a lonely, sensitive young woman – who meets a very special person on “the telephone.” Thus begins one of the most original and surreal romantic comedies ever made…
There is SO MUCH to share with you about this incredible cult classic, but let’s get started by checking out the trailer!
Thanks to the maniacs at Vinegar Syndrome for releasing this mind-blowing obscurity from the halcyon days of the early 70′s!
Actress Sarah Kennedy not only looks exactly like Goldie Hawn, but she plays Alice, a young woman who lives in a New York City apartment decorated with pornographic images and knickknacks.
She’s sexy, quirky and liberated, but she really gets off on obscene phone calls, with rotary dial work from an unknown man, identifying himself as Mr. Smith (Norman Rose), bringing Alice to orgasmic heights.
That’s right, she falls in love with Mr. Smith based solely on his obscene phone calls to her!
Alice tries to track down Mr. Smith by telephone book cold calling, then racing around town, running into an amazing array of people, usually doing something dirty, as you can tell by this movie poster:
Alice’s goal is simple: she must find her gloved Romeo – who wears a pig mask and claims he can seduce the President of the United States! Is this strange enough for you yet?
According to the great IMDB website, “The Telephone Book” was written and directed by Nelson Lyon, who went on to participate in the early years of “Saturday Night Live.” Lyon also achieved infamy as John Belushi’s partner during the drug-binge weekend that took the superstar’s life.
Calling Andy Warhol!
Here’s another great piece of trivia: According to producer Merv Bloch, the movie originally came with a specially shot intermission which he eventually decided to cut out. During the intermission Andy Warhol was shown sitting in a chair eating popcorn until the actual movie would continue again!
This intermission was meant as an in-joke to Warhol’s own films that often showed the most mundane things for an extended amount of time, like a person sleeping for several hours or a person eating something without anything extraordinary happening. The footage of this intermission is currently considered lost!
“The Telephone Book” also includes one of the most surreal animation sequences ever, which pushes the film into X-rated territory, but it’s all quirky and fun, and therefore surprisingly innocent…an adult film anchored by an innocence that is charming…
Writer-director Nelson Lyon helmed “The Telephone Book” as a kinky vaudeville revue. When Alice’s obscene phone caller boasts that his talents could seduce the President of the United States and the entire First Family, he suffixes his claim that he would not try it because “I have no political ambitions.” And yes, he wears a pig mask the entire time!
There are several recognizable people in the film, including Jill Clayburgh, who would go on to receive an Oscar nomination a few years later!
Thanks to the folks at Vinegar Syndrome, who have released a blu-ray with radio spots, production stills and a feature-length audio commentary! What a great job saving one of cinema’s most obscure films ever!
