 United States
1988 Whoopi Goldberg stars as an eccentric out-of-work actress, disconnected from reality, who ignores the threatening calls from her many creditors, choosing instead to amuse herself with the telephone. But her quiet and whimsical evening alone turns into a circus - one with a crazy grand finale.
Terry Southern and Harry Nilsson wrote the script with Robin Williams in mind. But they we not able to present the script to Williams - "Robin's scripts have to go through his wife, and she wouldn't give it to him" according to Southern.
Bruce Johnston wrote the song "Happy Endings" for The Telephone. Little Richard joined the Beach Boys to record the song.
"In her one-woman show, Whoopi Goldberg was a fresh and original hit on Broadway. But The Telephone, which is essentially a one-woman movie, fails to ring any bells. The screenplay by Terry Southern and
Harry Nilsson is mostly a series of monologues, with Goldberg, cast as an out-of-work actress, talking on her zebra-striped telephone.
They might as well have asked Goldberg to carry off reading the phone book. This is a cheap, labor-intensive idea for a movie, but no
amount of manic invention could have saved it. The Telephone is as dull as it is exhausting to watch. When Elliott Gould and John Heard pay brief visits to Goldberg's apartment, they do little to relieve
the film's claustrophobia, but they offer some needed relief from her racing, steamroller monologues." -- New York Times
Hawkeye Entertainment produced the film.
Credits:| Actor ("Big Ray"): | James Victor |
| Actor ("Honey Boxe"): | Amy Wright |
| Actor ("Irate Neighbor"): | Amy Wright |
| Actor ("Jennifer"): | Amy Wright |
| Actor ("Larry"): | Don Blakely |
| Actor ("Max"): | Severn Darden |
| Actor ("Midge"): | Danae Torn |
| Actor ("Rodney"): | Elliott Gould |
| Actor ("Saxophone Player"): | Ronald J. Stallings |
| Actor ("Sidewalk Vendor"): | Lina Chu |
| Actor ("Sidewalk Vendor"): | John Hattan |
| Actor ("Telephone Man"): | John Heard |
| Actor ("Vashti Blue"): | Whoopi Goldberg |
| Actor ("voice"): | Don Blakely |
| Actor ("voice"): | Herve Villechaize |
| Actor ("voice"): | Robin Menken |
| Boom Operator: | Patrick Moriarty |
| Cinematography: | David Claessen |
| Director: | Rip Torn |
| Distributor: | New World Pictures |
| Film Editing: | Sandra Adair |
| Original Music: | Christopher Young |
| Post-production Accountant: | Jim McCarthy |
| Producer: | Moctesuma Esparza |
| Producer: | Robert Katz |
| Production Company: | Odyssey Entertainment |
| Production Company: | Hawkeye Productions |
| Production Company: | Esparza/Katz Productions |
| Score Mixer: | Jeff Vaughn |
| Screenplay: | Harry Nilsson |
| Screenplay: | Terry Southern |
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