Telephone Operator

Whatever morals, standards, conventions existed before WW2 (see other review), this story is sweet and nostalgiac. Those days when telephone operators and switchboards were the latest in technology are shown for us to visit past times and lifestyles. The wardrobe and dance scenes are lovely. The acting is excellent. Characters who may at first seem sketchy and self-serving are challenged to step up to the plate and choose to do the right when called up, Their character transformation and growth in relationships is fulfilling and the ending is happy!

Not too heavy nor scary but some tense times. Some comedy and some romance. Delightful.

I lived through the great flood in the San Fernando Valley of 1937. I even have some 16 mm home movies that my dad took in the big flood basins that now have the flood control dams. As I see this movie, I see what may be scenes from the same disaster. After all, I am sure that the studios in the area had lots of cameramen out taking movies for possible, and here is one, movies that could use those background scenes. The city scenes could easily have been the streets in Van Nuys and the fast flowing water along the Los Angeles River, which at that time was not the pretty looking concrete channel that it is now in the 2000's. We even have a movie showing a Whippet automobile in the flooded area; we jokingly remark that it was a bigger car and that it had shrunk in the flood.

I have to put it down to personal misfortune that I watched a chopped up copy, with voices cut off in mid-sentence and abrupt changes of scenario - but, in spite of those shortcomings (which some rate 'dated' and 'old' because they are rooted in the present), I still found it arresting enough to watch it to the final frame.

Direction by Scott Pembroke (about whom I know nothing) is quite good, as is the script brimming with funny situations and sharp one-liners as a number of men try to win over a gorgeous telephone operator nicely played by stunning Judith Allen... and suddenly Riverdale Dam bursts open and all hell breaks loose as Allen goes to the switchboard to convey warnings, save lives... and be proposed marriage! 6/10.

Given this movie's solid rating, it obviously strikes a chord with those who see it, which means that I obviously missed something. Certainly, the movie gives a taste of the importance of telephone communication in the era. As Helen (the Operator) repeatedly spread news of the disaster as she connects with person after person ("the Riverdale dam is out!" over and over again) it reminded me a little bit of a primitive version of Twitter. The technical quality wasn't bad (although the version I saw was, I believe, heavily edited) and the scenes portraying the rising flood waters in town were pretty realistic (although the shots of the bursting of the dam itself seemed less so.) But still - aside from the basic soap opera like story of Helen trying to cover up her boss's wife's affair - the reality is that nothing much of interest (aside from a couple of pretty well staged fight scenes) happens until the last 10- 15 minutes of the movie when the dam finally goes, although in the end one has to appreciate the irony of the three heroes also being the three who got fired earlier in the film. 3/10

Not sure how this film is getting such a high rating, there are other films that would deserve a higher one and aren't going past the 6 out of ten mark.

Anyways, this is really dull stuff. I watch a lot of old cheap production of the day, most of this stuff is free domain and can be watched on archive.org. The majority involves the same formulas, but there is always something charming about them that really gets to you. Most of them, however, are simply cheap and dull.

This one film is based around the fling between two telephone operating ladies and two linemen, which takes place in the middle of a rainstorm that turns into a disaster when the dam breaks. I'm not into disaster films, I find them two dimensional crap, but when a film is so evenly divided into two parts - the cheesy romantic comedy with the usual sketchy characters, and the dramatic disaster flick which it turns into towards the end - it's hard to know why anyone would consider it worth watching. Furthermore, the lines in this film are not memorable at all, and seem to be the rejects from the famous one liners that were in films of the time.

Plus, speaking of dialogue, I realise the speech of those times was different, and I really do like it, don't get me wrong. But even I can get fed up of hearing 'gee that's swell' or 'that's fine' in the same tone of voice. Eventually you think everyone is trying to be a louder version of Humphrey Bogart (one of my heroes).