Telephone Operator

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.

The version I downloaded from the Internet Archive must be heavily cut, as it's only 53m. Despite this inexcusable decimation, I found this flick to be quite satisfying, for what it is. We've got cocksure telephone linesmen, surly switchboard operators, kids with shortwave radios, a failing dam, and a terrific flood - 30's style, and stuffed into little more than an hour! The cast are all sufficiently capable in their roles, particularly leads Allen and Withers, but it was the colorful details that really sustained my interest. Things like Helen's kid brother setting his alarm for 5 so he can listen to a Boy Scout rally from England on the shortwave. The film is a nifty little time capsule of the 1930's telecommunications industry at work, and its importance to daily life in that decade.

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).

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

Grant Withers and Warren Hymer are two tough line men for the company. They come to Riverdale, where they set their sights on operators Judith Allen and Alice White.

Given director Scott Pembroke's grounding in comedy -- he was the director of Stan Laurel's burlesques of big hits, like RUPERT OF HEEHAW and DOCTOR PYCKLE AND MISTER PRYDE, you'd think the comedy bits in this early Monogram would be better; well, Miss White is pretty good, but the other actors are rather lugubrious. Until the big finale, it's all tough guys in leather jackets and fedoras pounding on each other, and slow-and-steady progress in the romantic plots.

The big set piece is the flood, and that's handled using stock footage of floods and ranks of telephone operators standing at their boards, while voice-overs tell people "There's a flood. Tell your neighbors." Oh, so that's why the third floor of my house is underwater?

Actually it's a decent movie until that repeated voice-over. Not bad for a Poverty Row Second Feature. Withers is typically fine. t's just that the finale goes on too long.