Um Estranho Muito Íntimo

Is nothing sacred? What has the world come to when hardworking phone sex operators are being sexually harassed by obscene calls? This is one film plot I will never get over! Blondie ('Heart of Glass') is a 250 pound chain smoking phone sex operator who starts receiving.... brace yourself... obscene phone calls! The heroic police rush into action! This is like a fish complaining about being wet! While this is trying to be a "mysterious caller" thriller, she's not a teenage baby sitter, she's a phone sex operator.

This has to go down the most annoyingly illogical plots ever, along with 'Double Jeopardy' where Ashley Judd receives $4,000,0000 in insurance money for being convicted of murdering her husband, and 'Armored' when the trapped hero simply escapes TWICE without the villains noticing and then willingly returns to his captors TWICE! 2 stars due to the hunting soundtrack.

This film has production values commensurate with its status as a made-for-cable movie. It has some plot holes, and some poor acting, from James Russo, and some of the other cop characters. But Debbie Harry did very well with the somewhat weird material. I thought she looked fantastic, and was in great voice when she sang. I was never much of a fan of Blondie, so really didn't know much about her. Good performances also from Paige French and Tia Carrerre. Hard to find nowadays, as I see no comments for 5 years or so. Probably not worth digging up, unless you love Debbie Harry that much.

This isn't my favourite role for Deborah Harry (those would be Nicki Brand in "Videodrome" and Delores in "Heavy") but the film is a must for Debbie fans. It's a rare lead role for her and she gets the chance to play a warm and sympathetic character. Her character Cory Wheeler/ phone name "Angel" is a struggling bar singer who also works as a phone sex operator to make ends meet. Other luminaries in the film include Grace Zabriskie (of "Twin Peaks" and "Wild At Heart") and Tim Thomerson (Jack Deth in "Trancers") as the sick and twisted psycho who's taken a shine to Debbie's sensual voice (who hasn't?). To be fair, if you're not a big Debbie Harry/Blondie fan, it's just an average or maybe slightly above average cable slasher thriller. However Debbie is good in this and the scenes where she sings in the bar (including Janis Joplin's "Take Another Piece Of My Heart") are worthwhile. Tim Thomerson is also notable for being quite disturbing. The film also stars James Russo (an acting friend of Iggy Pop, who has since also been in the excellent film "Panther") as the cop who helps Debbie's character find the sicko who likes torturing women before she (or someone close to her?) is the next victim.

Deborah Harry plays a burnt out musician/phone-sex operator Cory Wheeler in 'Intimate Stranger', a made for cable 'adult thriller".

The movie would be a yawn if not for Ms. Harry's smoky, heavy-lidded performance. The rest of the cast is fine too, but but only so much can be done to make this 'erotic thriller' sustain viewers interest, besides adding some gratuitous nudity and violence, of course.

This has to rank as one of the best and my favorite erotic thriller of all time. Probably because it's one of the first I saw, as I remember in 1992 late at night catching this on a movie channel late one night. And plus the story of a phone sex operator getting terrorized by a crazy psycho like killer who also has a little sport of killing Oriental and Asian escorts made it an entertaining watch. "Intimate Stranger"(a true to it's word title a nice catch!)from the start is spine tingling and creepy with suspense as the voice of the caller to Cory(Blondie's Deborah Harry)already starts the mystery and most memorable and very disturbing in an erotic way is the scene of the crazed killer caller having the Asian/Oriental escort hog tied totally nude with a gag in her mouth, all as the sick guy plays his cat and mouse game before doing inside damage. Wow what a way to start an erotic film. So Cory who only moonlights as a singer finds that her life of a phone sex operator is not safe and from then on this film is a wild chase a game of suspense chill terror as she's helped out from a hot young Los Angeles up and coming cop named Nick(James Russo)and Cory's younger sister the outgoing Meg helps bait the killer. Also you will see in one of her first film appearances the hot Tia Carrere as a sexy Oriental escort. Overall this is a highly memorable and enjoyable erotic suspense film that thrills with chills and it tingles your spine yet it all produces erotic fun.