The Telephone Book

The story of a day in the life of a lonely, sensitive, exuberant, attractive, young woman. Her exploits, encounters, and frustrations as she attempts to find a "special" someone, a caller who has "class", as she puts it.

From the pornographic wallpaper to the downright raunchy situations, this is a dirty film. Yet, somehow a tastefully dirty film... not at all sexual, despite the nudity and sexual situations. Bizarre! How has Something Weird or someone else not gotten a hold of this title?

Frankly, I love the way this guy talks! And I love that this has a "young" William Hickey in it. I primarily know him later on from "Tales From the Crypt" and "Puppet Master", so it was great to see him more in his prime.

Very entertaining. Girl in Manhattan receives the obscene call of her life, attempts to find him (identified as "John Smith") in the telephone book. Funny scenes as she finds the wrong John Smiths. Surprise ending when she finds the right one. Some nudity and extremely explicit but funny cartoon sequences.

Funny, near brilliant, underground movie about the sexual perversions of everyday people. Centers around Kennedy (who is a shoe in for a young Goldie Hawn) and her various experiences trying to find John Smith the greatest obscene phone caller she's ever heard. Problem is it's New York City, which leads her to a lot of wrong Smiths. The 'real' John Smith is played by actor Norman Rose who's deep resonate, 'newsman' voice (he's worked as a narrator on many other features) only adds to the hilarity as he explains in great detail how he came to be the 'greatest obscene phone caller of all time'. This is interspread by 'true life' confessions of former obscene phone callers that are so twisted you'll just have to laugh. Also has a wild,'far out' animated sequence that could easily fit into a Marilyn Manson video. Much more provacative than today's hardcore adult films, which tend to be very mechanical. A truly unique film viewing experience that is similar to the much herald PUTNEY SWOPE, but is more consistently funnier and imaginative. A terrific example of 'grass roots' filmmaking were the creativity and ingenuity of the director makes todays $200 million, special effects laden blockbusters look as stale as yesterday's lunch. Most amazing scene features actor Barry Morse (Lt Griggs of the old FUGITIVE TV series) having over ten naked women lay on top of him at the same time!!

That is the only word to describe this totally off the wall comedy/art/porno. The story runs like this, a young and very cute girl (Sarah Kennedy) is sitting at home one day (probably looking at her pornographic wallpaper!). The phone rings, she picks up. Lo and behold it is, John Smith, the worlds greatest obscene phone caller! She instantly falls in love with his "amazing obscenities" and goes on a sexual adventure searching for him. This movie is NOT like your average porno, to be honest I did not even see anything close to hard sex. What I did see was a visual, auditory and sexual explosion of sheer oddity. If there was an 11 out of 10 this is the only movie I know that would get it!!!

The Telephone Book has developed a cult following over the years due to its pedigree (Nelson Lyon, a future writer of Saturday Night Live) and cast (William Hickey, Jill Clayburgh). However, it is still an early 70's softcore sex comedy, the type of film Something Weird Video specializes in. The plot has a young woman being so turned on by an obscene phone call that she attempts to track down the caller. This leads to encounters with all types of crazies as the woman wanders around Manhattan.

For what it is, The Telephone Book shows more imagination than most of its type. The film even includes an animated section where a giant woman has sexual intercourse with a skyscraper. This section and a housewife's dirty monologue about a banana are the only laugh out loud moments in the film. The rest of the jokes only slightly amuse (at best) . One is advised to view the film with expectations set by the genre and not by its cult reputation.