When Michael Calls

I remember being scared to death when this film first aired on TV in 1971. Of course, I was all of nine years old at the time. When Michael Calls was recently shown on Fox Movies, and I had a chance to relive my memories of terror. Surprisingly, the film holds up remarkably well, even with the tacked on and predictable happy ending that ties up all the loose ends. I even had to turn a light on while I watched!

When Michael Calls (1972)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Mildly effective made-for-TV flick about a woman (Elizabeth Ashley) who begins receiving phone calls from her nephew Michael but the only problem is that he died fifteen years earlier. Soon her ex-husband (Ben Gazzara) and other nephew (Michael Douglas) begin to investigate is Michael could actually be alive or if someone else is just trying to do her harm. These TV flicks from the 70s always have that certain atmosphere that can only be found in movies like this, BAD RONALD and DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK. This here certainly isn't as good as those two examples but we still get that eerie atmosphere and that alone makes this worth sitting through even if in the end this isn't a classic. I think the best thing going for the film are the performances by the three leads. Gazzara plays a lawyer who doesn't mind throwing his weight around to get what he wants and I thought he was pretty good in the role. That tough rawness he brings to all his roles is always fun to watch and he certainly helps keep this thing moving along. Ashley is also very good in the film, although it's hard to believe her as the aunt to Douglas especially when in real life she was only five years older than him. With that said, she certainly displayed a certain vulnerability that made the movie a bit more effective. Douglas is billed as a "Special Guest Star" but he actually has a pretty big role here and appears throughout the movie. The screenplay tries very hard to be like something you'd expect to see from Hitchcock as it tries to keep the suspense up by having you constantly guessing what's going on. I think it's pretty simple to figure out what's up after about the forty-minute mark but I'm sure some might be kept in the dark up until the ending. While I didn't fall for all the twists and turns this still turned out to be fairly fun thanks in large part to the cast and whoever it was that voiced the kid on the phone. Another good thing about these films from the 70s that dealt with phones is that they were always able to find someone creepy for the voice work.

Doremus and Helen Connelly (Ben Gazzara and Elizabeth Ashley) have been divorced for some time, and Doremus takes it upon himself to simply show up at Helen's home. He says he's come to see their daughter, which is a violation of their divorce agreement.

Soon after her ex-husband's arrival, Helen begins receiving phone calls from someone claiming to be the title character. Helen doesn't believe it, since her nephew Michael died fifteen years prior. Of course, the calls continue, becoming more urgent, eerie, and unhinged. Has Michael somehow returned from the grave, or is Helen losing her mind? Helen grows suspicious, and there are plenty of potential suspects for her to choose from.

Then, Michael begins forecasting death and doom, and everything changes.

WHEN MICHAEL CALLS is another made-for-TV horror movie from the early 1970's. This was a time when such quality films as this were being made for network television. All these years later, it's still effective, though I do admit to finding Michael's whiny voice a bit annoying!

Co-stars Michael Douglas as Craig, and Marian Waldman as Elsa Britton...

ABC Movie of the Week involves Elizabeth Ashley as a divorced single parent who mysteriously begins receiving a series of spooky phone calls from a child who says he's her nephew, a boy who allegedly died in a snowstorm years prior; ex-husband Ben Gazzara and brother Michael Douglas (who heads up a home for emotionally disturbed youngsters) investigate on their own after a bee-keeper and a sheriff both turn up dead. Spotty teleplay from James Bridges, adapting a novel by John Farris, inexplicably drops a thread about a young burglar caught red-handed, and also a farmhouse which the killer sets on fire. However, the phone calls here are certainly creepy (even better than the ones from Doris Day's "Midnight Lace") and the performances by Ashley and Gazzara are solid. Bridges and Michael Douglas later reunited on "The China Syndrome".

As several others here have stated, I too watched this movie when it originally aired on TV back in 1972 when I was 11 years old and it was very scary then and is pretty creepy today, now that I am in my 40's. Helen (Elizabeth Ashley) lives alone with her young daughter and she starts receiving creepy, threatening phone calls from "Michael", her nephew who supposedly died in a blizzard after running away from home 15 years earlier. The acting is good, especially a young Michael Douglas, but there were several things left unanswered, why did Michael run away, why after all these years do the phone calls start up, etc? But overall the movie is a good little flick to watch with the lights off. Enjoy!!!