This was one of those old fashioned cerebral thrillers where someone is dragged into an almost no win situation and must try to figure some way out of it. Stu Shepherd just happens to be standing in the last phone booth in New York City when the phone rings, and he answers it. On the other end is a guy who knows everything about his darkest secrets, and if Stu wants to get out alive, he has to come clean...or does he?
If Stu hangs up the phone, he dies. The guy has a sniper rifle trained on him from one of several hundred windows looking down on this booth, and before you know it, the sniper guns down a guy causing trouble for Stu. Now the cops and riot squads demand that Stu come out, but if he does, he dies. If he doesn't do what the guy want, someone else dies.
There is some great character transformation in Stu from a selfish to selfless during his time in the phone booth, which is the only real setting in the entire film. The tension drawn through the Stu-Killer dialogue is outstanding and makes this a real thrill to watch. High action is fun sometimes, but this is a thriller of a Hitchcockian style like Lifeboat or Rope. The diaogue is the driving force and it continues to drive.
Great flick.
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