Shortly
before New Year, we watched Phone Booth (2002)
again, a great thriller starring Colin Farrell, Forest Whitaker,
Katie Holmes, Radha Mitchell, and Kiefer Sutherland.
Farrell plays an unscrupulous New York publicist who
answers a ringing phone in a booth he’s standing next to.
The caller warns him
he’ll be killed if he attempts to leave the booth … and … the story develops from there.
The claustrophobic atmosphere of Phone Booth reminded me of a 1972 Spanish short movie I saw on TV
during the mid-‘80’s called La Cabina
(aka The Telephone Box).
A unfortunate
guy (José Luis López Vázquez), in a world long before the invention of the cell
phone, attempts to make a call in a street booth.
The door closes on him as he
discovers the phone doesn’t work.
He tries to leave, but the door is locked
tight.
He’s trapped in there a long time as a crowd of onlookers gather … and …
the story develops from there.
La Cabina is
quirky and dated, but still worth the half-hour to watch, with an original
story that delivers a surreal and scary twist.
Although
street booths have mostly disappeared, La
Cabina is a great reason to own a cell phone … but then you have to
consider what happened in Stephen King’s novel: Cell.
Yikes!
I read
that folks in Spain, shortly after La
Cabina was released on December 13, 1972, took to preventing the door in phone booths from
shutting completely by keeping their foot in the gap.
I can’t
imagine why.
