Telephone Operator – yeah, it rings more than once

You know, I didn’t expect much from *Telephone Operator* at all. It’s one of those films, you know, that kinda feels like it got lost somewhere in the bargain bin at Hemmakväll around 2008? But then, I saw that Jean Arthur is in it and boom, my curiosity just started itching. And then there’s Irving Cummings directing – not totally a genius maybe, but he knows his craft, sometimes. This thing is basically a black-and-white oldie from 1937 with buttons and wires and people shouting into rotary phones before mobile stress was even invented.

I gotta say, there’s this one scene, right… where the alarm bells start blaring and all the telephone ladies grab their headsets like it’s a national emergency. Reminded me totally of my grandma in Halmstad, screaming down the phone to the post office, panicking about a late tax envelope. It’s a vibe. Pehr, if you’re reading this, you remember how she’d anchor herself by the window sill and chain-smoke every time PTS was late?

And seriously, William Collier Jr… that guy does more with a raised eyebrow than some actors do in a whole trilogy. Sure, the plot’s sort of “save the city, save the day” and oh Lord, the romance is cheesier than Västerbottenost. But you can smell the coffee in the break room, you can hear shoes clacking on linoleum, it’s got this hamster-wheel energy. Not perfect – there’s a couple scenes that feel like a detour to IKEA to buy napkins when you only needed a lamp.

But, I dunno, it’s got this jittery, real feeling. Like, even today, who actually isn’t addicted to their phone and stressing about missed connections? Might just throw this on next Lucia with glögg and laugh over the tech panic – some things don’t change.

watch the full movie on Mavshack Movies on YouTube

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