Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Rainey Dawn 'Shattered Silence' AKA 'When Michael Calls' (1972) Craig (M. Douglas) has lost his brother Michael 15 years prior to the beginning of the story. Michael begins to call Helen (E. Ashley) on the phone, seemingly in distress every call. Doremus (B. Gazzara) is Helen's ex-husband or soon to be ex - but he is there to help Helen through this terrible nightmare and to solve the mystery of Michael.Micheal calls Helen "Auntie" which is odd. Craig and Michael are brothers and if Michael is Helen's nephew then Craig would be Helen's other nephew. *In reality Helen and Craig are just close to one another, friends - according to the Wiki article.* Why we are lead to believe that Helen and Michael are related/family and not Craig is strange in itself. Most every source says Michael is Helen's nephew or A woman (Helen) receives phone calls from a relative. - when he is not.A good thriller - bizarre. Worth watching if you get a chance to see it. Those phone calls from Micheal will have you shivering. :) 8.5/10

Michael_Elliott 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.

tamstrat 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!!!

Movie Nuttball When Michael Calls or Shattered Silence is a fine film especially for a TV film. Michael Douglas, Ben Gazzara, and Elizabeth Ashley are in this movie. All three veteran actors all performed well. I was amazed by Gazzara and his character interaction with his daughter. The music was good and fits the film good. The movie has good direction by Philip Leacock. There are some cool scenes in the picture. The movie is unusual and will have you guessing through out so if you like thrilling mystery movies and like to see Michael Douglas, Ben Gazzara, and Elizabeth Ashley in a film then see if you can catch this movie on television, rent, or even buy it because its a good movie.