Dialing for Dingbats
Dialing for Dingbats is a 1989 romantic comedy directed by Peter Slodczyk and distributed by Troma Entertainment. The distribution company describes the film as "light hearted".[1]
| Dialing for Dingbats | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Peter Slodczyk |
| Produced by | Michael Solton Lloyd Kaufman |
| Starring | John Caponera Marta Dargham Michael Jeffries Johnny Mask Lyn Segerblom Roger Rodd |
| Distributed by | Troma Entertainment |
Release date |
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Running time | 81 minutes |
| Language | English |
Plot
Randy, a lonely and shy man, meets a woman through a party line but communication problems complicate their date.
Reception
The film was considered "the first serious examination of the world of dingbats on the phone" by the Orlando Sentinel.[2] A retrospective very negative review states that "This film couldn’t have been made in any other time than the late 80s, and not just for the snapshot of the bygone pre-internet dating scene mechanisms. It has a colorful VHS-era kitsch and an ungodly amount of earnest but bad jokes to the point it becomes surrealistic. The film takes too many detours to fill up the slight seventy-eight minute running time, with both commercial parodies and actual footage from other Troma films shoehorned in."[3]
All I Need to Know about Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger (co-written by Kaufman and James Gunn) states that : "Troma tackles yet another socially important issue with the addiction of 1-900 party lines. This is the first film about phone sex."[4]
References
- "DIALING FOR DINGBATS | Troma". Retrieved 2023-05-16.
- "Telephone Follies Fill 'Dialing for Dingbats'". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved 2023-04-16.
- "Dialing for Dingbats (1989)". Teenage Frankenstein: Cinematic Journeys, Personal Obsessions. 2018-07-31. Retrieved 2023-04-16.
- Gunn, James; Kaufman, Lloyd (1998). All I Need to Know about Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger is the autobiography of Lloyd Kaufman. Berkley Boulevard. p. 318. ISBN 9780425163573.