FILM · 1979 · USA
When a Stranger Calls
35 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (35)
- #001
Throughout the opening sequence, director Fred Walton gradually builds tension by making the sound of each successive phone call slightly louder than the last. They escalate from eerie to jolting and finally to maddening.
- #002
The original teaser trailers gave away the shocking ending as well as every other plot point in the film.
- #003
Fred Walton originally shot this film as a short called 'The Sitter,' which became the opening 20 minutes of When a Stranger Calls. After the huge success of Halloween (1978), however, Walton saw the potential to expand the short into a feature. The script was then developed into a feature-length film following the stalker Curt Duncan.
- #004
In an interview about the film, Carol Kane said that when she watched it in a theater, people screamed and talked back to the screen during the iconic opening 20 minutes.
- #005
Tony Beckley was terminally ill throughout the production; he therefore did not match the description of the killer, but director Fred Walton refused to recast him because the two were good friends. Beckley died shortly after principal photography was completed. Walton dedicated the sequel When a Stranger Calls Back (1993) to Beckley's memory.
- #006
This film was made before the PG-13 rating existed and was consequently rated PG originally. When it was screened for the ratings board chairman, however, the MPAA insisted it should be rated R, because its intensity was too frightening for children to watch without a parent present. After a second screening for the entire committee, a lengthy debate followed, and it was ultimately given an R despite containing no uncensored violence.
- #007
The character of the disturbed killer Curt Duncan was based on a man director Fred Walton knew from university who could somehow enter a room and automatically unsettle everyone in it. Walton nonetheless sympathized with this person enough that the Duncan character was handled quite sensitively.
- #008
The film is based on the famous urban legend of the babysitter and the man upstairs, which appears in many horror films but is most associated with this one.
- #009
Kevin Williamson paid tribute to this film in the opening scene of the screenplay for Wes Craven's Scream (1996).
- #010
The film's opening 20 minutes rank 28th on the Bravo Channel's list of the 100 Scariest Movie Moments, as these moments have repeatedly been called one of the scariest openings in horror film history.
- #011
Although it is known as a classic, groundbreaking thriller, this film contains almost no on-screen violence.
- #012
Because this film was made due to the success of Halloween (1978), it shares many similarities with that film. Both begin with a notorious murder scene that ends with the killer being caught and sent to a mental institution. After a gap of several years, the killer escapes from the institution along with someone who has known him since his arrest (in Halloween (1978) it is the killer's psychiatrist; in this film it is the officer who arrested him), and that person pursues him with the intention of killing him rather than arresting him, despite his colleagues' objections. The killer begins to stalk a woman (unlike Halloween (1978), this film does not have only a female lead). The killer narrowly escapes being caught by the male lead several times. Both films end with a confrontation between the female lead and the killer; the killer begins to overpower the female lead, but the male lead suddenly appears and shoots the killer. (In this film, however, the killer dies from the gunshot wound. In Halloween (1978), the killer survives.)
- #013
Jill and the audience never see Curt Duncan during the film's famous 20-minute opening, although the voice on the phone is his. In fact, she does not meet him until he attacks her at the end of the film, seven years later.
- #014
Ron O'Neal's (Lieutenant Charlie Garber) real-life wife, Carol Tillery Banks, appears as Garber's wife.
- #015
The Classification and Rating Administration initially voted unanimously for a PG rating (five years before the PG-13 rating was introduced). CARA chairman Richard Heffner later watched the film, however, and called the board into further discussion to consider voting for an R rating instead. Although a film's theme might potentially suit a PG rating, Heffner argued that this film's handling of its theme was too disturbing for most parents to want it made freely available to unaccompanied children (because the killer, though off-screen in the first act, murders two children with his bare hands). A majority vote was subsequently taken to give the film an R rating. If the film were re-released today, it would most likely receive a PG-13 rating.
- #016
The phone number of the house where the character Jill Johnson (Carol Kane) babysits (555-2368) is the same as the home telephone number used at Jamie Lee Curtis's house in Forever Young (1992), starring Mel Gibson. It was also used in Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). It was also the phone number in The Amityville Horror (1979) and Ghostbusters (1984).
- #017
The film was Oscar-nominated cinematographer Donald Peterman's first feature film as cinematographer.
- #018
This film bears similarities to Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), another thriller about a young woman hiding in a house who receives terrifying phone calls and is ultimately killed by the villain she has been interacting with on the phone all night.
- #019
The sequel When a Stranger Calls Back (1993) is a clever inversion of the formula in this film. Instead of stalking the babysitter by phone from inside the house, the killer asks for help while pretending to stand on the porch outside. Then, just as the killer in part one is shown to have been inside the house all along, part two reveals that he was inside the house where he attacks her. In fact, this is an expanded version of the final scene of the original: Jill lies in bed with her husband (or so she believes); a sound comes from the closet; Jill gets up and realizes she has been in bed with the killer, who has been throwing his voice like a ventriloquist. The second film explores this ventriloquist idea in even greater detail. Both films are versions of magic tricks: distraction and misdirection. Director Fred Walton makes the audience believe the killer is in a single place, even though he is in fact always somewhere else.
- #020
The downtown bar where Duncan and Tracy first meet is Torchy's at 218½ W. Fifth Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012. The same bar would later be used as a filming location for the redneck bar in 48 Hrs. (1982) and for Brewster's Millions (1985).
- #021
In the first act of the film, while Jill is babysitting at the Mandrakis house, she can briefly be heard humming Don McLean's "American Pie."
- #022
The film's cast includes three Oscar nominees: Carol Kane, Charles Durning and Rachel Roberts. Colleen Dewhurst, though not an Oscar nominee, won the Emmy Award four times.
- #023
The screenplay of the film's original shooting draft specifies that the scene should take place in 1971. That means the seven-year time jump brings the story to roughly 1978, the year this film was made.
- #024
According to director Fred Walton, Ron O'Neal and Charles Durning did not get along during the first half of shooting, because Durning did not much appreciate how lazily O'Neal approached his role, forgetting his lines and ruining many takes. Durning showed his frustration by making eye contact with O'Neal and never taking his eyes off him throughout the scene. O'Neal, initially taken aback, merely giggled, but after a while he began to get somewhat annoyed and decided to put more effort into his performance instead of treating it as just a paycheck.
- #025
The phone number Jill Johnson gives Sargent Sacker over the phone is 555-2368. The same number was also used in The Amityville Horror (1979) and Forever Young (1992).
- #026
The traced call lasts about 1 minute and 52 seconds.
- #027
Although Jill Johnson is presumed to be a high school senior in the opening scene, Carol Kane was actually 27 years old when she was cast in the role. (In the seven-year time jump, when Jill is now a wife and mother, the character's age matches Kane's.)
- #028
Tony Beckley, who played the psychotic killer Curt Duncan, is said to have been very nervous and sensitive during the shoot. He was in awe of Carol Kane and focused on her talent, to the point that he had a nervous breakdown on set, feeling very tense and inadequate. Director Fred Walton could not fix the situation, but Colleen Dewhurst did. Beckley complained to her that Kane was "so talented." Dewhurst replied, "Yeah, but we're better!" That settled the matter for Beckley; he was no longer afraid.
- #029
It was included in the American Film Institute's 2001 list of 400 films nominated for the 100 Most Heart-Pounding American Films.
- #030
The bar where Tracy (Colleen Dewhurst) first meets Curt (Tony Beckley) is the same bar visited by Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy in 48 Hrs. (1982). In this film it was somewhat of a neighborhood (dive) bar; in 48 Hrs. it was a cowboy bar with an orchestra and dancers, and Murphy was breaking the mirror.
- #031
Tony Beckley (Curt) and Rachel Roberts (Dr. Monk) were born in 1927, only 17 days apart; both died in 1980, a year after the film's release, only 7 months apart.
- #032
This is Rachel Roberts' (Dr. Monk) penultimate theatrical film appearance.
- #033
John Clifford's beige car is a 1977 Ford LTD II.
- #034
The film was remade in 2006 as When a Stranger Calls (2006).
- #035
Italian censorship visa # 75760 was issued on October 24, 1980.
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