Dialing for Dingbats (1989 Video) User Reviews

A party line...

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 11 September 2023]

All I Need to Know about Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger, which was written by Lloyd Kaufman and James Gunn, says that in this movie, "Troma tackles yet another socially important issue with the addiction of 1-900 party lines. This is the first film about phone sex."

Other than Out of the Dark, The Telephone Book or Party Line.

Directed by Peter Slodczyk, who co-wrote this with Michael Solton (Solton and "Weird" Al Yankovic were high school friends which is how Steve Jay, the bassist in Al's band, scored this movie, including the song "Partyline"), this film tells the story of Randy (Michael Jeffries), an unlucky slob at love who is convinced by Ernie Bernay (John Caponera) to try out his party line to find love.

Somehow, at 78 minutes, this movie still has the entire trailer for The Toxic Avenger in it, as well as a phone sex ad made up of clips from that movie. There are also clips of other commercials, like this was a Kentucky Fried Movie style film that still tries to have a narrative.

It's somewhat strange to watch this on an old USA Up All Night episode that has phone sex ads during every commercial, making you wonder what is real and what is the movie.

The best Partyline Movie ever produced !

[mikelaoc · 10/10 · 14 February 2004]

Ever see those late night "900" Partyline commercials and wonder if anybody really meets from those phone lines ? Dialing for Dingbats shows that romance can be had meeting on a 1-900 Partyline. There are lots of zany characters and lots of funny lines.

A Crackbrained, Surreal Masterpiece

[HalPeppercorn · 9/10 · 7 October 2019]

I first watched this, like many others, on the lamented, beloved USA Up All Night program. This is a work of what I refer to as "feral art"; that is, it is unintentionally brilliant, accidentally artful. The movie bleeds an off-kilter, feverish surrealism and feels more like a strange dream than most of your big-budget attempts at translating the fractured, bizarre sense of dreams to the screen. Highly recommended.

Fun, cute, wacky movie!

[ashizz · 10/10 · 2 April 2005]

This is one of my all time favorites. It's wacky, fun..not your typical movie. It takes you back to the days of "Partylines" and singles trying to hook up. So it's real fun for those of us who grew up in the days before the internet started up, and it seemed the phone was the way to get connected. It really brings back memories of the good old days! This movie is a nice romantic comedy, but like I said it's quirky and entertaining along the way...even odd at times! The main story line is about a young man looking for love and decides to give the party line a try. You will follow him in his adventure searching for love and in which it seems "all the wrong places". Give this movie a try and remember to rate it so hopefully one day it will come out on DVD.

Easily one of the best movies ever made...

[krugstilo-1 · 10/10 · 7 March 2009]

Simply put, DIALING FOR DINGBATS, particularly when viewed at 3 AM during a USA Up All Night broadcast, achieves an accidental tone of dream-logic and VHS-surrealism that, in my opinion, makes it a work of art. Yes, it's corny and technically inept, but so what? Do your dreams always have state-of-the-art special effects? Mine don't. This movie is just bizarre in a way that few movies are, because it isn't trying to be weird, it just is. A masterpiece. Another movie that achieves a similar sort of vibe is BEYOND DREAM'S DOOR. Incidentally, DIALING FOR DINGBATS and BEYOND DREAM'S DOOR are two of my top five favorite movies ever made.