The phone booth first appeared on the streets of England 100 years ago and is often regarded as one of our typical landmarks. In movies, however, it tends to play a more subversive role. As a secret space for illegal negotiations or as a means of covering up conversations, on-screen phone booths are the gateway to crime and lust.
This is very different from sir Giles Gilbert Scott's original intention to design the K2. Its bright scarlet hue replaced the original design of 1921 in 1924 with the aim of making the phone booth stand out in an emergency.
An early example of the secret use of this new type of phone booth can be found in Alfred Hitchcock's 1929 silent thriller Blackmail. Frank (John Langdon) exposes the gloves that Alice (Anne Audrea) left behind in the phone booth of her father's tobacco shop at the murder scene, and then hides the evidence from the authorities.
In The True Colors of The World (1950), Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark) begins as a cunning liar who uses the phone booth next to his girlfriend's apartment to trick her into leaving in order to steal some cash. At the end of the film, when he is being hunted down by the London wrestling mafia, Harry makes a desperate phone call to Figole (James Haiter) in a phone booth, but Figole eventually betrays him.
That same year, there was a brief moment in Basil Dielden's work The Green Lights on a Cold Night when a telephone booth was used for emergency purposes, and a member of the public passed the license plate of the fleeing vehicle to a man in a nearby telephone booth after the shooting.
Murder on the Telephone is another hitchcock film in which the telephone booth is the key to his suspenseful plot. When Tony (Ray Mirand) plans to kill his wife Margot (Grace Kelly), he calls her from a phone booth with full-length glass panels as part of his complex plan; his crimes are hidden in plain sight.
Phone booths were also used in Basil Dieldon's thriller The Victim, and much of the plot takes place on the streets of London, telling the story of homosexuals being blackmailed. The following year, "Don't Talk to Strange Men" told a cautionary tale about a girl being seduced by an anonymous voice that regularly hits the phone booth at her bus stop.
Nearly a decade later, in Mike Hodges' gangster drama Finding Carter (1971), Jack Carter (Michael Kane) makes a key phone call in a phone booth in his hometown, a red landmark that stands out against the backdrop of rural Newcastle, just like him.
The yepky cinematography of The Ipcres Archives (1965) reflects the puzzling story of its brainwashing and espionage. The fight between Harry Palmer (Michael Kane) and House Martin (Oliver McGreave) is no exception: we observe their melee through the red glass of a nearby phone booth.
Countdown (1969) also shows us that Colleen (Claire Sucliff) unknowingly gets into a dangerous killer's car after calling her friend Wayne (Jenny Eggart).
In 1970's Psychedelic Show, Chas (James Fox)'s frantic panic after killing his opponent in self-defense is highlighted by the claustrophobic high angles and the shaking handheld camera in the phone booth.
Seemingly innocuous phone booths can also be entrances to desire. They provide an oasis in the public space where the private self can be revealed. For example, in Peter Greenaway's short film Dear Phone (1976), static, documentary-like footage of the red phone booth is juxtaposed with detailed, intimate descriptions of the impossible telephone experience.
In David Lane's Affectionate Friend (1949), Steven (Trevor Howard) rekindles his love affair with Mary (Ann Todd) in a phone booth. Later, the end of their relationship was marked by him walking into the phone booth to call his wife.
Another story about "forbidden" romance, "Clear Water Love Pupil" (1964) tells the story of Kate (Rita Tassingham) who picks up a call from Eugene (Peter Finch) at a local phone booth. It's a moment of privacy away from her rude roommate Baba (Lynn Redgrave).
At the end of the film, they realize that their relationship cannot go on. Kate was ready to take a boat with Baba from Ireland to London, so she tried to contact Eugene from a nearby phone booth, but without success.
In the late 1960s and early 1980s, a rare model of the K8 was adopted, which can be seen in Gregory's Girlfriend (1980), with Carol (Caroline Guthrie) changing clothes in a phone booth. The full-height glass windows highlight her expository fetishism.
Red phone booths are also used to emphasize "British character". For example, in East is East (1999), the Khan family secretly contacted their brothers who had severed ties with them, rejecting Pakistani traditions in favor of British values.
In the remote Scottish village of Furness, the red telephone booth of Local Heroes (1983) stands out against the azure coastline. This antiquated booth is the only way American businessman Mike (Peter Riggett) can connect with his Houston office.
While the phone booth in "Local Heroes" is part of the overall quaintness of Furness, in 1945's "I Go My Way," Michael Powell and Emmerick Presberg present a modern phone booth in a similar setting that is different from moore's natural beauty.
The sound of the waterfall overshadows her phone, reflecting that Joan (Wendy Shearer) loves this isolated island more than her metropolitan life.
When GPOs install phone booths in rural areas, conflicts sometimes arise. Tokir (Roger Lewossy) explains how his fellow islander, Carteriona (Pamela Brown), refuses to install a phone booth on the top of a hill.
Similarly, a newsreel on BFI Player in the 1980s showed a community in Worcester struggling to keep phone booths green to blend in with the surrounding rural surroundings.
Telephone booths have also appeared in many comedy scenes, most notably in Doctor Thief (1955) where thieves squeeze into the phone booth to eavesdrop on their robberies.
Billinsgate's Great Britain (1933) humorously captures the transformation of working-class fish shop owners into film music producers in a set of three telephone booths.
In the 1980s, old phone booths became the focus of jokes, and public phone booths seemed to be increasingly malfunctioning and outdated. In Every Second Count (1986), John Chris' principal knocks on an already problematic phone call in frustration while onlookers shout "They're destroying those calls again!" ”
Although I Am with Long Fingernails (1987) is set in the late 1960s, Withnail (Richard M.) E. Grant) calls his agent in a phone booth and complains to the operator about a problem with the coin system.
The 2008 teen comedy Wild Child teases the dirty side of the phone booth ad when Bobby (Emma Roberts) and her friends stick her face on a poster of a call girl to spoof the grim female leader Harriet (Georgia Gold).
Over the past few decades, the phone booth has been more of a symbol of tourism than a useful facility. Its use in international hits and epochal works such as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), Christopher Robin (2018) and Rocket Man (2019) relies on its status as a recognised British symbol.
With phone booths across the country becoming fewer and fewer, or being reused for different purposes, movies like these offer an important time capsule that gives us a glimpse into this iconic box and an unforgettable upending of it.