When Michael Calls is a Thriller-drama

Drama film

A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 television movie

Television movie

A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...

 directed by Philip Leacock

Philip Leacock

Philip David Charles Leacock was an English television and film director and producer. His brother was documentary filmmaker Richard Leacock.-Career:...

 and starred Elizabeth Ashley

Elizabeth Ashley

Elizabeth Ashley is an American actress who first came to prominence as the ingenue in the Broadway play Take Her, She's Mine, which earned her a Tony Award as Best Featured Actress in a Play.-Early life:...

, Ben Gazzara

Ben Gazzara

-Early life:Gazzara was born Biagio Anthony Gazzara in New York City, the son of Italian immigrants Angelina and Antonio Gazzara, who was a laborer and carpenter. Gazzara grew up on New York's tough Lower East Side. He actually lived on E. 29th Street and participated in the drama program at...

 and Michael Douglas

Michael Douglas

Michael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...

.

Plot

Helen Connelly is a woman whose nephew Michael died fifteen years earlier. She is separated from her husband, Doremus. She is close to Michael's brother, Craig. When mysterious happenings began taking place and she begins receiving phone calls from the supposedly dead Michael, Helen begins to wonder if Michael is really dead or if she is losing touch with reality.

Cast

• Ben Gazzara
  Ben Gazzara
  -Early life:Gazzara was born Biagio Anthony Gazzara in New York City, the son of Italian immigrants Angelina and Antonio Gazzara, who was a laborer and carpenter. Gazzara grew up on New York's tough Lower East Side. He actually lived on E. 29th Street and participated in the drama program at...
  
   as Doremus Connelly
• Elizabeth Ashley
  Elizabeth Ashley
  Elizabeth Ashley is an American actress who first came to prominence as the ingenue in the Broadway play Take Her, She's Mine, which earned her a Tony Award as Best Featured Actress in a Play.-Early life:...
  
   as Helen Connelly
• Michael Douglas
  Michael Douglas
  Michael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...
  
   as Craig
• Marian Waldman
  Marian Waldman
  Marian Ann Waldman was a Canadian actress. She was also a veteran stage actress for Toronto for many decades of her career.- Biography :...
  
   as Elsa Britton
• Karen Pearson as Peggy Connelly
• Larry Reynoldsa as Dr. Britton
• Al Waxman
  Al Waxman
  Albert Samuel Waxman, CM, O.Ont was a Canadian actor and director of over 1000 productions on radio, television, film, and stage...
  
  as Sheriff Hap Washbrook
• Alan McRae as Harry Randall
• Chris Pellett as Peter
• Steve Weston
  Steve Weston
  Steve Weston was a Canadian television and theatre actor. He is best known to Canadian audiences from his stint as the husband in the sitcom The Trouble With Tracy, and as a series regular on the sketch comedy series Bizarre...
  
   as Enoch Mills
• Robert Warner as Sam
• John Bethune
  John Bethune
  John Bethune was a Canadian Anglican clergyman and acting principal of McGill University from 1835 to 1846.-Biography:...
  
   as Quinlan
• William Osler
  William Osler
  Sir William Osler, 1st Baronet was a physician. He was one of the "Big Four" founding professors at Johns Hopkins Hospital as the first Professor of Medicine and founder of the Medical Service there. Sir William Osler, 1st Baronet (July 12, 1849 – December 29, 1919) was a physician. He was...
  
   as Prof. Swen
• Michèle Chicoine as Amy

Release

The television film was first broadcast as an ABC Movie of the Week

ABC Movie of the Week

The ABC Movie of the Week is a weekly television anthology series, featuring made-for-TV movies, that aired on the ABC network in various permutations from 1969 to 1975.-History:...

on February 5, 1972.

The film has been released on VHS

VHS

The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....

 and DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

by various small labels. It also appears under the title Shattered Silence.