‘Party Line’ (R)

It's getting to the point you can't even count on safe telephone sex. First there was "Call Me," and now we have another wrong number called "Party Line." On one side we have a rich brother-sister duo (Leif Garrett and Greta Blackburn) who connect with strangers via those infamous 976 party lines, only to reach out and cut their throats on first dates. Trying to catch them: a rogue cop (Richard Hatch) and a crusading assistant DA (Shawn Weatherly) who stumble onto a solution about 90 minutes later.

On the surface, this is an overblown "Miami Vice" episode with nudity and cuss words. That means slick cars, expensive suits, fancy houses, bored rich people (these folks are very different from you and me), bad disco songs, tedious nightclub sequences. Unfortunately, the flat pace -- visual and aural -- is more like "St. Petersburg Vice."

On the other hand, this may be your only chance to see one of America's great young actors, Leif Garrett, in a white wedding dress. And as his sister, Blackburn is impressive -- lean, sensuous, dangerous as a viper. The sibling relationship is convoluted, embracing murder, multilevel incest, patricide, matricide, sororicide and probably some pesticides. Yes, it's that kind of film -- but so ineptly conceived and executed that it should have been titled "Dial M for Monogamy."

"Party Line" is rated "R" and contains some nudity, bloodletting and profanity.