miscommunication all the way down, ending in semaphore

Dial C for Concupiscence runs the theme as pure cascade: a phone operator mistaken for another operator, whose attempts to apologize are mistaken for attempts to kill, who flees into a community that has given up on phones and voices entirely for semaphore flags — and there loves an armless man who can't work the flags. Every channel in the film misfires or is missing a limb; the punchline of a world of crossed wires is a language you signal with arms you don't have.