The Dumb Waiter on AllMovie

Based on the one-act play by Harold Pinter, Robert Altman's The Dumb Waiter is a short made-for-TV movie originally shown on ABC. This absurdist crime story doesn't follow a traditional plot, but it follows the work of two hitmen: Ben (John Travolta) and Gus (Tom Conti). They hang out in the basement of a deserted rooming house to await their next instructions on who to kill. Thinking the house has been abandoned, things get complicated when they receive information from sources coming from other floors. They bicker between themselves as their anxiety grows about the unknown victim.