Main Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Burt Lancaster, Ann Richards, Wendell Corey, Ed Begley, Sr., Harold Vermilyea
Release Year: 1948
Country: US
Run Time: 89 minutes
Plot
When Lucille Fletcher took on the challenge of expanding her classic 30-minute radio suspenser Sorry, Wrong Number into an 89-minute feature film, she opted on the Citizen Kane approach, filling the plotline to the brim with revelatory flashbacks. Barbara Stanwyck stars as bedridden hypochondriac Leona Stevenson, who while trying to make a call from her bedroom telephone gets her wires crossed and inadvertently overhears two men plotting a murder. Anxiously, Leona wades through telephone-company bureaucracy to trace the call, never catching on -- until it's too late -- that the murder being planned is hers. A series of flashbacks details the disintegrating marriage between the wealthy Leona and her weakling husband Henry (Burt Lancaster), and Henry's subsequent disastrous get-rich-quick schemes involving chemist Waldo Evans (Harold Vermilyea) and a surly gangster (William Conrad). It would have been a near-sacrilege to alter the radio play's ironic ending, which fortunately remains intact on film. Sorry Wrong Number was first heard on radio's Suspense series in 1943, with Agnes Moorehead as the harried Mrs. Stevenson (a role she'd repeat several times on radio and on stage). Though disappointed that she wasn't chosen to star in the film version, Moorehead took some satisfaction in the fact that a recording of the original radio program was played constantly on the set to help keep Barbara Stanwyck "in the mood". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Adapted by Lucille Fletcher from her popular radio play, Sorry, Wrong Number (1948) gave film noir leading lady Barbara Stanwyck one of her greatest roles, as a tough-as-nails invalid heiress who inadvertently overhears a murder plot through a botched phone connection. Wielding said phone like a weapon, Stanwyck's Leona Stevenson alternates among demanding, hysterical, and tremulous moods as she slowly discovers the truth while sitting alone in her palatial Manhattan apartment. Expanded from the original play, Leona's phone conversations lead to flashbacks, and flashbacks within flashbacks, revealing weak husband Burt Lancaster's downfall and the shifting allegiances and tangled plot that implicate Leona in her own fate. Director Anatole Litvak tightly maintains suspense throughout the fractured time structure, leading up to the ironically chilling ending. Praised for her best performance since Double Indemnity (1944), Stanwyck received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, while Paramount's then-unheard of use of TV ads helped turn the Oscar season reissue of Sorry, Wrong Number into a box office hit. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Stanwyck plays Leona Stevenson, a spoiled, bedridden daughter of a millionaire. The telephone is her sole connection with the outside world. One day, while listening to what seems to be a crossed phone connection, she eavesdrops on two men planning a woman's murder. Leona calls the phone company and police, only to be ignored. Adding to Leona's dilemma is the fact that her husband Henry (Lancaster) is missing.
After a number of phone calls, the terrorized Leona begins to piece together the mystery. Her uneducated husband, who works for her wealthy father, turns out to be not all he seems. She finally realizes that she is the intended victim.
Production
Sorry, Wrong Number conforms to many of the conventions of film noir. The movie is shot in real time, with many flashbacks to flesh out the story.
Stanwyck's bedroom window overlooks the night skyline of Manhattan. The film is shot very dark, with looming shadows and circling camera shots used to maintain a high level of suspense.[2]
Radio play
Fletcher's play originally aired on the Suspense radio program on May 25, 1943, essentially a one-woman show with Agnes Moorehead as Mrs. Stevenson. The play was reprised seven times, each starring Moorehead. The final broadcast was on February 14, 1960. However, there was another radio version: on January 9, 1950, Lux Radio Theater broadcast an adaptation of the film, with Stanwyck recreating her big screen role. [3]
Sorry, Wrong Number was made into a television play on a local New York station on January 30, 1946 starring Mildred Natwick and G. Swayne Gordon. [5] A second live teleplay was broadcast on November 4, 1954, as the fourth episode of the CBS anthology series, Climax!, starring Lillian Bronson, adapted by Fletcher herself, with music provided by her then-husband, Bernard Herrmann.[6] It was remade into another television version in 1989, starring Loni Anderson, Patrick Macnee and Hal Holbrook. It was directed by Tony Wharmby and adapted by Ann Louise Bardach.[7]
