Sorry, Wrong Number [Blu-ray]

Director: Anatole Litvak Anatole Litvak

Overview

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."

Product Details

Release Date:	03/21/2023
UPC:	0826663235302
Original Release:	1948
Rating:	NR
Source:	Shout Factory
Language:	English
Time:	1:29:00
Sales rank:	4,727

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Barbara Stanwyck	Leona Stevenson
Burt Lancaster	Henry Stevenson
Ann Richards	Actor
Wendell Corey	Dr. Alexander
Harold Vermilyea	Actor
Ed Begley	James Cotterell
Leif Erickson	Actor
William Conrad	Morano
John Bromfield	Actor
Jimmy Hunt	Actor
Dorothy Neumann	Actor
Paul Fierro	Actor
Kristine Miller	Actor
Suzanne Dalbert	Actor
Joyce Compton	Actor
Tito Vuolo	Actor
Ashley Cowan	Actor
Garry Owen	Bingo Caller
Cliff Clark	Actor
Igor Dega	Actor
Grace Poggi	Actor
Pepito Pérez	Boat Operator
Bill Cartledge	Page Boy
Yola D'Avril	French Maid
Neal Dodd	Minister
Jimmie Dundee	Morano's Henchman
Jesse Graves	Page at Bingo Hall
Holmes Herbert	Wilkins
Louise Lorimer	Nurse
Franz Waxman	Composer

Technical Credits

Lucille Fletcher

Anatole Litvak	Director,Producer
Gordon Jennings	Special Effects
Hal B. Wallis	Producer
Lucille Fletcher	Screenwriter
Farciot Edouart	Special Effects
Walter Oberst	Sound Effects,Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

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.

All Movie Guide - Lucia Bozzola