I never knew about the 1943 radio play, "Sorry, Wrong Number", written by Lucille Fletcher and starring Agnes Moorehead, until last year when I finally heard it. The play certainly caught my attention, just like it obviously did to many people who heard it when it was first broadcast, decades before I was born. Several years after its original broadcast, it was adapted to this film-noir by Fletcher herself, starring Barbara Stanwyck. After hearing the radio play for the first time last year, I was already interested in seeing this movie. This month, I heard the play for the second time and then finally got around to watching this 1948 adaptation. Was it as good as I could have possibly hoped for? Definitely not, but I thought most of it was at least reasonably well done.
Leona Stevenson is a wealthy heiress who is bedridden due to a severe illness. One night, she is all alone in her New York home. Her husband, Henry, promised he would be home hours ago, but for some mysterious reason, he still isn't back! With nobody else around and Leona hardly able to walk, the only way she can contact anyone is through the telephone beside her bed. She tries to call Henry, but does not succeed. Instead, the phone lines cross, and she hears a conversation between two thugs who are planning the murder of a woman, which is intended to happen at 11:15 that night! Obviously shocked at what she has just heard, Leona is determined to foil this evil plan she now knows about, and begins to call different people on the phone. During the series of phone calls, starting unsuccessfully with the operator and the police, she gradually learns a lot, as we learn more about the character, her husband, and other people she knows!
This version of "Sorry, Wrong Number" is mostly steady around the beginning, with the lead character in bed on the phone soon hearing the sinister conversation. Unfortunately, it doesn't stay consistent. In order to make a full-length movie out of the story, it obviously had to be extended, and one of the ways they extended it here was by adding a series of flashbacks. Not all of these work so well, including the tedious one early in the film showing how Leona's relationship with Henry began. This part really shows how unlikable our lead character is! However, while the film drags in a number of spots, there is a decent amount of suspense for much of the time, sometimes with an intense and haunting atmosphere, and most of the flashbacks do work. There's also great cinematography, with some nice shots of New York City, sometimes through Leona's window, and mostly good acting, with a decent if slightly flawed performance from Barbara Stanwyck, and other notable performances such as Burt Lancaster as Henry Stevenson. So, while this 1948 film-noir is no masterpiece, and is inferior to the radio play which it's based on, fans of suspense might want to give it a try.
Leona Stevenson is a wealthy heiress who is bedridden due to a severe illness. One night, she is all alone in her New York home. Her husband, Henry, promised he would be home hours ago, but for some mysterious reason, he still isn't back! With nobody else around and Leona hardly able to walk, the only way she can contact anyone is through the telephone beside her bed. She tries to call Henry, but does not succeed. Instead, the phone lines cross, and she hears a conversation between two thugs who are planning the murder of a woman, which is intended to happen at 11:15 that night! Obviously shocked at what she has just heard, Leona is determined to foil this evil plan she now knows about, and begins to call different people on the phone. During the series of phone calls, starting unsuccessfully with the operator and the police, she gradually learns a lot, as we learn more about the character, her husband, and other people she knows!
This version of "Sorry, Wrong Number" is mostly steady around the beginning, with the lead character in bed on the phone soon hearing the sinister conversation. Unfortunately, it doesn't stay consistent. In order to make a full-length movie out of the story, it obviously had to be extended, and one of the ways they extended it here was by adding a series of flashbacks. Not all of these work so well, including the tedious one early in the film showing how Leona's relationship with Henry began. This part really shows how unlikable our lead character is! However, while the film drags in a number of spots, there is a decent amount of suspense for much of the time, sometimes with an intense and haunting atmosphere, and most of the flashbacks do work. There's also great cinematography, with some nice shots of New York City, sometimes through Leona's window, and mostly good acting, with a decent if slightly flawed performance from Barbara Stanwyck, and other notable performances such as Burt Lancaster as Henry Stevenson. So, while this 1948 film-noir is no masterpiece, and is inferior to the radio play which it's based on, fans of suspense might want to give it a try.