Sorry, Wrong Number (Anotale Litvak, 1948): USA

Reviewed by Collier Grimm.  Viewed on DVD.

“She overheard the plans for her own destruction!”
Be sure you pick up a pair of earplugs from the drug store before watching Barbara Stanwyck in Sorry Wrong Number. In the film she plays Leona Stevenson, a bedridden millionaire who overhears a plot for murder. The phone is Leona’s closest source to the outside world, and while trying to contact her missing husband, played by Burt Lancaster, she accidentally eavesdrops on a conversation about a murder that is to take place that night at eleven fifteen. For the rest of the film Stanwyck screams over the phone at every single person she speaks to. Although the performance is seriously over the top for Stanwyck standards, she was nominated that year for the Academy Award for Best Actress. However her melodramatic acting may be too much for modern audiences to cope with, which is why I must recommend earplugs.

The film was adapted from a radio play by Lucille Fletcher that originally aired during the Suspense program on CBS radio in May 1943. The chilling phone conversation overheard by Leona Stevenson leads to a plot full of twists and turns. As she pieces together the mystery conversation she has overheard, Leona begins to realize that the intended murder victim is in fact her. Unfortunately she suffers from psychosomatic heart failure, which confines her to her bed. The telephone becomes her only means of outside communication, and the film is filled with dozens of phone calls she makes in hopes of finding her missing husband and saving herself. There are several flashbacks throughout the film that reveal to the audience why she has been set up for murder. The director also fills almost every scene with low-key lighting to create suspense and drama. Leona’s bedroom is encircled in a web of total darkness; all but her solitary bedside lamp is hidden in the mystery of night. The lamp casts shadows across Leona’s horror stricken face, and illuminates the single source of hope, the ever-ringing telephone. Leona was not always bed ridden; however, she subconsciously imposes the disease upon herself so that her husband must bend to her will. Leona is a spoiled princess who will do anything to get her way with the men in her life, including punishing them with frequent “heart attacks.” It is up to the audience to believe that Leona is unintentionally faking a heart condition in Sorry Wrong Number. You may in fact find yourself siding with the murderer in this film.

DVD EXTRAS: The original Trailer for the picture is the only special feature due to the age of the film.