Sorry, wrong number

1. Sorry, Wrong Number
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Sorry, Wrong Number

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Anatole Litvak
Produced by
Anatole Litvak
Hal B. Wallis
Screenplay by Lucille Fletcher
Based on
the radio play
by Lucille Fletcher
Starring
Barbara Stanwyck
Burt Lancaster
Music by Franz Waxman
Cinematography Sol Polito
Edited by Warren Low
Production
company
Hal Wallis Productions
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release dates
 September 1, 1948 (United
States)

2. Running time 89 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Sorry, Wrong Number is a 1948 American suspense film noir directed by Anatole Litvak and
starring Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster. It tells the story of a woman who overhears a
murder plot. The film was adapted by Lucille Fletcher from her 1943 radio play. It is one of the
few pre-1950 Paramount Pictures films that remained in the studio's library (the rest are currently
owned by Universal).
[1]

Contents
 1 Plot
 2 Cast
 3 Production
 4 Awards
 5 Radio play
 6 Adaptations
 7 Other media
 8 See also
 9 References
 10 External links
o 10.1 Streaming audio
Plot
Leona Stevenson (Barbara Stanwyck) is the spoiled, bedridden daughter of wealthy businessman
James Cotterell (Ed Begley). One day, while listening to what seems to be a crossed telephone
connection, she hears two men planning a woman's murder. The call cuts off without Leona
learning very much other than it is scheduled for 11:15, when a passing train will hide any
sounds. She calls the telephone company and the police, but with few concrete details, they can
do nothing. Complicating matters, her husband Henry (Burt Lancaster) is overdue and their
servants have the night off, leaving her all alone in a Manhattan apartment.
As she makes a number of phone calls trying to locate Henry, Leona inadvertently begins to
piece together the mystery. The story is told mostly in flashbacks. When Leona reaches Henry's
secretary, Elizabeth Jennings (Dorothy Neumann), she learns that he took an attractive Mrs. Lord
to lunch and did not return to the office. Mrs. Lord turns out to be the former Sally Hunt (Ann
Richards). Leona stole then-drug store employee Henry from Sally, and married him against her
father's wishes. Sally is now the wife of Fred Lord (Leif Erickson), a lawyer in the district
attorney's office. From overheard conversations, she learned that her husband was close to
resolving an investigation that involves Henry somehow. Sally became so concerned that she
followed her husband and two associates to a mysterious meeting in a seemingly abandoned
house on Staten Island. The house, according to a "no trespassing" sign, belongs to a W. Evans.

3. Sally arranged to meet Henry for lunch, but before she could warn him, he left the table and did
not return. Later, Sally calls Leona with more news. The house on Staten Island has burned
down, and three men, including someone named Morano (William Conrad), have been arrested.
Waldo Evans (Harold Vermilyea), however, has escaped.
Leona then receives a message from Henry stating he has gone out of town on business he had
forgotten about and will not be back until Sunday.
Leona next gets in touch with Dr. Alexander (Wendell Corey), a specialist she had come to New
York to see regarding her lifelong heart troubles. Alexander reveals that he gave Henry his
prognosis ten days before, something that Henry kept from her. Henry had married Leona
without being aware of her health problems. He first found out when she had a heart attack after
they quarreled about his attempt to get a job on his own, rather than being a do-nothing vice
president in his father-in-law's business. (James Cotterell, however, sabotaged his job interview.)
Her attacks became more and more frequent, until she finally took to her bed about a year ago.
Alexander, however, diagnosed Leona's problems as purely psychosomatic; there is nothing
wrong with her physically.
Then Leona receives a telephone call from Waldo Evans, a chemist working for her father. He
reluctantly discloses that Henry recruited him to steal valuable chemicals from the Cotterell drug
company to sell to Morano. Later, Henry decided to bypass Morano when Evans was transferred
to the New Jersey plant. Morano, however, showed up with two thugs and intimidated Henry
into signing an IOU for $200,000 for his lost profits, due in three months. When Henry protested
that he did not have that much money, Morano pointed out that Leona must have a large
insurance policy. However, with Morano now in custody, Evans stresses that Henry no longer
has to raise the now-overdue sum.
When Henry finally calls from a train station, Leona gives him Evans' message. Seeing that it is
only minutes from 11:15, he pleads with her to go to the balcony and scream for help, but she
protests that she cannot, even though she can hear somebody downstairs. When the intruder
enters her bedroom, she begs for her life, then screams. The intruder strangles and kills Leona.
Unaware of the policemen about to apprehend him, Henry frantically calls back, only to have a
man answer, "Sorry, wrong number."
Cast
 Barbara Stanwyck as
Leona Stevenson
 Burt Lancaster as
Henry J. Stevenson
 Ann Richards as Sally
Hunt Lord
 Wendell Corey as Dr.
Philip Alexander
 Harold Vermilyea as
Waldo Evans
 Leif Erickson as Fred
Lord
 William Conrad as
Morano
 John Bromfield as Joe -
Detective
 Jimmy Hunt as Peter
Lord
 Dorothy Neumann as
Elizabeth Jennings

4.  Ed Begley as James
'J.B.' Cotterell
 Paul Fierro as
Harpootlian
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]

Hollywood's Production Code Administration initially objected to elements of Fletcher's
screenplay, including its depiction of drug trafficking, and the script was significantly revised to
win approval.
[3]

Awards
For her role, Stanwyck was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Radio play
Lucille 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.
Orson Welles called Sorry, Wrong Number "the greatest single radio script ever written".
[4]

Adaptations
 Another radio version – an adaptation of the film – was broadcast January 9, 1950, on Lux
Radio Theater. Barbara Stanwyck recreated her screen role.
 Sorry, Wrong Number was made into a television play broadcast on station WCBW-TV
(now WCBS-TV) in New York 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]

 A version was produced for Australian television in 1958.
[7]

 Another television version aired in 1989, starring Loni Anderson, Patrick Macnee and
Hal Holbrook. It was directed by Tony Wharmby and adapted by Ann Louise Bardach.
[8]

 On 17 October 1948, Stanwyck did a parody of Sorry, Wrong Number on The Jack Benny
Program.
[9]

Other media

5. Sorry, Wrong Number is referenced in the 2014 action-thriller Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Chris Pine and Kevin Costner.
See also
 List of films featuring home invasions
References
1. Sorry, Wrong Number at the Internet Movie Database.
2. Eifert, Steve. Sorry, Wrong Number, film analysis and review, Film Noir of the Week,
June 29, 2008. Accessed: July 12, 2013.
3. Passafiume, Andrea. Turner Classic Movies, Sorry, Wrong Number, film article, "The
Big Idea Behind Sorry, Wrong Number". Accessed: July 12, 2013.
4. "The Hitch-Hiker". The Mercury Summer Theatre on the Air, June 21, 1946, (at 1:00), at
the Internet Archive. Retrieved 2014-08-04.
5. Sorry, Wrong Number at the Internet Movie Database.
6. Sorry, Wrong Number at the Internet Movie Database.
7. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3423462/
8. Sorry, Wrong Number at the Internet Movie Database.
9. Benny, Jack. The Old Time Radio Network, at the OTR.Network Library web site,
December 8, 2011. Accessed: July 12, 2013.
External links
 Sorry, Wrong Number at the American Film Institute Catalog
 Sorry, Wrong Number at the Internet Movie Database
 Sorry, Wrong Number at AllMovie
 Sorry, Wrong Number at the TCM Movie Database
 Sorry, Wrong Number film trailer on YouTube
Streaming audio
 Suspense and Lux Radio Theater broadcasts of "Sorry, Wrong Number"
 Sorry, Wrong Number on Lux Radio Theater: January 9, 1950. Starring Barbara
Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster.
[hide]
 v
 t
 e
Films directed by Anatole Litvak

6.  Sleeping Car
 Mayerling (1936)
 The Woman I Love
 Tovarich
 The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse
 The Sisters
 Confessions of a Nazi Spy
 Castle on the Hudson
 All This, and Heaven Too
 City for Conquest
 Out of the Fog
 Blues in the Night
 This Above All
 The Long Night
 Sorry, Wrong Number
 The Snake Pit
 Decision Before Dawn
 Act of Love
 The Deep Blue Sea
 Anastasia
 Mayerling (1957)