Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)

Director:

Anatole Litvak

Writers:

Lucille Fletcher (radio play)
Lucille Fletcher (screenplay)

Release Date:

1 September 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Film-Noir | Thriller

Tagline:

She overheard the plans for her own destruction!

Plot:

Leona Stevenson is sick and confined to her bed. One night, whilst waiting for her husband to return home...

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Heir | Illness | Father Daughter Relationship | Heart Disease

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Barbara Stanwyck	...	Leona Stevenson
Burt Lancaster	...	Henry Stevenson
Ann Richards	...	Sally Hunt Lord
Wendell Corey	...	Dr. Alexander
Harold Vermilyea	...	Waldo Evans
Ed Begley	...	James Cotterell
Leif Erickson	...	Fred Lord
William Conrad	...	Morano
John Bromfield	...	Joe - Detective
Jimmy Hunt	...	Peter Lord
Dorothy Neumann	...	Miss Elizabeth Jennings
Paul Fierro	...	Harpootlian
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bill Cartledge	...	Page Boy (uncredited)
Cliff Clark	...	Police Sergeant Duffy (uncredited)
Joyce Compton	...	Cotterell's Blonde Girlfriend (uncredited)
Ashley Cowan	...	Clam Digger (uncredited)
Suzanne Dalbert	...	Cigarette Girl (uncredited)
Yola d'Avril	...	French Maid (uncredited)
Igor Dega	...	Member of Dance Team (uncredited)
Neal Dodd	...	Minister (uncredited)
Jimmie Dundee	...	Morano's Henchman (uncredited)
Mary Field	...	Telephone Operator (uncredited)
Jesse Graves	...	Page at Bingo Hall (uncredited)
Holmes Herbert	...	Wilkins (uncredited)
Louise Lorimer	...	Nurse (uncredited)
Kristine Miller	...	Dolly: Doctor Alexander's Girlfriend (uncredited)
Garry Owen	...	Bingo Caller (uncredited)
Pepito Pérez	...	Boat Operator (uncredited)
Grace Poggi	...	Member of Dance Team (uncredited)
Alexander Pollard	...	Waiter (uncredited)
Albert Pollet	...	Maurice - Waiter (uncredited)
George Stern	...	Drug Store Proprietor (uncredited)
Dorothy Vernon	...	Subway Extra (uncredited)
Tito Vuolo	...	Albert, the Waiter (uncredited)

Directed by
Anatole Litvak

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Lucille Fletcher		radio play
Lucille Fletcher		screenplay

Produced by
Anatole Litvak	....	producer
Hal B. Wallis	....	producer (as Hal Wallis)

Original Music by
Franz Waxman

Cinematography by
Sol Polito		(director of photography)

Art Direction by
Hans Dreier
A. Earl Hedrick		(as Earl Hedrick)

Set Decoration by
Sam Comer
Bertram C. Granger		(as Bertram Granger)

Costume Design by
Edith Head

Makeup Department
Wally Westmore	....	makeup supervisor

Production Management
Richard Blaydon	....	production manager (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Richard McWhorter	....	assistant director

Art Department
Gene Lauritzen	....	construction coordinator (uncredited)

Sound Department
Gene Merritt	....	sound recordist
Walter Oberst	....	sound recordist

Special Effects by
Gordon Jennings	....	special photographic effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Farciot Edouart	....	process photographer
Mal Bulloch	....	still photographer (uncredited)
Al Green	....	camera operator (uncredited)
Fred True	....	grip (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Warren Low	....	editorial supervisor

Music Department
Sidney Cutner	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
George Parrish	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Leonid Raab	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Leo Shuken	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Other crew
Marvin Weldon	....	script supervisor (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Hal Wallis Productions

Distributors

• Paramount Pictures (1948) (USA) (theatrical)
• Paramount (1951) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• National Broadcasting Company (NBC) (1969) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• Paramount (1950) (France) (theatrical)
• CIC Vídeo (Brazil) (VHS)
• Paramount Home Video (2003) (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Ruser  Miss Stanwyck's jewels

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Norway:16 (1949) | USA:Approved (PCA #12493) | West Germany:16 (nf) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Company:

Hal Wallis Productions

Trivia:

Film noir adaptation of the famous 1943 radio play.

Goofs:

Continuity: After Leona calls the police, she reaches to her bed table for medicine and water. The table extending over her bed immediately at her right hand, and the phone is on the bed at her left. In the next shot, the phone has moved, and the bed table is far away from her, under the window to her left.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Leona Stevenson: Operator! Operator! Operator!
Voice of Operator: Your call please?
Leona Stevenson: Operator, I've been ringing Murray Hill 35097 for the last half hour and the line is always busy. Will you ring it for me, please?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Numb3rs: Sniper Zero (#1.9)" (2005)

Soundtrack:

Passacaglia

Gimmicky noir still shocks despite its shortcomings

Chrome-plated hokum, Sorry, Wrong Number works despite itself. And works and works. Starting out as a radio drama by Lucille Fletcher in the 1940s, it boasted umpteen performances plus a 1946 production in the nascent medium of television before Anatole Litvak turned it into film noir. During most of its earlier incarnations, Agnes Moorehead created the role of the hysterical, bedridden heiress, the `cough drop queen,' but the film fell into the lap of the First Lady of Film Noir, Barbara Stanwyck. Moorehead was more than a strong enough actress, but Hollywood required a star.

The Irony is that Sorry, Wrong Number is far from her finest hour on screen. Rarely has one been made so aware of Stanwyck `acting' in the most unabashedly actressy way. And the same can be said of Burt Lancaster who, when a role didn't set well with him, communicated his discomfort blatantly. In The Rose Tattoo, against Anna Magnani, he was ingratiating and unconvincing ; here, he's almost as awkward as the henpecked husband in whom the worm has at long last turned.

But maybe Fletcher's slice of devil's food cake calls for mannered histrionics. Ensconced in her bedchamber one sweltering Manhattan evening, her pill bottles and her telephone at her elbow, Stanwyck eavesdrops on a sinister conversation – a murder is being plotted – thanks to a crossed line. This makes her even more restive, and she starts working the phone, tracking down her tardy husband. Litvak `ventilates' these calls, turning them into a series of flashbacks filling in the background to what will prove a very bad evening for Stanwyck. (The sequences on Staten Island, however, could have sprung from the pen of Franklin W. Dixon, the Hardy Boys' puppeteer.)

Unavoidably talky, owing to its source, Sorry, Wrong Number moves inexorably to its preordained end. Basically, it's a gimmick, and one that Hitchcock might have fine-tuned into a nifty infernal machine. Litvak doesn't do badly, though, and the movie's shock value outlasts its staled conventions. Its most chilling moment comes when Stanwyck frantically dials a number that she thinks will give her solace. But her answer is `BOwery 2-1000 – the City Morgue.'