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Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 6.8/10
Reviews Counted: 21
Fresh: 18 | Rotten: 3

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Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 3
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 2

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Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 4,606

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Movie Info

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

Unrated, 1 hr. 29 min.

Drama, Horror, Mystery & Suspense, Classics

Directed By: Anatole Litvak

Written By: Lucille Fletcher

In Theaters: Jan 1, 1948 Wide

On DVD: May 28, 2002

Cast

Barbara Stanwyck
Leona Stevenson
Burt Lancaster
Henry Stevenson
Ann Richards
Sally Lord Dodge
Wendell Corey
Dr. Alexander
Harold Vermilyea
Waldo Evans
Ed Begley Sr.
James Cotterell
Leif Erickson
Fred Lord
William Conrad
Morano
John Bromfield
Joe Detective
Jimmy Hunt
Peter Lord
Dorothy Neumann
Miss Jennings
Cliff Clark
Sergeant Duffy
Joyce Compton
Blonde
Ashley Cowan
Clam Digger
Yola d'Avril
French Maid
Suzanne Dalbert
Cigarette Girl
Rev. Neal Dodd
Minister
Paul Fierro
Harpootlian
Holmes Herbert
Wilkins
Louise Lorimer
Nurse
Kristine Miller
Dolly Dr. Alexander's G...
Garry Owen
Bingo Caller
Grace Poggi
Dancer
Tito Vuolo
Albert
Pepito P�rez
Boat Operator
Igor Dega

Critic Reviews for Sorry, Wrong Number

All Critics (23) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (18) | Rotten (3) | DVD (9)

Number derives sleek hysteria from its audaciously constraining narrative strategy.

January 2, 2008 Full Review Source: Village Voice

| Comment

Ed Park

Village Voice

Top Critic

To make a movie of Lucille Fletcher's classic radio play was really to betray its best idea: that sound, not sight, is the truly paranoid sense.

January 2, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader

| Comment

Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

Perhaps if you have a special interest in foul folks and morbidities, you will thrill to this Hal Wallis picture. Frankly, we squirmed -- and not from dread.

March 25, 2006 Full Review Source: New York Times

| Comment

Bosley Crowther

New York Times

Top Critic

Stanwyck was too strong to play this simpering role.

October 10, 2008 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid

| Comment

Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

Both Lancaster and Stanwyck are excellent.

January 2, 2008 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide

| Comment

TV Guide's Movie Guide

Anatole Litvak's taut, gripping, highly stylized noir, based a 22 minute radio play with Agnes Moorehead, is one of the genre's very best, with a bed-ridden Stanwyck in a tour de force performance--a case study for lover of film noir.

November 4, 2007 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

| Comment

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

Stanwyck's metamorphosis from indolence to hysteria is brilliantly executed.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out

| Comment

Time Out

dark and terrifying

September 30, 2005 Comment

Rich Cline

Shadows on the Wall

Vintage suspense with terrific Stanwyck, Lancaster

July 22, 2005 Comment

Carol Cling

Las Vegas Review-Journal

Fletcher adapted her celebrated 22-minute, single-character radio play into an almost equally tense screenplay, still retaining many of the eerie sound effects.

January 15, 2005 Full Review Source: Film4

| Comment

Film4

The film’s basic premise is just too compelling to resist.

November 6, 2004 Comment

Douglas Pratt

DVDLaser

A bit drawn-out, but a sensational vehicle for Stanwyck's talents

October 7, 2004 Comment

James Sanford

Kalamazoo Gazette

It is a carefully plotted film that leads to an extraordinary ironic climax.

March 16, 2004 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide

| Comment

Jamie Gillies

Apollo Guide

A good script, but it should have been filmed with the woman who made it famous on the stage, Agnes Moorehead.

July 22, 2003 Comment

Matt Bailey

Not Coming to a Theater Near You

[A] taut thriller.

March 10, 2003 Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle

| Comment

Marjorie Baumgarten

Austin Chronicle

Effective suspense film.

December 11, 2002 Comment

Ken Hanke

Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

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Audience Reviews for Sorry, Wrong Number

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I spent the first 86 minutes hoping Barbara Stanwyck would get what's coming to her and the last 3 minutes praying she'd escape. What a sensational screenplay (� la Lucille Fletcher)!

January 18, 2009