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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: Paramount
Salesrank: 11120
Released: May 28, 2002 |
| Our Price: $13.49 |
| Used Price: $7.00 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
A bedridden heiress phones her husband and overhears two men plotting her murder. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 08/19/2003 Starring: Barbara Stanwyck Leif Erickson Run time: 89 minutes Rating: Nr Director: Anatole Litvak
Description of Sorry, Wrong Number:
Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster star in Sorry, Wrong Number, an odd telephonic thriller that starts off with a bang. Stanwyck, playing a shrill invalid, is at home alone and phoning around to find her husband. Thanks to a crossed wire, she overhears a murder plot, but she can barely get anyone to pay attention to her, let alone believe her. The rest of the film is played out in telephone conversations and flashbacks as our increasingly frightened heroine tries to find her husband and unravel the murder. Stanwyck, as always, gives a terrific performance, managing to make her character both unlikeable and compelling at the same time. Lancaster, as her kept husband, is handsome, virile, and trapped all at once. The plot, expanded to a film from a tight, dark little radio play, wanders at times but gathers itself back together for a corker of an ending. --Ali Davis
Sorry, Wrong Number Reviews:
Lancaster & Stanwyck In This "Nightmare Noir"! 
2009-10-03 -
Sorry, Wrong Number
Exciting 1948 thriller based on a 45 minute radio play, starring Barbara Stanwyck as the paranoid, controlling rich woman, daughter of a rich drug company tycoon. She falls in love and steals a man from a girlfriend of hers played by Ann Richards. The Ann Richards character reminded me of Inger Stevens in a lot of ways -- sneaky, shy and cute. Burt Lancaster plays the rough man from a poor neighborhood who becomes a milk-toast of a husband to Leona.
There is a lot of flashback in this story that detracts somewhat from the thriller aspect of things. The Ann Richards character really does not add a lot to the story, except her following people around, spying on her husband (who is a police detective) and sneaking into beach houses and train stations.
The mysterious party line where Leona listens to a plot of murder at 11:15 that same night freaks out Leona. What seems to freak her out even more is learning that her illness is psychosomatic -- "Liars, liars!!" Wow!
With a few slow points that are a bit hard to handle for the modern viewer, the ending is quite a tour de force. Definitely a four star film, not on par with a Hitchcock thriller in my opinion, but still you gotta see a young Burt Lancaster (Birdman of Alcatraz).
Seeing a young William Conrad (Cannon TV series) as the gangster Moreno was a treat as well.
The DVD I had had minimal features, just a film trailer.
Some Lancaster Flicks!
Burt Lancaster - The Signature Collection (The Flame and the Arrow / Jim Thorpe All-American / His Majesty O'Keefe / South Sea Woman / Executive Action)
Birdman of Alcatraz
Some Barbara Stanwyck Movies:
Barbara Stanwyck - The Signature Collection (Annie Oakley / East Side, West Side / My Reputation / Executive Suite / Jeopardy / To Please a Lady)
Double Indemnity (Universal Legacy Series)
William Conrad! (was original Matt Dillon in radio's Gunsmoke).
Cannon: Season One, Vol. 1
Sorry, it`s too late! 
2009-09-15 - Leona Stevenson - an invalid heiress - is alone in her New York apartment, when she realizes through a crossed telephone wire, a woman will be killed. She overhears two men planning until she knows the truth. She will be the next one. Additionally she has developed a psychosomatic cardiac condition and her only contact with the outer world is her telephone.
The circling camera that moves from the array of useless medicines on her bedside table talks by itself about her terrible solitude. Henry is the henpecked husband who retracts himself since his original plan. Blackmailed by Morano who really wants to hasten the imminent death of his wife and so he can inherit her estate.
But, according the inherent tragic fatalism of the nor film, once the pieces moves forward, nothing can stop it and the late redemption has nothing to do about it.
Anatole Livak was one of the remarkable filmmakers who received with notable intensity, the invaluable heritage of the German expressionism, using surrealistic and expressionistic devices, the game of light and shadows with the night working out as sinister background.
Barbara Stanwyck made a towering performance who earned her a nomination as Best Actress for this tense movie that will maintain you at the border of your seat until the final statement: "Sorry , wrong number."
"Burt-EE, Phone Home!"
2009-07-20 - We realize early on that Barbara Stanwyck's character is a "little off," that she is playing her invalidcy to the hilt. What kind of a marital relationship is this? We have all seen this strange kind of co-dependency in which the invalid uses emotional blackmail on the people encompased by the small sphere around them, and those encompassed love/hate catering to them. It starts subtly, then turns literally into a "man-eating monster," wanting more, more, more attention, creating more, more, more drama to get it. The premise of the totally helpless person having to use a telephone as her only way of communicating with the outside world, or for entertainment, as there were not televisions all about then for that purpose, is a stroke of genius for the writer. It is humorous now when we have become a society, quite pitiful indeed that has cell phones glued to ears. What does that say about us? Can we not go for a 24 hour period with out phone drama in our lives? Very sad. Both Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster seem miscast. She usually plays tough, strong and often ruthless women. Burt usually plays highly macho men. In this production they play opposite roles, she is weak and helpless and pitiable, he seems to be a "kept man" by her father's pharmaceutical millions. Yet they do these roles so well, it is absolute proof of their abilities as actors. A great and sometimes mob-i-licious movie.
*Suspenseful* Thriller Will Have You At The Edge Of Your Seat!
2009-06-29 - I saw a remake of SORRY, WRONG NUMBER that starred Lonnie Anderson and was made for TV. Anyway, that show stayed with me all these years and so when I learned that it was a remake of this psychological thriller starring Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster, I just had to check out the original. And it does not disappoint!
The movie is about a bed bound woman who over hears a plot to kill someone at 11:15 at night when her phone lines get crossed with another party. Through a serious of phone calls and flashbacks, the story builds as it pushes the viewer towards the edge finally unfolding in horrific fashion.
I really enjoyed the tension in SORRY, WRONG NUMBER and must say that it was fun to watch. Stanwyck is great as the nutty, spoiled rich wife and Lancaster is cast equally well as the hunky and kept husband.
The black & white movie is shown in full-screen format and I believe it falls under the film noir category. It also includes the trailer.
Anyway, it's a cool and creepy film! Perfect for fans of psychological thrillers and suspense movies. Watch it on a dark and rainy night with all the lights off.
Suspenseful and memorable little Thriller with Noir flourishes.
2009-06-15 - Basically a Hitchcock imitation, but of the highest quality, is this little Thriller from the golden age of the genre.
Barbera Stanwyck won a well deserved Oscar as a bed ridden woman who overhears her planned death over the telephone and tries to piece together her ensuing fate. Will she die or is it her imagination?
The film is very well handled and far from conventional. The characters are complex and the mystery that unravels is both intriguing in it's harsh expectedness and yet, surprising as well.
The cast all perform well including Burt Lancaster in an early role as the suspicious husband of Stanwyck, who is set up as her would be murderer.
Ending is a classic bit of dark cinema with a deliciously, blackly comic final line.
This film serves an important role in the evolution of film Noir in the presentation of it's central characters. Neither one is very likeable. Stanwyck henpecks Lancaster throughout and belittles him. She allows him absolutely no freedom and little in the way of confidence. She also turns out to be something of a hypochrondriac. Lancaster is aloof and maddening in his desire for financial freedom. His willingness to try ANYTHING to obtain security and escape disgrace and the law make him a somewhat despicable character.
Normally such things do not add up to create a good film, but the payoff becomes that much more satisfying in a morbid way and that much more intriguing. Seen as a reflection as the corruption of the spirit through ruthless ambition and apathy, the film remains fascinating. In this film that old saying remains true: Money IS the root of all evil.
