Sorry, Wrong Number

''Sorry, Wrong Number'' is a 1948 American thriller film noir directed by Anatole Litvak, from a screenplay by Lucille Fletcher, based on her 1943 radio play of the same name. The film stars Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster. It follows a bedridden woman, who overhears the plot of murder. While on the telephone, she attempts to help her husband solve the mystery and prevent the crime. Stanwyck was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. It is one of the few pre-1950 Paramount Pictures films which remained in the studio's library (the rest are currently owned by NBCUniversal).

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, an imperious invalid who accidentally intercepts a phone call between two men plotting a murder for that evening. She tries to enlist the help of the telephone operator, the police, and a hospital, becoming more frantic as the time passes. In the final moments of the play, she realizes that she herself is the intended victim. The play was reprised seven times (on August 21, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1948, 1952, 1957 and 1960). The final broadcast was on February 14, 1960. Orson Welles called ''Sorry, Wrong Number'' "the greatest single radio script ever written". In 2015, the broadcast was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for inclusion in the National Recording Registry.

Plot

Leona Stevenson is a spoiled, bedridden daughter of wealthy businessman James Cotterell. She tries to reach her husband, Henry. The servants are absent and she is alone in the apartment. She overhears two men planning a murder on a crossed telephone connection. The call cuts off without Leona learning much other than it is scheduled for the night. She fails to call the telephone company and the police for a few details.

While finding Henry, Leona recalls her past. She learns that the secretary met Henry that day with an attractive woman named Sally Lord and did not return to the office. Leona recognizes the woman as Sally Hunt, a college friend in love with Henry, and at the time was poor and working in a drug store. Leona took Henry from Sally, and married him against her father's wish. Sally later married Fred Lord, a lawyer in the district attorney's office. From overheard conversations, she learns her husband was close to resolving an investigation about Henry somehow. Sally is concerned she follows her husband and two associates to a mysterious meeting at an abandoned house on Staten Island. The house sign is owned by Waldo Evans, a chemist working for Leona's father. Sally arranged to meet Henry after warning him. He received a phone call, left the table and did not return. Sally concludes that the house was destroyed, Morano has been arrested by the police, and Waldo escaped them.

Leona receives a message from Henry, stating he left the town for work he had forgotten about and he will return on Sunday. Leona calls Dr. Phillip Alexander, the specialist she came to New York to see regarding her lifelong heart troubles. Alexander reveals that he gave Henry her prognosis ten days ago, something that Henry kept from her. In a flashback, Leona had gone some years without any cardiac episodes, before marrying Henry. Henry learns about her health issues for a few years, when she suffered a cardiac arrest during a quarrel. It becomes clear Leona tries to use Henry, insisting he worked for her father even though he is bored. As their troubles become severe, Leona's attacks become frequent, until she is bedridden. However, Alexander diagnoses the problems as purely psychosomatic

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