Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)

☆ ☆ ☆

Sorry, Wrong Number (1948) – A. Litvak

Re-imagining this as the radio play it once was is instructive.  The film could easily dispense with the visuals, which add nothing at all, and perhaps it would be more harrowing alone in the dark with just the soundtrack.   And perhaps Agnes Moorhead, the original victim of this noir tragedy, would have been better and more shrewish (Barbara Stanwyck’s sultry portrayal in Double Indemnity stands out a bit too much in memory to reconceptualise her in this role). The plot involves Stanwyck overhearing a murder plot on a crossed telephone line and then we (and she) learn about the possible crime’s backstory through flashbacks.  Of course, she’s in trouble (a woman in peril again; see also The Two Mrs. Carrolls from the previous year). Burt Lancaster and William Conrad are, unfortunately, sorely neglected here and, all things considered, this is a pretty creaky show.  Next time, I might turn off the screen and turn out the lights.