When I first started watching this film, I wasn't hooked until well into the movie. Seeing the bed-ridden Stanwyck's monologue just didn't hook me--even when she accidentally overheard a plot to kill someone. A lot of this was because her character wasn't very likable--she was a very whiny little "princess" who frankly annoyed me! This is why I rate the movie lower than many on IMDb--I just didn't care much about her and early on I was hoping that SHE would be the one murdered. However, as the story unfolded in a series of flashback, the film became less claustrophobic and very entertaining. None of this really made me hate Stanwyck's character less, but it did help the audience to understand her more--as well as her husband (Burt Lancaster). While the story still was hampered by a long list of unlikable characters (actually, I never really liked any of them--except maybe Wendell Corey),it did excel by being super-creative and for ending on a very powerful note. The film was a lot like the first drop on a roller-coaster--very slow and uphill until a wonderful conclusion. I'd like to say more, but don't want to spoil the film.

The movie had generally good and very creative writing, good direction and excellent acting. It certainly WAS creative, but allowing Stanwyck to be more three-dimensional would have improved the film greatly.

Am a big fan of classic film (or pre-1960 films),and of film noirs and thrillers. There are numerous classics in all of those, especially the case with classic film. Loved the premise and have yet to see a bad performance from Barbara Stanwyk (plenty more to see of her films and performances though),or hear a bad score from Franz Waxman. Burt Lancaster in an against type role did picque my interest. Haven't heard the radio broadcast in years but remember it being brilliant.

'Sorry, Wrong Number' did disappoint somewhat considering what it had going for it and how much it had going for it too. That probably sounds like it is being said that 'Sorry, Wrong Number' is a bad film. To me actually, it is a long way from that. Actually found a lot to like about it and thought it quite good. The thing is though, what made it disappointing to me as well is that it had all the ingredients to be great, a masterwork even and it doesn't reach either. Perhaps was expecting a little too much though, hard not to.

Do agree with the criticisms that have been directed towards 'Sorry, Wrong Number' and there is not an awful lot to add. It does feel padded, the number of flashbacks (which the film is quite heavy in) could have been less and they could have had more monentum, the early ones especially bog the film down and makes it very draggy so it was not the easiest of films to get into.

It is not always easy to follow, it can be over-complicated and it is not easy at first deciphering who is who other than the lead character. Burt Lancaster, cast against type as said already, doesn't always look comfortable, did find him stiff in his early scenes.

Barbara Stanwyk however sends up the most thunderous of storms in an utterly riveting tour-de-force. She is very well supported by the rest of the cast. Ann Richards gets a lot out of her small role and Ed Begley has a character that fits him like a glove. As 'Sorry, Wrong Number's' least unpleasant character, Wendell Corey is suitably sympathetic, and Harold Vermilyea is chilling without being over-the-top. The characters are not pleasant, one in particular dislikes Leona quite strongly early on, but with it being an unpleasant type of story that didn't put me off that much. One cannot not mention the telephone, one of the finest examples in film of an object that is like its own character that is crucial to the story.

One of 'Sorry, Wrong Number's' most memorable components is the ending, have not seen an ending this nail-biting or frightening for any film in quite some time, and the final line equally stays with one forever. The photography is a big star and brings so much atmosphere to the suitably claustrophobic locations. Some very clever angles that accentuate the suspense and the shadowy quality not only looks beautiful it is also very ominous. Franz Waxman's score is similarly haunting while enhancing the claustrophobia and tension, also lushly orchestrated in a way that's unmistakable Waxman. The script is talk-heavy but it is on the most part very intriguing and the film does well opening it up. The story is not perfect in execution, but when it does get going it is very suspenseful in especially the latter portions, and doesn't feel too stagy. Anatole Litvak's direction is flawed narratively but when it comes to visual style and atmosphere it is quite masterly.

Summing up, quite good but could have been more. 7/10

For her fourth and final Oscar nomination for Best Actress, Barbara Stanwyck starred in an expanded version of the Lucille Fletcher radio play Sorry Wrong Number. The original drama was only thirty minutes and it only concentrates on a crippled woman and her terror. We certainly get that in this film and it's when we do that Stanwyck went into Oscar contention.

Besides the moments of present terror, the story is fleshed in a series of flashbacks, sometimes flashbacks within flashbacks, although not approaching Passage to Marseilles which set some kind of record in that department. The people that Fletcher creates aren't the most sympathetic group of people you'd ever want to meet. Stanwyck is the spoiled only child of pharmaceutical millionaire Ed Begley and we her put on a full court campaign to sweep poor kid Burt Lancaster off his feet and away from Ann Richards. We see Lancaster trapped in a velvet cocoon of luxury, but not really being his own man. He's as kept as William Holden was in Sunset Boulevard.

As the story unfolds it actually becomes Lancaster's struggle to claw out of captivity. Stanwyck does not become the most sympathetic figure either as she wields her illness as a weapon as surely as Eleanor Parker did in The Man With The Golden Arm. Imagine Bill Holden's character in Sunset Boulevard married to Parker's from the Otto Preminger classic and you've got a really sick marriage.

The flashback story is a bit much to take, but when it comes to Stanwyck's present terror the film goes into high gear. Think of the extraordinary range of roles that Barbara Stanwyck was nominated for an Oscar. The white trash mother in Stella Dallas, the mob moll in Ball Of Fire, the evil wife in Double Indemnity and finally this psychosomatic clinging cripple in Sorry Wrong Number. All completely different from the others, yet all stamped with Stanwyck's indelible screen persona.

According to the Axel Madsen biography of Stanwyck she was not entertaining hopes of winning in 1948 in what proved to be her last shot at a competitive Oscar. She picked out exactly who was going to win that year and her other competition was Ingrid Bergman in Joan Of Arc, Olivia DeHavilland in The Snake Pit, and Irene Dunne in I Remember Mama. The winner in who Stanwyck said was the Best Performance for an Actress in 1948 was Jane Wyman for Johnny Belinda.

When Sorry Wrong Number concentrates on Barbara it's one of the best fright tales around. Would that the rest of the film was as good as her performance.