Sorry, Wrong Number, despite having Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster was an extremely dull film-noir/mystery.The main character played by Stanwyck was confined to her bed and unlikable, the next main character played by Lancaster wasn't present for most of the film. The story was terrible, there was no suspense and it was all way over the top. The only interesting part of the whole film was the character of Sally Hunt. At the start of the flick Henry is dancing with Sally, Leona rudely interjects, Henry after dancing with Leona turns her down going back to Sally. The next scene Henry is with Leona in her car, working for her dad and then marrying her. ???? It's like there was a scene missing.

When I watched this movie as a child, it absolutely terrified me! When asked what the scariest film I'd ever seen was, 'Sorry, Wrong Number' was always at the top of my list. How I wish I didn't watch it again as an adult, because unlike other classics that have held up over the years ('The Godfather', 'Psycho', 'The Graduate'), this one sadly didn't.It stars Barbara Stanwyck as a woman who suffers from Hypochondria due to a mental impairment, and her husband Burt Lancaster ~ a man who works for Stanwyck's father. Having been mistreated and abused for years in his position, Lancaster decides his only way out of the marriage is by having Stanwyck killed. Stanwyck accidentally overhears a murder plot in a mis-transfered phone call, and starts realizing she is the intended target. When Lancaster starts having regrets and attempts to warn his wife of what will be occurring, it is obviously too late ~ when the killer answers the phone the final time and says, 'sorry, wrong number'. I'm sure it was absolutely terrifying in its day...and definitely was to a ten year old child! But the years have unfortunately diminished that fright factor.

Getting very lucky in finding Rififi on IMDb,I was disappointed to find no other Film Noirs on Netflix UK's site.With Netflix recently putting the superb 1964 Noir The Pawnbroker on site,I was thrilled to spot a Noir with an all-star cast,which led to me making the call.The plot:Suffering from an illness, bedridden Leona Stevenson rings up everywhere for assistance,due to their servant taking the day off,and her husband Henry being delayed at work. Expecting to get connected to a call from Henry,Leona accidentally gets connected to two gangsters talking about killing a women in a few hours time.Calling everyone she knows in the hope of stopping the murder,Leona begins to learn about Henry's business dealings,and starts to fear that she has listened in on plans for her own murder.View on the film:Filming all her scenes from back to back over 14 days, Barbara Stanwyck gives a destructive, women (just passed) on the verge of a nervous breakdown performance as Leona. With the phone being the only thing she has to react to, Stanwyck wraps Leona in burning Film Noir terror, uncoiling into screams Leona howls out to callers,and simmering with a fragility,as Leona begins to find out what her husband gets up to away from the bedroom. Dropping in to give his wife a quick check-up on the phone, Burt Lancaster (who did not get on with the director) gives an excellent rugged,slippery performance as Henry,whose lean smile Lancaster uses to hide a murky line of Film Noir deception at the door.Played out from an Agnes Moorehead one women radio play,the screenplay by Lucille Fletcher (who also wrote the radio version) retains the closeness that the original format offered in the bedridden scenes of Leona,where a Horror Noir atmosphere streams from the "unknown" voices on the other end,who Fletcher brilliantly grips to push Leona deeper inside her self-imposed Film Noir cave. Extensively toning down references to Henry's crime for the "Code", Fletcher struggles to keep the Film Noir paranoia flowing outside the bedroom,due to the unravelling of Henry's activities trimming the movie of the mysterious mood simmering over the line.Circling round Leona's decaying bed,director Anatole Litvak & cinematographer Sol Polito keep Leona suspended in Film Noir horror,via confrontational close-ups capturing the fractures of terror breaking out on Leona's face spanning fantastic,ultra- stylised crane shots going down into the pit of doom of Leona's household. Cooling down the brittle atmosphere in flashbacks, Litvak pats the screen down in Film Noir grit on an unworldly beach light years away from the Stevenson's decadent lives,as Henry makes a miscall.

Boy was I surprised by this one. I'm a big film-noir junkie, but for some reason I never saw this movie on any top 20 - or even top 50 - list for this genre. (Maybe I was looking at the wrong lists. ha-ha)I rented it on a whim, mainly to see a movie with a much-younger- than-Big-Valley-era Barbara Stanwyck. (I'm not quite a baby boomer.) Well, as others have pointed out on here, she is excellent in her frightened, hopelessly neurotic, bedridden role.The story is intricately told in real time with the aid of gripping flashbacks. After a plodding start, buckle up and stay very alert, as a ton of expository material gets dumped out in the middle third of the movie.The movie's ending is not quite what I thought (which I supremely liked; I don't care for endings that you can see coming in the first five minutes).So, make some popcorn. Then get the room quiet. (No talking.) Keep your mind focused on the screen. It's a suspenseful and cleverly deceptive ride. Enjoy!