And get ready for unique, rare in little known treasures from the Golden Age
of Radio. You're listening to the Amazing World of Radio with Adam Graham.
Welcome to the Amazing World of Radio from Boise, Idaho. This is your
host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment, email it to me
Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot nett Well. Our final look at radio adaptations
of films based on radio programs takes a dramatic turn if we're going to be
presenting the Luck's radio theater version of Sorry Wrong Number, Sorry Wrong Number was
a huge success for the radio series Suspense. It was one of the stories
that helped put that series on the app and made it a radio institution right
up until the end of the Golden Age radio. And The story follows Missus
Stevenson, an elderly bedrid and woman whose only outlet to the rest of the
world is her telephone and wires get crossed and she hears a murder being planned
now here. I'm going to go ahead and give a spoiler warning. Yeah,
we're giving a spoiler warning for an eighty year old radio program. Let's
let's go ahead and do that. So we'll give a spoiler warning and you
can go and listen to suspense. Sorry, wrong number if you want to
hear it for yourself, and you have not. If you're listening to this
on YouTube, I'll try to pop up a card that you can collect to
go over and listen to the Great Detectives when we did that over there,
So we're gonna go ahead and pause for about ten seconds, all right,
and that's your spoiler warning. Through the course of the episode, Missus Stevenson
finds out that the murder being planned is her own, and the play ends
with her being murdered as she was too late trying to get ahold of the
police. The police called back to find out what the nature of the emergency
was, but the killer picked up and said, sorry, wrong number.
And this was such a massive sensation. There were multiple reperformances of it by
Agnes Moorehead throughout the history of suspense, the last time in nineteen sixty.
There was a stage play adaptation released in nineteen forty six, and then we
get this film from nineteen forty eight, starring two great stars in Barbara Stanwick
and Burt Lancaster. We are going to go ahead and listen to the Lux
Radio Theater adaptation of that one and a half hour movie. The original air
date is January the ninth of nineteen fifty and the title is Sorry Wrong Number,
Lux Resents Hollywood Leave the Brothers Company, the makers of Lux Toilet Soap
bring You the Lux Radio Theater, starring Barbara Stanwick and Burt Lancaster in Sorry
Wrong Number, Ladies and your producer, mister William Keay readings from Hollywood Ladies
and Develin. Tonight's play verses the usual relation between radio and motion pictures.
Sorry Wrong Number was first a radio drama and had achieved such success on the
air that hal Wallace decided to make a picture of it. He assigned the
author, Lucille Fletcher to expand her short drama into a full length screenplay,
and the result was a triumph of suspense drama. The rest of the success
story you know, because the paramount picture, with Barbara Stanwick and Bert Lancaster
as the stars, was one of the top films of the year. Tonight,
Sorry Wrong Number completes the circle and comes back to radio with Miss Stanwick
and mister Lancaster in their original screen roles. Just as our drama had a
double success story. So has our product, Lux Toilets Soup. It's been
a favorite for years in the regular size, and now the new bath size
has made Lux Soap a hit all over again. The curtain rises now for
the first act of Sorry Wrong Number, starring Barbara Stanwick as Leona and Burt
Lancaster as Henry in the Tangles Network of a Great City. The telephone is
the unseen link between a million lives, servant of our common needs, confidence
of our inmost sequence, life and happiness, wait upon its wings, and
horror and loneliness, and sometimes even death. Operator Operator, Operator Operator.
I've been ringing Murray Hill three two four nine one for the last half hour,
and the line is always busy. Will you ring it for me?
Please? Hurry Hill three two four nine and one one moment Please. It's
my husband's office. He should have been home hours ago. I can't think
why that ridiculous wire should be busy. They always close office at six o'clock.
I am ringing your number. Thank you. Oh it's busy again.
Operative, The line is busy now, will you please hello hello missus Stevenson,
Please hello, I want to speak to mister Henry Stevenson. Hello,
George, Hello, what number is this? Everything'll for tonight? George?
I beg your pardon, but I'm using this wire about the time still eleven
fifteen, eleven fifteen, got it all straight? Now? Hello? I
think so. At eleven o'clock, the private the throw and goes around to
the bar on Second Avenue for a beer, and I get in through the
kitchen window. I wait until the train goes over the bridge in case the
window is open and she should scream who is this hello? Clan says he
doesn't want her to supper long. You know me, George, and don't
forget the jewelry. He want us to look like a robbery cy. That's
very important. Okay, now let me check that. Hello Hello, Oh
that's awful. That's horrible, operator operator you you just gave me a wrong
number. I was calling murray Hill three two four nine one, but instead
I was cut into some other number that you dialed. The wires must have
been crossed or something, and I just heard the most dreadful thing, a
murder. Yes, I want you to get that wrong number back for me
at once. I'm I just told you you dialed a number for me and
then those those horrible men came on, and well, it's it's unnerved me
dreadfully. I'm an invalid and opator man, We'll do something please at the
cheap operator, May I help you? Well, oh, oh, yes,
yes you may. I'm an invalid and I've just had a dreadful shop
just now on this telephone, and I'm very anxious to trace the call.
It was about a murder, a terrible, cold blooded murder of a poor
innocent woman. Tonight, at eleven fifteen, I was trying to reach my
husband's office. He should have been home hours ago. It's almost ten o'clock.
I'm all alone tonight. My nurse has the night off because my husband
promised he'd be home by six. I don't know any of the neighbors as
we leave permanently in Chicago. And it it so happens that the couple I
have working for me had some important data or other I don't know, a
movie. I suppose they They said it was promised them three weeks ago.
You think that at least I've checked with me before leaving. They know I'm
not well. I told you, I kept getting a busy signal. Then
I asked the operator to call for me, and then I'm of a clear
sky. I was cut into this ghastly conversation between two killers. Oh,
for heaven's sake, all this idiotic red tape. You just sit there and
let people die. Oh, is anyone downstairs? Gertrude, Gertrude, are
you down there? Oh? Oh, worry, give me the police.
I just told you. Man. First of all, there's a lot of
people named George, as for the private patrolman and second avenue when the bridgeman
the second avenue was a very long street. I don't care about. I
don't know how many bridges. Oh, this is insane. I tell you,
a woman is going to be murdered of this sort. It's not much
more used to worse than no clue at all, unless you think there's something
funny about ally, somebody's trying to murder you me. Oh, that would
be ridiculous. I mean, why should anybody? What if I to worry?
Now just a minute, all right, don't listen to me. Who
cares? Oh, Henry, why did you leave me a little? Why
did you leave me alone here? Oh he's secretary, Henry's secretary. She'd
know her numbers on the path Jennys, Miss Jennings, Elizabeth Jennings, Oh,
I know, Missus Stevenson. I haven't any idea where mister Stevenson is.
He was supposed to be home hours ago. Well that's odd, isn't
it. The last time I saw him was when he left this afternoon to
keep an appointment. What appointment? Where? Where are? I don't know?
But I do know he had a lunchon date with a young lady.
What young lady? Tell me, Miss Jennings, missus Lord, missus Frederick
Lord. She seems very anxious to see mister Stevens. Missus Lord. I
heard him make a date to meet her for lunch. Why, missus Lord
fawn here this afternoon? Oh yes, the nurse answered, I have the
memorandum right here, missus Lord. Four fifty pm. I'm afraid that's all
I know, Missus Stevenson, But I'm sure it's nothing to worry about.
Mister Stevenson, so devoted, he speaks so beautifully of you. Well,
if there's anything I can no, no, thank you, Miss Jennings.
I do hope I haven't been a cat out of the bed. Good night,
Miss Jennings, missus Lord. A young lady, she said llynch and
gone all afternoon. Hello, mister Stevenson, he's not in. Who's calling?
It's it's mister Evans again. You know where I could reach you?
I'm sure I don't know where mister Stevenson is. Called back later. I
haven't much time. Yes, fifteen minutes. And if he should come in.
Her name is Heavens. It's very important. Yes, yes, I'll
tell him. Missus Lord telephone four fifty pm, murray Hill three nine two
six six. Hello is missus lord? I this is missus Lord. Who's
calling? Please? Missus Henry Stevenson. It so happens my husband hasn't come
home this evening. I've perhaps you might give me some idea. Yes,
yes, but I can't talk. No, you could? I call you
back? Call me back? Why is anything wrong? Leona? This is
Sally, Sally Hunt. Sally, I'm sorry if I sound ridiculous, but
I can't talk now. If you're the Sally Hunt, I'll call you back
as soon as I can. Leona, Sally, who was just one of
the girls. Dear she she wanted a recipe. It joyed like a bottle
of beer. You got any on ice? Oh? No, I'm afraid
not. I'll run down to the store, Henny, and hurry back.
Joel is dying Sally Sally Hunt Oh yes, yes, that was long ago
college spring dance. He was Sally's dad. He was with her when I
met him. Henry Henry dancing with Sally. Hello, Leona, this is
mister Henry Stephens. Hello Henry, Well, can I cut in? You
don't mind, missfere I come from. It's the man who does the thick.
All right, go ahead. Why don't you get somebody your own speed?
I'm sure there are better dances around. Oh, you'll do all right,
Henry. Leona knows a way around the floor. Thank you, darling.
Well, Henry, let's dance. So your name is Cutter alone,
no relation to J. B. Cuttle distance. He's my father father.
Anything wrong with her? Oh no, no, nothing wrong. What do
they call you the asper An eer? You from out of town? Well
that depends on what you call out of town. Oh I don't know,
Carvin. I'm trying to be funny. Okay, what do you call out
of town? Rasco? Oh? What college is up there? No college,
Miss Cultrol, just factories. I never even finished high school. Neither
did my father. He always says, if a man has talent for making
money, why should he waste his time in school? I guess your old
man out to know? What do you say? We sit the next dance
out. I've got a car, mister Stevens, and a brand new one,
a Laganda have a drive one I never even heard of it. Besides,
I'm with selling. Oh, don't worries. She'll never miss you,
but maybe i'll miss her. Why didn't you think of that? Oh?
Come on, he'll be silly. Oh once, I'm not kidding? So
long? Was cut a well? Henry? It took me a few days,
but I finally got you in my car. How do you like it?
Fine? Only we don't go together. It's a lot easier to see
you here than well with Sally Hunt. I'd never put the two of you
together in a million years. Why not? Oh, you're both so different,
you belong in different worlds. What are you stopping for? Well?
Why not? It's nice here? Sure, it's nice here. Take a
look. This is grassbrol Stick around few years and then see how much you
like it. What do you do, Henry? I work in a drug
store. Well that's a coincidence. Sure, I work in a drug store
and your father owns a hundred of them? Would you like to meet him?
Say? Who are you kidding? Nobody? Dad will like you,
your young, healthy ambitions. Don't you stop? What does a girl like
you want with a guy like me? Dad's coming to New York next weekend.
I'm cutting my classes on Saturday. I want to come with me?
I don't know, And you look at me like that. I come on,
let's get out of here. No, not yet, Henry, not
yet, Darling. Sure I like him, honey, but he's nobody.
Layon? And what has he got? Nothing? And what did you have
Dad? When you started? As I thought you said, he was sort
of engaged to that girlfriend of yours, that Sally something. Oh that's all
over with Dad. I love him, love him? Come on, if
I really thought you did you know, I'd be No. Don't start telling
me that, Leona. What's them? You make me laugh? What does
it really matter to you? If I love Henry? You're not. All
you want is for me to stay here with you for the rest of your
life. You're afraid of losing that have don't I always let you do anything
you ever wanted to do? But marriage is something else. I've worked hard.
I built up a big business just for you, and you yourself,
wouldn't want to see some worthless clock of a husband, a guy who alone.
You don't care about me. You're thinking only of yourself and your business.
You're hateful, selfish and hate Leona. Stop it, dude. You'll
make yourself safe. And what good is your wonderful money and your wonderful business
If I'm dead, Yes, that's what you want to do. Drive me
into my grave. You don't care, just as long as your business is
saying. Oh can you say things? Oh wait, don't touch me.
Don't you dare touch me, darling, Listen to me. I don't mean
Oh look, we'll talk it all over again, says oh Leona Wilson Wilson
quick color doctor Sally Sally, and I took Henry away from her. She
couldn't stand it, even after all these years. She couldn't stand it going
to him today, seeing him in his office. Helloa, this is Sally
again. I'm sorry I had to be so mysterious before, but I just
couldn't talk at home my husband. Well, this is all certainly rather odd,
to say the least. This whole thing was seemed very peculiar to you,
Leona, hearing from me after all these years. But I had to
see Henry again today. I've been so worried about him, worry about what
well my my husband. He's with the District Attorney's office. And a couple
of weeks ago, funny Sally here in the newspaper about an old boyfriend of
yours old boyfriend, Remember Henry Stevenson. Picture is in the paper. Mister
and missus Henry Stevenson. She's the formerly owned could Roll of Lake Forest,
Illinois, taken a house for the summer and Sutton Place, Missus Stevenson and
poor health for several years. Is here to consult with specialists, Mister Stevenson,
advice president of the cut Roll Drug Corporation. Are you tearing it out
for me? Oh? No, Now I make him in a handy in
the case I'm working on. What's sort of the case? Oh, special
investigation? Joe's nive wouldn't Henry hasn't done anything wrong? As sorry, I
one too many questions. Hey, don't tell me you're still stuck on that
guy. Oh, don't be sick. Hello, anything happened Joe and Stevenson
fell for Oh, shure, we'll go look. Tell Ball can line it
up now, five thousands enough one hundred dollar bills and make sure they marked.
And for Pete's sake, keep your mouth shut. It seems involved the
I don't know what you're trying to tell. Await my finish. I know
I didn't have any right to do it. But that Thursday I went to
South Ferry. I don't know what I expected to see that well, anyway,
I spotted Fred and his friend Joe from the police. There was another
man with them, I guess the one who was to bring the five thousand
dollars in mark bills. Well, I followed them aboard the ferry and over
to Staten Island. They went far out to a very desolated stretch of beach,
nothing but a few broken down shacks in an old, deserted house.
I had to stay way behind them so they wouldn't see me. But then
they went in the house. That gave me a chance to come closer.
There was a freshly painted sign out the front twenty dunstan Terrace. It said,
and the name Evans w Evans. Do you know it? I've never
heard of it? Well, what happened. Well. After a while,
a motor boat came into shore and tied up at a pier and back of
a house. A man sort of elderly got out of the boat and went
into the house. He was carrying a suit case. A little later,
my husband came out, only now he had the suit case. While he
didn't come mom until late that night. Now I was dying to ask him
what happened, what possible connection it could have with Henley. Well, I
didn't dare ask him, Leona, but things have happened since, and unless
we do something, something drastic, it may be too late. You're five
minutes are up? Please depart for the next five minutes, Just a minute,
please, I know I have another Nicola. Are still there? Leon
him? This is one of the queerest things I've ever heard. Yes,
I know, and I just didn't seem to be able to connect Henry with
it. That's why I finally went to see him today. What did you
find out? I met him for lunch. He told the captain he was
expecting a very important phone call, and then we sat down. It's been
a long time, Sally, eight year. Tell me how's dear old dress?
For all these days. I don't know, Henry, I haven't been
there. So you're married, how living here in New York. Yes,
my husband's with the District Attorney's office. That's why I wanted Henry. What
I But what I'm trying to say is this. A few days ago,
I saw a picture of you in the newspaper Vice President. Now sounds beautiful,
doesn't it. Biggest drug business in the country. I was sorry to
read that the owner isn't well. Yes, Chicago doctors don't seem to know
just what it is her trouble. I mean, Henry, what do you
do in the drug business? Push buttons like all other vice presidents? Oh,
but I'm serious, so am I I'm almost as important as the office.
Boy. Don't mean to be inquisitive. I only need this for your
own good. I mean, what for my own good? Well, yesterday
my husband was making out a record a phone call mister Stevens. Oh thanks,
excuse me, Sallie, I'll be right back. Well I waited a
while the owner, but Henry didn't come back, and then five cents for
the next five minutes. Operator, but I haven't been talking five minutes.
I deposited another nickel one please depart another five fins, but I haven't any
more changed. Hello, Leon, I'll have to call you back, but
I only want to say that Henry never came back to the table and that
he is in trouble. Fris been talking to the police. I've heard him
mention Henry's name over and over again. And if someone else man called Evan.
Your five minutes are up, Madam bulldo Evan me owned that house?
Dotnot? And I am sorry, madam. I will have to be connect
you. He verse. The chargers put them on this floor the later in
a few moments, we'll bring you back to Oh. Sorry, wrong number.
Now here's Libby Collins, our Hollywood reporter. Well, Libby, that
was a gaily evening we all had at the premiere of twentieth Century Fox's new
picture twelve o'clock High. Yes, indeed, and for one person in particular,
it must have been the thrill of a lifetime. I'm thinking about our
little lux girl, Jackie Barne, a winner of the national contest for the
prettiest fifteen year old Lux Girl. Huh. Jackie was an honor a guest
at the premiere. She certainly was a radiant youngster. She got more compliments
than she could count that evening. Well, that's the way it is with
Lux girls, Livy. You know, Jackie was telling me how impressed she
was with twelve o'clock High, as everyone was. It's always good news when
Gregory Peck has a cast, and this time I think he has the best
role of his career. Yes, he makes the tough commander of a wartime
bomber group an unforgettable personality. It's a gripping story. You feel intensely,
the dangerous flying sequences, the day by day's strain those men endured. The
whole cast is magnificent. Twelve o'clock High is one picture living where the men
take the honor. Yes, except for Joyce Mackenzie. She plays the one
feminine role, makes her debut in pictures as the army nurse m there's another
lovely Lux girl. She is indeed John. Like so many successful young actresses,
she finds Lux toilet soap gives her complexion just the care it needs.
Recent tests by skin specialists prove at Lux soap care really works. In actually
three out of four cases, skin became softer, smoother in a short time.
No wonder luck Stolet soap is the leading beauty soap, not only in
Hollywood but all over the country. If you hadn't tried it, why not
begin your luck soap facials tomorrow. Remember nine out of ten screen stars recommend
this gentle protecting care. Now our producer, mister William Keeley Act two of
Sorry Wrong Numbers, starring Barbara Stanwick as Leona and Bert Lancaster as Henry.
It's a moment or so later. Through an open window, the night air
lifts slowly in Leona's window, heavy with the heat of a New York summer.
Leona lies motionless on the bed, and the sounds of the night become
magnified. The tugboats on the river, the hum of distant traffic, the
muffle roar, the train passing over a bridge, and then suddenly, Hello,
Leona, this is Sally again. Can you hear me? I can
hear you. I'm calling from the subway station. The stores around here are
all closed. I've just been home, Leona, and some morn has happened.
That house on Statf Island, the one I told you about when it
was burned down this afternoon. The police have captured three men, but this
Waldo Evans escape. But who is Waldo Evans? And but Heaven's sake,
what's his connection with my husband? I still don't know, Leona, and
I do know the whole thing has something to do with your father's car.
Oh, that's absurd. My father called me from Chicago this afternoon. He
never mentioned a word. Now, look who's been arrested and why? Three
men? And I don't know why? And why do you think Henry's one
of them? I didn't say that. I only know that somehow he's terribly
involved. Did anyone say he was going to be arrested? No, not
exactly. Then what are you talking about? Why are you calling me like
this? Are you still jealous that I took Henry away from you? Can't
you bear to see me happy? Can't you stop telling lies and making trouble?
Even I can't talking, and I'm right, you are just trying to
make trouble. Oh no, Fred and Joe, they're coming down the subway
platform. If my husband should see me, Leon, I've got to hang
up. Hello. Oh, yes, this is Western Union. We have
a message for missus Henry Stevens. This is Missus Stevenson. The telegram is
as follows, Darling terribly sorry, but last minute remembered annual drug convention tomorrow
in Boston, taking next train out. Thanks Sunday morning. Keep well all
my love and signed Henry. That is all, madam. Do you wish
us to deliver a copy of it? Oh? Oh, I waies the
bridge, kiss your windows. Sorry, I got your message, George.
Everything okay for tonight, and I wait till the train goes over the bridge
and I wait ah ah, hello doctor Alexander. Doctor, this is missus
Stevenson. Oh yes, Missus Stevenson. How are you? I need you
right away? Doctor? Please come right over. No, no, Missus
Stevenson. What seems to be I said? I want you to come over
at once. I'm afraid I can tonight, Missus Stevenson, Now be sensible
if you just make up your mind to co operate with your husband and me
and our plane. Lana Hutton, what are you talking about, Missus Stevenson.
I explained everything in my letter over a week ago. Letter. What
letter? But surely your husband hasn't he spoken to you, Missus Stevens about
what? Look? You try to compose yourself now and perhaps we can discuss
it tomorrow. We discuss it now. Do you hear me now this very
minute? If you insist upon knowing? Your husband called at my office about
ten days ago. You seem concerned about your continuing natural thing. Anyway,
we discussed your illness a great place. It's still a positive me doctor.
I still don't know what's wrong with her where mister Stevenson, your wife's illness
seems to date far back to her early childhood. Is that true? Yes?
I suppose so. But you knew nothing about it when you married her.
No, not only for a couple of years. You see, we
were we were living with her father then in Lake Forest, I remember early.
One more, why did you do that, Henry? Why did you
send the maid for my handbag? Why? Because there's something in it that
I mean, Well, how much money do you want? I'm sorry to
disappoint a leon it, but this time it isn't money. Simply that I
wrote Ferguson's telephone number in your notebook last night. I want to call him.
We have a date for lunch. You know perfectly well, you're having
lunch with me today, but I won't be able to make it to State
with Ferguson's rather important Oh more important than me. I suppose, isn't that,
Leona. It's just that, well, it's about a job. You
have a job. What on earth are you talking about, Leona? Leone
have been meaning to say this for you, to you for weeks. I
just don't belong in your father's business. Who says you don't I do?
I say it working for your fallowers like like running in a dream. No
matter how hard you try, you know you'll never get anywhere. I don't
want to graft off your charity for the rest of my life. I want
a chance, a chance on my own. Only you're not getting the chance.
I won't have you trapesing around you here just because dad doesn't go falling
all over himself. You're not going to throw away a million dollar business like
carrot for an idle whim. It happens to be my business too, you
know, And to think my own husband turns up his nose at it.
Now'll call Ferguson and tell him you've changed your mind. Go on, Henry,
call him, But I haven't changed my mind. You're still going.
Yes, someday you'll see it'll be better for both of Henry Henry Wade.
That's a little silly. Isn't it the door? You're not going, Henry,
not as long as you're my husband. Come on, I want to
give me that. You can't do what you can't do this to me,
nobody's ever done, and nobody, nobody. Will you please stop and give
me that, Henny, Please, if you love me, if you love
me at all, Henry, I beg you. I'll talk to Dad.
I'll do anything, anything you want, or they don't leave me. Don't
go away? Give me that. No, No, I won't, I
won't. I won't. Oh, your husband told me, missus Stevenson,
that in spite of your opposition, he had lunch that day with mister Ferguson.
When he got home that evening, he said, your father was waiting
for him at the door, angry and worried. All right, Henry,
come at the library. I want to talk to you. What's the matter?
Where's Leona? Leona's in bed. She had an attack, a heart
attack, She almost died a heart attack. Did you too, Quarrel this
morning? Yes? But what you're supposed to have lunch with Leona? Yes?
But I had to see someone else. Look, mister Carl, if
you don't mind I'd like to see Leona. You'll see Leona when she's ready
to see you. Just in case you don't know it. Leona has had
a hot condition since childhood. Her mother died of it the day Leona was
born. Leona can't stand being treated the way you did this morning. She
never has been before, and she's not going to be now by you or
anyone else. And what happens if once in a while I have an opinion
of my own. I don't give a hoot about your opinions, Henry,
have them. Think anything you like, But while you're in this house,
you'll do what my daughter tells you to do. I think you should know
that the argument this morning was about a very important decision. Don't be a
fool, and decision I made as much for the sake of Leona's futurist for
my own. Was it for her that you had lunch with Ferguson? Well?
Did you get the job? No? No, I didn't, And
I'll tell you why you didn't. It so happens. I'm a pretty good
customer of Ferguson's. I buy more than two million dollars worth of dies every
year. And who do you think he's going to care about you or me.
So that's what happened. Now, who else in Chicago would you like
to have lunch with about a job? Oh, face up to it,
Henry. Just as long as you're my son in law, you're working for
me and nobody else. If you're really carefully on another way, I do,
you'd have done the same thing in my place. Besides, you haven't
done so badly for yourself. I'll go upstairs and see Leona. She's been
asking, were missus Stevenson as I say, we discussed all these things in
my office ten days ago, your husband and I. I asked, mister
Stevenson, how long this heart attack of yours lasting? Or she got well
right away? Doctor? Maybe I maybe I should have pulled out then and
there. But I didn't pull out. Somehow I couldn't. Her father wasn't
altogether wrong. I hadn't done too badly for myself anyway. From that time
on, I began to compromise, always with the hope that somehow someday I'd
went out on my own. But it wasn't long before we were right back
where we started another a day, Yes, sir, I remember one day
in particular. I had an idea that I thought that I hoped might help
with it. Henry, you mean you brought me here just to look at
an apartment, or you'd be crazy about a leonor now come on, let's
go and look at all. I'm not interested, Henry, but you haven't
even seen him. Why there are terracest on all four sights? I do
do a thousand times. We don't need an apartment, Leon, It's not
an apartment. I'm looking for. What I want is a home, a
home of our own. You just can't go on living with your father in
Definitely, I don't see why not. There's plenty of room, and I
like it. Besides, who's going to pay for this little penthouse? Well,
I hope eventually, I would, oh eventually, But in the meantime,
it's my money, and I'm the one who's going to pay for it.
Okay, let's go, Henry. You're so naive. You're like a
little boy with a box of candy. I just can't throw my money away
on everything you happen to see. There's a limit. I'm supposed to follow
you around like a pet dog tied to a chain. I'm supposed to like
whatever crumbs you want to throw. Oh, don't be ridiculous. You've got
me sold up sixteen different ways for three meals a day and pocket money.
That's all you care about. That's all you married me for my money.
I should have known it. I should have known. Stop at Leona,
Please, just for once, will you listen? You hate me, You're
bored with me. All you want to do is get away. Okay,
I'm bored. Bored, stiff who wouldn't be with that neat little routine you've
got cooked up on me? What do I have? Nothing? Nothing on
my own but even the studs on my trade, of the matches in my
body? Henry, how can you say this to me? You once told
me I'd love this kind of life, remember, or do you want to
know something? I do love it. I love it now more than you'll
ever know what. I want to be my own boss, profiting by every
bit of it, not just a stooge on the outside looking in, Henry,
Henry, get me some more. Listen to me. Please. It
isn't that I want to be without you. I could love you still if
only you try to understand, Henry, the bills that attack kept her in
the hospital only three weeks. Doctor the time I well, I thought it
was all my fault. But no matter what I did, her attacks increased
in violence and became more frequent. Or a year ago, on her well,
she just seemed to give up hope of ever getting well. She took
to her bed more less permanently. It was my idea to come to New
York and see you. The doctors in Chicago said she didn't have much of
a chance. Anyway, we rented the house on a sudden place and here
we are. Believe me, it's been more and more like a nightmare.
Mister Stevenson. There's absolutely nothing wrong organically with your wife's heart, nothing wrong.
I've examined her thoroughly, and what you've just told me confirms what I
have thought from the start, and that is her condition is mostly mental.
She's what we call her cardiac neurotic. Her attacks are brought on by her
emotions, the lack of control of frustrations thing. It's probably quite unconscious on
her part. Now I'm not seeing your wife isn't sick mentally. She is
sick, and her attacks aren't really not. Given the proper treatment, she
may snap out of it. Entirely. Well, i'll call on her tomorrow
as a psychiatrist. I wanted to see doctor. I wish you could wait
a few days. I'd like to think it over, think it over.
Yes, you see, she's so easily upset, and I think that,
well that maybe I ought to prepare her, you know, getting used to
the idea. Well, a few days more and this won't matter, I
suppose, unless unless you wanted to write her a letter. It might make
it easy for her to take and it well, it would give me more
time to talk to her. Well, it's extremely delicate matter, mister Stevenson,
but if you think you can manage it, let's try it that Wayne,
give me a ring in a couple of days. Meanwhile, I'll write
the letter. Thanks doctor, thanks for every Well, that's exactly the way
I left things, Missus Stevens. Isn't ten days ago, as your husband
requested, I wrote you the letter, and I'm telling you I never received
the letter. Well, let's not worry about that. Now I've told you
everything, and now I want you to relax. Prescribed. Yes, yes
it's here. Well, let's think so. Liars, liars, liars,
lions, Hello, who is it heavens, I've been trying to get you
with your line has been busy. Has mister Stevenson come home? No,
no, he isn't here. He won't be back until Sunday. And will
you please please tell me what this is all about? Why are you calling
him? Who are you? I've already told you Missus Stevenson, and I'm
very sorry if I've annoyed you. But there are names and addresses that are
very important for mister Stevenson to know. So if you won't be good enough
to take the following message, what are you talking about? But I can't
take any messages now, If you'll please tell mister Stevenson that the house at
twenty dunstan tell Us has been burned down. I burned it down. You
are also that I do not believe it was mister Millano. The name is
spelled him. Oh a n O who betrayed us? Please? And since
mister Millano has been arrested by the District Attorney's office, there is no necessity
for the money. Oh this is fantastic, what money? Who's Mollano?
Badley tell mister Stevenson that I escaped and I am now a coming to happen
address. However, I do not expect to be here after midnight. If
he wishes to find me, he may call me at a phone number Bowie
two one thousand and Now, if you'll be so good as to repeat you're
insane. Do you realize I'm a terribly sick woman. I'm very sorry for
you, Missus Stevenson. I don't know. Perhaps it would be better to
tell you the true facts, I mean now before they are gobbled by the
police. Maybe then you'll understand. But if I don't know what a home
to believe. So much has happened to me tonight, and I'm sick.
My doctor says, I don't cut you all irmous, Well tell me,
then tell me. It started over a little a year ago at your father's
factory in Chicago. You see, Missus Stephenson. I had worked in your
father's company for many years. I'm a chemist. Anyway, late one afternoon,
your husband walked into the laboratory. We pause now for stakes and identification.
This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System. In a few moments,
we'll continue with Act three of Sorry Wrong Number. Our guest tonight is Barbara
Anne Newtson Young paramount starlet. Aren't you glad? Barbara? You were present
at a certain little theater production one evening. A lucky evening for me,
mister Keeley. A talent scout saw me for arrange for a screen test,
and here you are in picture. Yes, and from now on I'm going
to work like mad Oh, it must be wonderful to be a great actress
like like Olivia. To Haveln, well, I gather you've seen her new
picture The Heiress, not once, but three times. I can understand why
the New York Motion Picture Critics gave mister Haveln the award for the best performance
of the Year. And how did you like Montgomery Cliff as the money conscious
suitor in The Heiress? He splendid, so dashing and and romantic too.
And Ralph Richardson as a stern father is simply perfect. Do you remember the
scene where he compares his unpopular daughter with her sought after cousin. Oh?
Yes, the party scene where Mona Freeman is the reigning bell. She's like
a dressden doll, so blond and dainty. Those lavish costumes of the Crinoline
era suit her beauty very well. Yes, mister Kennedy, and she's just
as delicate and lovely in real life, always so beautifully groomed. Real Luck's
loveliness, huh exactly. Mona Freeman gives her complexion daily Luck soap care,
and she's really keen about the new bath size cake. Nine out of ten
screen stars say they're delighted with this new product of Leaver Brothers Company. For
a luxurious, refreshing, relaxing beauty bath, you simply can't buy a finer
soape. That's the way I feel. I love the nice fragrance that leaves
on the skin. Thank you, miss Barbara and Nudsen. Women who use
the generous new bath size Luck toilets hope will agree. It's rich, abundant
lather and delicate flower like fragrance make a wonderfully refreshing beauty bath. So we're
all over Luck's loveliness. Why not get the satin smooth bath size lux toilet
soap tomorrow. Here's our producer, mister William Keeley. The curtain rises on
the third act of Sorry Wrong Number, starring Barbara Stanwick as Leona and Bert
Lancaster as Henry. I give into the kitchen window. Now wait till the
train goes over the bridge. Thirteen. You've got it all straight. Tile.
The clock on the table says ten minutes to eleven o'clock. But Leone
Stevenson, clutching the telephone, listens with mounting bewilderment and fright the voice of
a man named Waldo Evans. Yes, missus Stevenson, your husband came in
the laboratory and started asking me questions about the clocks for you use me and
how we began. Well, this is very interesting, mister Evans. So
this is where the formula for all our products are developed. Him. That's
right. Some of these drugs must be very valuable. Oh yes, mister
Stevenson, very valuable. And tell me what do you do with them?
Why they go into the various Cottowell products? Sir? And you're the man
in charge here, huh, yes, sir, I see. Well,
thanks for your time, mister Evans. I was just curious, Thank you,
sir. Good night, mister Stevenson. That was my first reading with
your husband, Missus Stevenson, and I'm time to time laboratory and visited me
and one night when it was storming, he offered to drive me home.
So you're a bachelor, mister Evans, Well, I didn't know that.
Yes, sir, I live in a booming house on Chestnut State, a
man all by himself, no response abilities. Tell me, why do you
work so hard well to tell you the tooth, sir? Because because I
have a hope, an ideal. You might say, in a few years,
I hope to retire, retire. Oh, I have at all plan,
sir. I'm going back to England. I hope to raise horses,
sir, not race horses, just horses. Said, do you care for
horses, mister Stevenson, Hell, I'm afraid I haven't thought very much about
them. Oh, then you're missing a great deal. Well that's my hope,
sir, to live there quietly and raise horses. Why have you waited
this long? Money? Money, of course, But someday I'll wait until
you're road. What good is a dream when you're too old to enjoy it?
Oh I thought of that, mister Stevenson. I suppose the zest does
come out of things with the en coachments of old age. Oh, you're
talking, Wally. My motto was, if you want something, get it
now. It's the next turn to the right, mister Stevenson Chestnutstick. You
know, Wally, Wally, I've been thinking there might be a way out,
way out, yes, to have your little place in England. Everything
you want, indeed, sir, and all you have to do is to
make a little mistake every now and then, mistake in the laboratory. I've
been checking out it, Wally. The way you're set up, no one
would ever know, mister Stevenson, I better say good nights. Wait a
minute, the differences in the amounts of those raw drugs you handle, he'd
be so slight that nobody but yourself would ever know. I don't understand s.
Look what you've done to the company all these years, and what have
you gotten out of it? Not a tenth of the salary you should be
getting. No, please, mister Stevenson, don't be silly. I've already
talked it over to someone else, talked it over with with whom a man
named Morano. He can handle all the raw drugs that we can get,
and then we split you Morano and die. Mister Stevenson, I just can't
believe it. You're a young man, vice president of the company, a
wonderful future ahead of you. Don't make me laugh. Yes, I'm young,
young enough not to waste my life and dreaming. There are things I
want to do, big things, and the only way to do them.
I'm sorry. I thought you were my kind of a person. I trusted
you at what if we were caught? Why should we be caught. We'll
make our pile and stop before anyone even guesses what went on. Morano knows
just what to do. Besides, for once, there's an advantage in being
cutural son in law. Yes, yes, I see, I thought you
would Whalley. You well, partner. We're in business, and so we
started, missus Stevenson, a systematic plan of robbing your father's company. By
September of last year, I had thanked the sum of seven thousand, five
hundred dollars. But then I received the memo land On from the personnel office.
You please stop your whinning. Didn't you read the memo? You're not
fired. They're simply transferring you to the new Jersey plan. But they must
suspect this is a warning. I'm sure of it. I'm too, mister
Stevenson. Here you walked fool. We've been stooges up till now. Morano's
played us for suckers. This is our chance to get rid of them.
That transfer of yours is just what I've been looking for. I don't understand.
I'll tell Morano you've been fired, that the deal's all washed up.
Meanwhile, you're back there in New Jersey. We'll operate on our own,
and we'll split Morano's share between us. But I'm just a chemist, mister
Stevenson. I don't know anything about disposing of drugs, but I do.
I know all about it now. Listen. The cultural plant in New Jersey
is in Bayonne, and just across the bay from Bayonne is Staten Island.
I happen to know a little about stat About six weeks later, we began
operations Missus Stevenson on Staten Island, New York. I headquarters was an old
abandoned house twenty dunstan Terrace. There, twice a week after work, I
would come from your father's plant in Bayonne, and there mister Stevenson would telephone
me or mail me his instructions from Chicago. A little over three months ago,
mister Stevenson arrived in New York. A few nights later, when I
went to twenty Dunston, tell us I found that your husband was not alone.
Come right in. We're waiting for you. Weally, this is morono.
You didn't expect me, did you, mister Evans Well needed it,
mister Stevenson. But here I am. You see, I have ways of
finding things out. For instance, ever since the two of you broke off
our pleasant little association in Chicago, I find you're accumulated rather large bank account.
All right, what about it? I'm warning you right now, Morona
doesn't try any funny relax. I'm warning it, ter relax. Sure you're
a big strong guy, mister Stevenson, but messing me up won't get you
anywhere. You see, I merely represent an organization. But we had what
you might call a board meeting, and the vote was seven to one against
you. And that's pretty serious. That's like a death center. Cut a
short morn. What do you want, mister Stevenson. Please give them what
they want. Mister mallono, you can take everything I've got. Shut up
now. If you were to turned back what you've accumulated, mister Stevenson and
pay us two hundred thousand dollars for our injured feelings, I might get the
board to reconsider their decision, you know as well as I do. I
don't have that kind of money, but you have such wonderful connections, A
millionaire father in law, very rich wire. Yes, a lot of good
that does. Why do you suppose I went into this racket and I thought
I read somewhere about your wife being sick, very sick. What about her?
Well, she has life insurance. Hasn't she made out in your name?
I'm pretty sure the board would give you, say, ninety days to
raise the money on something like that. On ninety days, isn't that what
the doctor in Chicago said she wouldn't get better? Yes, that's what he
said. But what's that? Well, just a little lie? Owe you
to make it league or you see, everything can be straightened out without any
trouble, without any rough step. But suppose something happened and my wife didn't
I mean, I mean, if she got better, I wouldn't worry about
that. Mister Stevens, You've got a doctor's word for At Evans, they
know their business. So here, take the pen and sign the piece of
paper. What I have just told you, missus Stevenson took place three months
ago. I need not describe, mister Stephen Stevenson's distest when the IOU became
due last Wednesday. As I understand it, mister Stevenson saw mister Mollano,
but his request when extension was refused. And now, inasmuch as I have
already given you the final message, I believe the list explains itself quite simply.
Mister Evans, where is my husband? Where is mister Stevenson. Now
I wish I knew, perhaps by number, what bowering number, and what
I gave you when I first started to talk Missus Stevenson. I'm afraid I
must ask you to check. I can't. I can't. I repeat it
once more. Point one the house at twenty Dunston tell Us was burned on
this afternoon. I didn't. Point two I escaped. Point three Mister Mollano
has been away, so it will not be necessary to raise the money.
Point it was not. Mister Molan told the police just give me the bowery
number, the one for my husband. Point five. I am now,
but I'm leaving and maybe found Barry two one thousand, Yes, after midnight,
good night, mister Stephenson, thank you very much. Sorry two one
thousand Barry two. Oh, this is mister Stevenson. There, Stephenson,
Mister Henry Stevenson. I was told to call by mister Evans. Stevens.
Yes, yes, Stevenson on hell, yes, no, he's not here
man. Oh well, mister Evans said he might be expected. Could I
could I leave a message? Oh? Look, lady? Oh please please
help me? What number is this? What am I calling? Oh?
Oh oh, I hurried? Operate, Please give me the police quickly.
No, no, wait a minute, give me the hospital. I can't
be alone. It's eleven o'clock. Hurry, please, it's eleven o'clock.
Obad, I can't hear you. Are you calling the hospital? Operator?
Operator? Is this a hospital here? I want the nurses registry. I
want to hire a trained nurse immediately for the night. I am sorry,
it doesn't matter. I've got to have a nurse. I understand that matter.
I'm sick and I'm all alone, all alone in this horrible empty house.
I overheard a conversation and a telephone conversation about a murder, A murdered
to be committed at eleven fifteen. I don't know what's happened to my husband.
If something isn't done, I'm abra What was that What was what?
Madam? That click just now on my telephone as though someone had lifted the
hook of the extension downstairs. I did not hear it, madam, Well
I did. There's someone in this house. There's someone downstairs and they're listening
to me now that Who is it? Who's done? There? Oh?
Hello, new Haven is calling missus, Henry Stevenson. I can't talk now.
Called back later from mister Stevenson. Do you not, did you say,
mister Stevenson, mister Stevenson from new Haven? Wid Oh? Yes,
yes, one moment please, here's hello Henry, Henry. Where are you
between trains and new Did you get my wife? Yes? Yes, I
got it. I was sorry I couldn't reach my phone before I left,
but of course I knew. Well I'm not all right. I'm there's someone
in his house, Henry, right now, I'm sure of him. Don't
tell me you're still abone. Well, of course I'm alone. Who else
could be here? You'll promise to be home at six o'clock. I've been
alone for hours. I've been afraid of every kind of horrible call. And
Henry, Henry, I want you to call the police. Do you hear
me? Tell him to come over at once. Do you know you're perfectly
shaped? The doors are all locked, and there's a private controlman. You're
right in the heart of New York City and the phone, Henry, Henry,
what do you know? What do you know about a man named Waldo
Evans? Why? I had a long talk with him just a little while
ago about you. Oh, he told me some terrible things. Some of
it sounded insane, but some of it maybe it was true. Not just
trying to forgive it. He said, you've been stealing from Dad's company.
Is that true, Henry? Well, he loves some kind of a message
for you. That the house on Statn Island had been burned down, and
that the police knew everything, and that Morano had been arrested. And Henry,
are you still there? They said you were a criminal, Henry,
a desperate man, And Heaven said, Heaven said you wanted me to die.
And that money, Henry, that money those people wanted. Why didn't
you ask me for it? Why I'd have given it to you gladly if
it would have saved your life. I'll give it to you now, if
it isn't too late. I didn't mean to be so awful to you,
Henry. I I only did it because I loved you and I thought you
didn't love me, and then you go away and leave me. Yes,
I want you to do something. Will you forgive me first, Henry?
Will you I want you to try to get out, please, Henry,
Please, I can't. I can't get out of bed. Everyone stop swing
me on a screamer. I can't move, Henry, I'm too frightened and
I can't trying. Why should only got three more minutes time? Just gottathing
everything? I didn't your bold, Henry. I can hear what steps somebody's
coming up in the day. Walk me on the b No, I can't,
Henry, Oh, Henry, save me. That's rain. I can
hear the drain that's near the bridge. I don't know. Then't find out
from my d him. Oh no no, please please don't all please,
please don't give you anything? Please no, no? M ready with your
pocket? Oh I don't know, sorry, wrong number? M H.
What a thrilling experience in the theater. Our thanks go to this evening stars
Barbara Stanwick and Bert Lancaster. They're coming downstage now for a curtain call.
You know it's good to have you both back, and it's nice to be
back. Bill says, you got them in bed with the audience blob in
what way? Well, we keep getting letters asking why you haven't been here
for so long, and we have to keep explaining that you've made one picture
right after another with no time off in between. One thing is sure,
Bill, I haven't forgotten a Lux radio theater or Lux soap. It's my
favorite complexion can has been for years, and that's one of the nicest compliments
Lux has ever received. Barbara, tell me if you can sound, she
says, she sounds like Andy Devine. Tell me, Barbara, how many
pictures have you made that still aren't released? And what's the first one we'll
see? The Hell Wallace production, Elma Jordan. Oh, yes, Wendell
Corey's in that tool. You know, when you and Hall Wallace get together
on a picture, we know it's going to be a hit. Bird I
here you are off for New York in a few days. Yes, I've
just finished my own norma EPO production of The Hawk and the Arrow at Warner
Brothers, and now I'm going to New York to see a few shows and
take a brief vacation where You're last vacation, you spent out on the road
with a circus as an acrobat. Nothing like that this time, not unless
you have to be an acrobat to get tickets to South Pacific. Bill,
tell me what's next Monday's show. Next week, Bert, one of America's
best love characters will return to this stage. The gentleman I'm talking about is
mister Belvetere, and our play is the twentieth century Fox hit Mister Belveteer Goes
to College. Naturally, we'll have the original mister Belvetere here to play the
part, the amazing Clifton Webb. And besides mister Webb, we have two
other stars, Colleen Gray and the popular Robert Stack. A great comedy and
the return of mister Belveteer. All hard, deck, mob de nighted.
Everybody will love it. Bella good night, good night, good night.
I'm Stack here, ladies and gentlemen. There's a great deal of vague and
sentimental talk about the American economic system, but here of some cold facts.
Since nineteen ten, we have increased the income of each household from twenty four
hundred dollars to about four thousand, and the figures are in dollars of the
same purchasing power. We've it by increased production, and yet we work eighteen
hours less each week for this extra money. This is the miracle of America.
Leave her brother's company. The makers of Luxe Toilet Soap join me in
inviting you to be with us again. Next Monday evening, when the lux
Radio Theater presents Clipton Webb, Robert Stack, and Colleen Gray in Mister Belvedere
Goes to College. This is William Healey saying good night to you from Hollywood.
Our clay was attapted by S. H. S. Barnett, and
our music was directed by Lewis Silberns. Here's a fashion flash from Hollywood.
Barbara Stanwick has one of those smart and new, finely pleated nylon nighties that
stays in fleet when you wash it. Of course, she insists on Luxe
Flakes care for it, just as she does for all her lovely langerie.
One of her favorite shade is a pale green orchid. This spring, you'll
be seeing more and more delicate and unusual colors and slips and nineties, so
play safe. Wash them with gentle lux flakes. Tests prove that wrong washing
soon fades, colors often tears, delicate lace. Lux Flake's care keeps pretty
slips in nineties new looking three times as long you use lux Flakes to give
your nice washables that lovely lux look. This is your announcer, John Milton
Kennedy, reminding you to join us again next Monday night to hear the Lux
Radio Theater presentation of Mister Belvet Here Goes to College, starring Clifton Webb,
Colleen Gray, and Robert Stack. Stay tuned for My Friend Emma, which
follows over these same stations as the CBS the Columbia broadcast with Crystals Welcome Back.
That performance dust took out Barbara Stanwick's voice. Stanwick was a veteran of
Lux Radio Theater and a lot of long form radio movie adaptations Lux Green Director's
Playhouse, So it wasn't like she was inexperience, but the role was just
so intense and she had to put so much energy into it throughout this entire
hour that you know, you get to the end and you know you can
totally see how she blew her voice out. One advantage of films, you
know, even though they can't end up doing multiple takes, is that the
movie was filmed over a period of time. She had to do the radio
version all in one take than an hour. That is a lot. She
definitely gave all to turn in a very good performance in recreating one of her
four Academy Award nominated roles. One interesting thing about this one is William Conrad
in the film. William Conrad actually played a different role. He played Morono
in the film, but in the radio version he gets a better part as
Missus Stevenson's father. Now, in looking at radio adaptation, I think there
are a few questions that we can ask. First, let's go ahead and
start with the film was sorry wrong number just as a film? Good filming?
Yes, Yes, I think it was a really solid bit of Noir's
storytelling. The acting is all on point. The directing is really pub throughout.
I like the way that they use light and shadow in the film and
have some nice stark visuals, as well as some cases where they use some
overwhelming sounds. There was a case where Sally was calling in the subway and
what she was saying was covered up by the passing of the subway train.
The music is also really superb, does a great job building the tension as
a film, I think that even though missus Stevenson is kind of front and
center in the action, the film is much more about the consequences of her
husband's decisions and he is actions. I think that healthy adults make mistakes.
They don't always make the best decision, but you take responsibility for your choices
and you make the best of it. Instead, he made a voice to
marry Leona and to accept what comes with being married to a wealthy woman who's
used to getting everything that she wants. When Leona and her father make it
clear that he's going to continue to work as a vice president or her father's
company, there are things he could do to advance his career, to prove
himself, to make good and do as much as he can to earn his
place in the firm and deal with the handicap, if you will, of
being married to the boss's daughter. Or he could go to Reno, get
a divorce and start over. Instead, he does neither of those things.
He, in essence, takes revenge and holds something for himself by stealing from
his father in law's firm. He is the victim, after all, He
is the man who is being wronged and being held back from finding his own
way and becoming a success in his own right, and that continues on when
he is in the criminal career and waldle what Evans is relocated to New Jersey.
He decides that he's a victim of Morano taking too much of the prophets
and therefore he's entitled to go into business for himself. And at the end,
Leona says that she would have given him the money, but you see,
that would have required him taking responsibility for something in his own life,
and that's ultimately why she ended up daying, because he couldn't face up to
what he had done. Well, Leona demanding harsh and it is spoiled.
I think that she does come off quite a bit more sympathetic. I mean,
she does try to figure out what's going on with the murder call,
long before she suspects that it involves her. He's trying to save a life,
even though it may not be her own as far as she knows.
At the same time, she is spoiled. She's often prone to wid erratic
twings, such as when she accused her father of wanting to kill her,
and seems unable to really see or even try to understand what Henry's needs might
be ought to put to find a point on it. But to the degree
that Henry is this very weak sort of man, the fact that she picked
him does say something about her. But at the same time there's also the
issue of her untreated mental conditions, which certainly for many modern listeners and viewers
will lead to a bit more understanding about her behavior during the night, because
obviously the situation put her on edge, and that sense of panic grows throughout
the night. The other character that I think is worth talking about a little
bit is Waldo Evans. I love how his character remains such an enigma throughout
most of the movie. They did a great job really keeping him in shadow,
and the way he spoke really is just top notch. Riding there and
a good performance. I think the radio version is close to as good as
the film version on that count, and implications of him saying that he could
be reached at the Bowery Number only really became clear after she learned it was
the Morgue. This was a guy who just absolutely wanted to live a quiet
life and got talked to doing things the easy way and just ended up destroying
himself. Now, I will say that the film does have its flaws,
and these I think a couple of them fall into more of the don't think
too much about this. The idea that they had to bring her to New
York or someone to suggest she had cardiac psychosis, Now that is a real
thing, but it's not such an off the wall diagnosis that no doctor in
Chicago could figure it out. And of course there's the idea of renting an
apartment for your wife who has mobility issues and heart issues and putting her at
the top of a very large staircase. Given that Turtter wasn't the plan when
they moved in, this seems like a very dumb idea. It only serves
the plot and the visuals of the film, even if it doesn't make a
lot of sense. But probably the biggest problem I had with the film was
Sally. She plays such a big role in getting information to Missus Stevenson,
but her entire situation is just ridiculous and full of so many coincidences. Her
husband happening to be the district attorney who is prosecuting her ex boyfriend, and
who drops hints and says things that she overhears, and then she is able
to tail police officers without being seen, even when going to sparsely populated areas
where a well dressed woman would stand out. And this is the silliest part
of the film, But that said, it doesn't stop it from being a
pretty entertaining one. If you like noir films, this is worth watching.
I bought mine on Amazon on DVD for five dollars and nine in non sense,
and I'd say it was money well spent. Now, in terms of
the radio adaptation, I think the radio adaptation does a fine job. It's
not nearly as good as the movie in many ways. This is a movie
that was made with full awareness of radio and it was based on a radio
play that tens of millions of people had heard, and you wanted to appeal
to them and provide them with an experience that was beyond listening to the radio.
And with the films, sorry wrong number, the visuals are really important.
The use of sounds occasionally that are too overpowering to use in an audio
only medium are important, and so I think the flaws stand out a little
bit more over radio. It's still a good video play, and I thought
it was entertaining. Now, how do I think it serves the original radio
play disis in terms of really capturing the spirit and the elements that made Sorry
Wrong Number as a radio play so popular and so iconic even to this day.
And I think the answer to that is no. There is a sense
with the movie that story was given perhaps an overdose of Hollywood glamor if you
listen to the original Spans radio play, Agnes Moorehead pitches Missus Stevenson as a
woman who is late middle age to elder I'd say, you know, late
fifties into her sixties, and part of I think the overall sense of the
play is that she is just an average person with perhaps a few personality quirks,
but still justice average person at the mercy of the telephone, at the
mercy of society. I think that everyone who heard this play was either like
Missus Stevenson and probably wouldn't admit it, or knew someone who was just like
her. That doesn't really job with the movie version. As a wealthy and
attractive woman who is able to land Lancaster as her husband, and when you
add in all of the mechan nations around that in terms of large criminal enterprises
and massive corporate backstabbing. It substracts from that element that I think we would
call today and I know it's probably an overused term that we'd call relatability.
In addition, the original Sorry Wrong Number radio play was a very intense experience
that created terror through its focus on a woman who was utterly alone and that
growing sense of terror. It also played into and explored the idea of how
dependent people were on the most powerful communications technology of the day, in that
case, the telephone, and all the ways that we might use it,
and how we could either use it wrongly or run out of time. It
was wanting few that focused on this idea of the telephone, its power,
and the drawback of it. In the case of Sorry Wrong Number, the
sense of tension is broken up by a lot of flashback on a lot of
other things that are going on throughout the film. Although it's probably not reasonable
to expect that you would have ninety minutes of straight building action, you also
don't have quite that exploration of the telephone that you have in the radio version.
Certainly the beginning of the film you have the narration that is said by
the host of the lux Radio theater, but the theme is not really well
explored in this film version or in the radio adaptation. And probably the biggest
letdown from the radio play to the movie is that the radio play didn't actually
provide answers to a lot of things. A listener would leave the radio version
of Sorry Wrong Number with a lot of question. The movie gives answers,
but I have to say they're not all that interesting. That the whole thing
comes down to an embezzlemot racket gum bad. It's kind of a dull turn
for the era. And in this case, you know, in terms of
aligning with the spirit of Sorry Wrong Number, I the original radio play,
I think that last resolution would actually make more sense in that regard. Well.
That concludes our spring series. I hope you enjoyed it. If you
do have a comment, email it to me Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot
net. We'll be back for Easter shows on April eighth. In the meantime,
do send your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net. From
Boise Idahol, this is your host, Adam graham Son and off