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Sep 5, 2023 · Complete summary of Lucille Fletcher's Sorry, Wrong Number. eNotes plot summaries cover all the significant action of Sorry, Wrong Number.
Nov 21, 2023 · Sorry, Wrong Number by Lucille Fletcher is the story of Mrs. Stevenson, a woman who, thanks to an issue from the operator, accidentally overhears a murder being plotted over the phone ...
- 6 min
- 283K
- Jason Lineberger
- The central conflict is that Mrs. Stevenson hears about a murder being planned, and no one is interested in helping her save the targeted woman. Of...
- The murderer is a fellow named George. Though Mrs. Stevenson doesn't realize it, she heard her own murder planned shortly before it happened.
- The fact that the listener has only the words of the characters to go off of makes this play suspenseful. It is also suspenseful because the main c...
- Introduction
- Author Biography
- Plot Summary
- Media Adaptations
- Characters
- Themes
- Topics For Further Study
- Style
- Historical Context
- Compare & Contrast
Lucille Fletcher's drama Sorry, Wrong Numberwas first performed as a radio play in 1943. In the preface to the published version, Fletcher writes, "This play was originally designed as an experiment in sound and not just as a murder story." The voices on the telephone were to be the play's main focus. However, when her play was performed, the playw...
Fletcher was born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 28, 1912. She later attended Vassar College and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1933. Shortly afterward, she worked at the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), typing up radio plays, managing the music library, and writing publicity. She became convinced during this time that she could write ra...
Fletcher's Sorry, Wrong Numberbegins with directions for the one and only act and scene of the play. The stage is to be divided into three sections. In the center is a large bed. This is where the main character, Mrs. Stevenson, will remain throughout the play. The other characters, who appear only briefly and play minor roles, will be seen on eith...
A television version of Sorry, Wrong Number, starring Mildred Natwick and G. Swayne Gordon and directed by Frances Buss and John Houseman, aired on a local station in New York City in 1946.A film version of Sorry, Wrong Number, with a screenplay by Fletcher, was released in 1948 by Hal Wallis Productions. Barbara Stanwyck played Mrs. Stevenson and was nominated for an Academy Award (...In 1954, Fletcher's television adaptation of the radio play was broadcast live on the Columbia Broadcasting Service (CBS) as part of the Climax!series. It starred Lillian Bronson.In 1989, Ann Louise Bardach adapted Fletcher's play for television. Loni Anderson played the role of Mrs. Stevenson. This adaptation was directed by Tony Wharmby.Chief Operator
The chief operator is the manager at the phone service. She is described as being cool and professional. This operator is also efficient. She asks for details from Mrs. Stevenson. When she discovers that Mrs. Stevenson has not yet contacted the police about the telephone conversation Mrs. Stevenson overheard, she informs her that without the official sanction of the police, the telephone company cannot trace a phone call.
Delivery Boy
The delivery boy appears when Mrs. Stevenson telephones Sgt. Duffy. The delivery boy is in the background, bringing Duffy a pastry. As Mrs. Stevenson is talking to Duffy, the boy and the police officer discuss the pastry, which isn't the kind that Duffy had ordered. Later, as the phone conversation between Duffy and Mrs. Stevenson is ending, the boy reappears with the correct pastry, which makes Duffy forget all about the phone call with Mrs. Stevenson.
Sgt. Duffy
Sgt. Duffy is the police officer on duty when Mrs. Stevenson calls the local precinct to get help in preventing the murder plan she has overheard on the telephone. He is uninterested for most of the call, eating his pastry and talking to the delivery boy, and does not appear to take Mrs. Stevenson seriously. However, it is Duffy who first plants the idea in Mrs. Stevenson's head that the murder plot she overheard might be focused on her. Even as Duffy makes this statement, Mrs. Stevenson can...
Helplessness and Arrogance
The main ingredient in Mrs. Stevenson's terror in Fletcher's play is that of helplessness. Whether the protagonist's dependence is caused by real or imagined illness, Mrs. Stevenson believes she is at the mercy of those around her. She cannot get out of bed. She cannot get through to her husband. She cannot make the telephone operators, the police officer, or the hospital receptionist understand just how helpless she is. She cannot do anything. She wants someone to come over to soothe her ner...
Abandonment
An undercurrent of abandonment flows through Fletcher's drama. The first hint of this occurs in the beginning of the scene when Mrs. Stevenson cannot get through to her husband's office. From her remarks and the resultant frustration, the audience can tell that this situation is new for Mrs. Stevenson. She cannot believe that her husband's phone line could be busy for almost an hour. Surely there must be something wrong with the phone. That is why she dials the operator and asks for help.
Reread Sorry, Wrong Number, paying special attention to the lack of modern devices, such as cell phones. Research how telephone, telegraph, and emergency services worked in the early 1940s, and pre...When reviewers discuss Fletcher's play, they often refer to the fear of the unknown. Rent the 1948 movie adaptation of this play along with a contemporary thriller. Watch the two films and compare...Take a survey of students at your school. Ask them to write their age and their greatest fear on a piece of paper and submit it to you anonymously. Then ask members of your family, people in your n...Imagine a trial in which Mr. Stevenson is accused of orchestrating the murder of his wife. Pretend you are the prosecuting attorney making your final appeal to the jury. Write and deliver your clos...Radio Play
Many of the published scripts for Fletcher's play provide stage directions, but the original production of Sorry, Wrong Numberwas written for the radio. The directions for a radio play focus on sound. Footsteps, the closing of a door, the ringing of a telephone, the roar of a subway train, and, naturally, the sound of different voices are the ingredients necessary to make the radio play come alive. In a radio play, one person might play different roles by altering the pitch of their voice or...
Suspense Drama
Most literature, whether novel, short story, or play, includes some element of suspense. Suspense keeps the reader, or the audience, involved in the work; however, in some pieces of literature, such as Fletcher's play, suspense is the defining characteristic of the work. As a genre, suspense has been particularly popular in drama that is designed to be broadcast—in the early twenty-first century via television and film and, before their advent, via radio—most likely because it strongly involv...
The United States in the 1940s
The decade of the 1940s was a turbulent time for citizens of the United States. The people and the country were still struggling to get out of the Great Depression as the decade began and then fell right into World War II. This made the first half of the decade very trying. There was the rationing of food and fuel and the constant despair for those killed in the war. There was also a fear that the United States would be attacked. Japanese Americanswere forced from their homes and interred in...
Women and the Workplace in the 1940s
Not unlike Mrs. Stevenson in Fletcher's play, most middle- and upper-class women in the United States before the 1940s stayed home and took care of the house and children while their husbands went to work. Although Mrs. Stevenson was confined to bed, thus disallowing her the freedom to leave the house, had she not been infirm, chances are that in the very early 1940s she would not have held a job. Women were not encouraged to take on roles outside of the house. This all changed as the United...
1940s: Telephone operators play a major role in communication technology. They handle everything from connecting long distance phone calls to reporting the need for phone repairs. In the case of an...1940s: Suspense dramas often rely on psychological tensions such as the fear of murder.Today:Thriller movies frequently include not only psychological tensions typical of suspense drama but also ve...1940s: Radios are a major source of entertainment in the home. The 1940s are considered the golden age for radio.Today:Radio stations focus on music and news to attract audiences. Dramas are rarely...Sorry, Wrong Number, American film noir, released in 1948, that was based on Lucille Fletcher’s hit 1943 radio play of the same name. Barbara Stanwyck played Leona Stevenson, a spoiled, wealthy invalid and hypochondriac who is confined to her bed.
- Lee Pfeiffer
Jul 22, 2020 · Sorry, Wrong Number is a 1948 American thriller FILM NOlR directed by Anatole Litvak and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Burt Lancaster, Wendell Corey, Ed Begley and William Conrad. It tells the story of a woman who overhears a murder plot.
- 89 min
- 10.2K
- Felicity Dungworth
Sorry, Wrong Number. Barbara Stanwyck received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her performance in Sorry, Wrong Number (1948) as an invalid who tries to call her husband at his office and accidentally overhears two men planning a murder on the telephone.
Sorry, Wrong Number is a play about a woman who, thanks to a crossed phone line (the play is set back in the 1940s) overhears two men plotting a murder. She does not initially realize...
