The film version of
Sorry, Wrong Number is about three times as long as the original radio play and includes flashbacks to previous events in Mrs. Stevenson's life and marriage, as well as scenes showing events involving other characters. In the film, Leona Stevenson is a spoiled, bedridden daughter of wealthy businessman James Cotterell. Using her phone, she tries to reach her husband, Henry. The servants are absent and she is alone in the apartment. On a crossed telephone connection, she overhears two men planning a murder. The call is cut off without Leona learning much, other than the deed is scheduled for that night at exactly 11:15 when a train will be passing by the murder location, drowning out any screams of the person being murdered. When she calls the telephone company and the police, they do not believe her about the murder. While attempting to reach Henry, Leona recalls her past. She learns through his secretary that Henry met that day with an attractive woman named Sally Lord and did not return to the office. Leona recognizes the woman as Sally Hunt, a college friend in love with Henry, who at the time was poor and working in a drugstore. Leona took Henry from Sally, and married him against her father's wishes. Sally later married Fred Lord, a lawyer in the district attorney's office. From overheard conversations, Sally learns her husband was close to resolving an investigation about Henry. Sally is concerned; she follows Henry and two associates to a mysterious meeting of three men, including Henry, at an abandoned house on
Staten Island. The house sign indicates the owner is Waldo Evans, later revealed to be a chemist working for Leona's father. Sally arranged to meet Henry to warn him about what she had seen, but he received a phone call, left the table and did not return. Sally later learns that the house was destroyed, Morano—an apparent gangster—has been arrested by the police, and Waldo escaped them. Leona receives a message from Henry, stating he left town to complete some work he had forgotten about and will return on Sunday. Leona calls Dr. Phillip Alexander, the specialist she came to New York to see regarding her lifelong heart troubles. Alexander reveals that he gave Henry her prognosis ten days ago, something Henry kept from her. A flashback shows Leona had occasional cardiac episodes for a number of years before she married Henry, something Henry realized a few years into their marriage, when she suffered a cardiac arrest during a quarrel. It becomes clear Leona tries to use Henry, insisting he work for her father even though he is bored. As their troubles become severe, Leona's attacks become more frequent until she is bedridden. However, Alexander diagnoses the problems as purely psychosomatic. Nothing is wrong with her physically, but he thinks she needs psychiatric help. Waldo calls Leona with a message for Henry. He discloses that Henry recruited him to steal chemicals from the Cotterell Drug Company and sell them for Morano. Henry tried to bypass Morano when Waldo was transferred; however, Morano coerced Henry into signing an
IOU for $200,000 in three months to compensate for a lost profit. When Henry protested that he had insufficient money, Morano pointed out that Leona had a large insurance policy. With Morano in custody, Waldo stresses that Henry no longer needs to raise the sum. He gives Leona a number to reach Henry, but when she calls she discovers it is the city
morgue. At 11:00 p.m., the distraught Leona calls the hospital requesting a private nurse, but is told they can't provide her with one. Henry calls Leona from a telephone booth at a train station as she hears an intruder lurking inside the house. Leona tells Henry she knows about his stealing from her father's company, that Waldo has conveyed that there is no longer any need for Henry to obtain the money (from Leona's life insurance) and that she knows she is the victim of the murder plot. A now frantic Henry tells Leona she has 3 minutes to get to the open window in her bedroom and scream as loudly as she can for the police. Paralyzed by fear due to the intruder approaching her bedroom, Leona is unable to move, and hangs up the phone before she is strangled to death as a train is seen and heard approaching nearby. As the police prepare to arrest Henry, he re-dials the phone, which the killer answers: "Sorry, wrong number." ==Cast==