Sorry, Wrong Number

Barbara Stanwyck y Burt Lancaster protagonizan Sorry, Wrong Number; una película de 1948. La película había sido adaptada de un radio teatro de 1943 de Lucille Fletcher. Más abajo un video de la escena final de Sorry, Wrong Number; donde Barbara Stanwyck se luce con su actuación

En vocabulario bedridden, overdue, bypass, hugs, IOU

Para saber: Barbara Stanwyck y Burt Lancaster

 

Sorry, Wrong Number cuenta la historia de una mujer que escucha planear un asesinato. Por su trabajo Barbara Stanwyck fue nominada por la Academia como Mejor Actriz.

 

El argumento

Leona Stevenson, la hija del millonario James Cotterell, escucha una conversación por teléfono donde 2 hombres planean el asesinato de una mujer. La conversación se corta sin que Leona pueda saber más excepto que el crimen está planeado para las 11:15, cuando el paso del tren puede esconder cualquier sonido. Llama a la compañía de teléfonos y a la policía pero con pocos detalles concretos ellos no pueden hacer nada. Para complicar las cosas su esposo, Henry, llegará tarde y sus sirvientes tiene la noche libre, dejándola sola en su apartamento en Manhattan.

 

Leona Stevenson is bedridden…

 

… her husband Henry is overdue…

 

Mientras hace un número de llamadas tratando de localizar a Henry, Leona, sin advertirlo, comienza a armar el misterioso rompecabezas, Cuando Leona habla con la secretaria de Henry se entera que él salió a almorzar con una atractiva mujer, Sally Lord, y no volvió a la oficina. Sally había sido la novia de Henry y ahora ella está casada con Fred Lord, abogado en la oficina del fiscal de distrito. De algunas conversaciones Sally se enteró que su marido está a punto de resolver una investigación que incluye a Henry. Sally se preocupó tanto que arregló un almuerzo con Henry para advertirle.

 

Later, Sally calls Leona with more news. Leona then receives a message from Henry stating he has gone out of town on business he had forgotten about and will not be back until Sunday. Leona next gets in touch with Dr. Phillip Alexander, a specialist she had come to New York to see regarding her lifelong heart troubles. Alexander reveals that he gave Henry her prognosis ten days before, something that Henry kept from her. Henry had married Leona without being aware of her health problems. He first found out when she had a heart attack after they quarreled about his attempt to get a job on his own, rather than being a do-nothing vice president in his father-in-law's business. Cotterell sabotaged his job interview.

Cartel de Sorry, Wrong Number

Leona's attacks became more and more frequent, until she finally took to her bed about a year ago. Alexander, however, diagnosed Leona's problems as purely psychosomatic; nothing is wrong with her physically. Leona goes into hysterics and phones a hospital, asking to hire a nurse for the night. The receptionist tells her that they are short-staffed and she can only have a nurse if the doctor feels it is an emergency. She thinks it is only 11:00 pm, but discovers her clock has stopped.

Leona receives a telephone call from Waldo, a man who works for his father. He reluctantly discloses that Henry recruited him to steal chemicals from the Cotterell drug company to sell to Morano. Later, Henry decided to bypass Morano when Waldo was transferred. Morano, however, showed up with two thugs and intimidated Henry into signing an IOU for $200,000 for his lost profits, due in three months. When Henry protested that he did not have that much, Morano pointed out that Leona must have a large insurance policy.

With Morano now in custody, Waldo stresses that Henry no longer has to raise the sum. Waldo gives Leona a number to call to locate Henry, but when she calls she discovers that it is for the city morgue.

When Henry calls her from a train station, Leona gives him Waldo's message. Seeing that it is only minutes from 11:15, he pleads with her to go to the balcony and scream for help, but she protests that she cannot, though she can hear somebody downstairs. When the intruder enters her bedroom, she begs for her life, then screams. Unaware of the policemen about to apprehend him, Henry frantically calls back, only to have a man answer, "Sorry, wrong number."

Stanwyck con su esposo Robert Taylor

 

Vocabulario

Bedridden: confined to bed by sickness.

Overdue: not having arrived, happened, or been done by the expected time.

Bypass: to go around or avoid.

Thug: a violent person, especially a criminal.

IOU: An IOU (abbreviated from the phrase "I owe you") is usually an informal document acknowledging debt.

 

Radio play

La obra de Lucille Fletcher originalmente estuvo en el aire en el programa de radio Suspense el 25 de Mayo de 1943, esencialmente el show de una mujer con Agnes Moorehead. La obra fue repetida 7 veces, todas ellas protagonizadas por Moorehead. La emisión final fue en 1960.

Lucille Fletcher

 

Sorry, Wrong Number  

Final Scene

 

Para saber

Burt Lancaster (Burton Stephen Lancaster) nació en 1913 y murió en 1994. Durante su carrera de 45 años trabajó con las figuras más importantes de Hollywood (Ava Gardner, Katharine Hepburn, Clark Gable, etc.) y formó parte de algunas películas que quedarán en la memoria del público (From Here to Eternity, Airport, Atlantic City).

 

Barbara Stanwyck (Ruby Catherine Stevens; July 16, 1907 –1990) fue la actríz favorita de directores como Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang y Frank Capra. Hizo 85 películas en 38 años antes de pasar a la televisión. Para 1944 Stanwyck se había convertido en la mujer mejor pagada en los Estados Unidos.

 

When Ruby was four, her mother died of complications from a miscarriage after she was knocked off a moving streetcar by a drunk. Two weeks after the funeral, her father joined a work crew digging the Panama Canal and was never seen again by his family...

 

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Fuentes

Sorry, Wrong Number Wikipedia