Adapted by Lucille Fletcher from her popular radio play, Sorry, Wrong Number (1948) gave film noir leading lady Barbara Stanwyck one of her greatest roles, as a tough-as-nails invalid heiress who inadvertently overhears a murder plot through a botched phone connection. Wielding said phone like a weapon, Stanwyck's Leona Stevenson alternates among demanding, hysterical, and tremulous moods as she slowly discovers the truth while sitting alone in her palatial Manhattan apartment. Expanded from the original play, Leona's phone conversations lead to flashbacks, and flashbacks within flashbacks, revealing weak husband Burt Lancaster's downfall and the shifting allegiances and tangled plot that implicate Leona in her own fate. Director Anatole Litvak tightly maintains suspense throughout the fractured time structure, leading up to the ironically chilling ending. Praised for her best performance since Double Indemnity (1944), Stanwyck received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, while Paramount's then-unheard of use of TV ads helped turn the Oscar season reissue of Sorry, Wrong Number into a box office hit.