Sorry, Wrong Number (1989 TV Movie) User Reviews (7)

Sorry, wrong actress.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 1 September 2021]

If there needed to be a remake of the 1948 movie version of the popular radio play (which starred Agnes Moorehead), it needed to be someone who could be a power force on screen like Barbara Stanwyck who got her fourth Oscar nomination for playing the grasping daddy's girl facing fear after dealing with crossed lines that revealed that a murder was being plotted. Someone like Glenn Close or Jessica Lange could have done justice, but Loni Anderson is definitely out of her element. Barbara Stanwyck must have cringed in her last year on earth hearing about this, and while Anderson gives an interesting perspective on the part, she's closer to a daytime soap siren rather than a tough cookie facing a sudden health crisis, only to find out too late that she's the intended victim.

Hal Holbrook is perfect as her powerful father, but Carl Weintraub (who?) is bland as the husband who forced his way into her life to get down the aisle, and now is in a desperate situation which has led him to contemplate murder. Diane D'Aquila plays an old friend of Anderson's caught up in the current situation. Then there's veteran actor Patrick Macnee as a mysterious stranger desperate to get ahold of Weintraub. Like the movie, the film has multiple flashbacks, but they don't work as well this time around. It certainly is watchable, but pointless, although you have to give Anderson credit for trying to get past her situation comedy glamor girl past.

What a stinker

[utgard14 · 2/10 · 8 June 2022]

Abysmal remake of the 1948 classic starring Barbara Stanwyck, itself an adaptation of a popular radio play starring Agnes Moorehead. This one was made for TV with Loni Anderson. What an embarrassment for all involved. The acting from Anderson is next level awful. I've seen her in enough roles to know that, while she was no Stanwyck or Moorehead, she could deliver her lines in a reasonably believable way. Here she's the absolute pits. To make matters worse the entire production feels cheap, even by TV standards. Veteran TV director Tony Wharmby's idea of building suspense is akin to nails on a chalkboard. Instead of anticipating what was going to happen next, I was begging for it all to be over. I really only checked this out because I love Hal Holbrook but even he couldn't save it. Terrible movie.

The worst acting imaginable!

[postjason · 1/10 · 1 February 2007]

Honestly, I would have seen a better standard of acting if I had watched a school Nativity play. The plot is extremely good, and this film would have been a hit if the cast included some good character actors. Alas it is not to be. The standard of the two main performers (Loni Anderson and Carl Weintraub) is absolutely laughable - abominable all round acting, and neither of them can fake a cry whatsoever. In one scene Loni Anderson is acting out a faint - I have never laughed so much in my life while watching a film. She cannot make a convincing frightened expression at all. Patrick McNee is on his usual fine form, a pity he has a small part and not a principle role because I think he would have been able to drag this film up to be a very big hit, which alas with the current performance, it is quite rightly not so.

An abomination

[mls4182 · 1/10 · 25 October 2023]

If you gave them the original 1948 film with Barbara Stanwyck, watching this will be painful. This film was a classic radio program and then a well done, Oscar nominated film. This is like watching a tragic comedy or more like a train wreck in except you hate the victim.

Loni Anderson has been in three TV movie remakes of classic films and she stunk all of them up. Sorry, Wrong Number, A Letter to Three Wives, and Leave Her to Heaven (tutked Too Good to Be True).

Love ni Anderson is always more concerned about having her hair and makeup in place than actual acting. This film didn't need to be remade, let alone me by someone who looks like a dime store mannequin.

I loved this film

[danemcmaster · 12 June 2002]

I thought this film was the best thing I've ever seen. It had everything; suspense, romance, comedy. It made me laugh, it made me cry. If I think about it I can't fault this film on any count. The acting was superb, the photography was just delightful, and the direction was assured. And may I take this opportunity to say that even the trailer was wonderful Masterpiece 10/10 Bravo.

Blech!

[snitzie · 1/10 · 13 April 2003]

Predictable, cheesy, and completely irritating.

Here's the deal (I promise, this isn't "ruining" anything): Loni Anderson calls her husband's office and overhears a plot to kill a woman. As the movie - painfully - unravels, it turns out that SHE is the intended victim! (Gasp!) I kept hoping that this obvious conclusion was a red herring, and that there would be some sort of plot twist that would prove me wrong. But nope, that was IT. Well, that, and a convoluted background plot, a handful of unnecessary characters, and a whole lot of weepy Loni.

Whew! Maybe the original was better?

If you have lots of money, why get married?

[helpless_dancer · 7/10 · 18 January 2002]

Good presentation using lots of flashback to good effect. When a bedridden woman overhears a phone conversation which leads her to believe a crime is being planned, a night of terror begins for her. After making a series of calls to various people she begins to piece together a tale of greed and illegal gains involving a cartel of gangsters, the D.A.'s office, her father's business, and her husband. Tense drama with a heart pounding finale.