Noir City Double feature: Sorry, Wrong Number and Road House

Live introductions by Eddie Muller of TCM and the Film Noir Foundation.

Sorry, Wrong Number. 1948, Paramount. 89 minutes. Director Anatole Litvak.

A matinee tribute to great film noir actresses—Barbara Stanwyck and Ida Lupino—begins here. Bedridden heiress Leona Stevenson (Barbara Stanwyck) hears through crossed telephone wires a murder being planned. She tries to alert the police, to no avail, and grows frantic as she gradually realizes she is the intended victim. Stanwyck gives an Oscar®-nominated performance in this engrossing and densely layered extension of the legendary 22-minute radio drama. Featuring Burt Lancaster in one of his earliest roles, mesmerizing direction by Anatole Litvak, and atmospheric camerawork by the great Sol Polito. Digital presentation.

Road House. 1948, 20th Century Fox. 95 minutes. Director Jean Negulesco.

A star-powered face-off between two film noir icons: sassy Ida Lupino and psychotic Richard Widmark. Sparks fly when itinerant songbird Lily Stevens (Lupino) takes a job crooning in Widmark’s rural roadhouse. When she rejects him and takes up with his boyhood chum (Cornel Wilde), the joint really starts jumping. “Love triangle” doesn’t even begin to describe the perverse psychological warfare that follows, especially with Widmark’s scorned man-child holding all of the cards. 35mm film print.