Barbara Stanwyck, a bed bound hypochondriac, receives a crossed line telephone call which seems to announce a murder - it takes her a while to figure out it's her own. Lucille Fletcher adapted her own radio play, which was filmed before for television in 1946, with Mildred Natwick.
Then we flash back a lot, to see how she got together with Burt Lancaster, taking him away from Ann Richards, and how doctor Wendall Corey, chemist Harold Vermilyea and gangster William Conrad are involved. With Ed Begley as Stanwyck's father.
It's funny how the calls she keeps making and receiving are hindered by background noise of one sort or another.
Sol Polito's camera prowls around beautifully - he gets the rare solo credit that you usually only see with Gregg Toland - but credit to his operator and focus puller too. Powerful score by Franz Waxman.
A Paramount film. The ending is unusually bleak and surprising. Stanwyck was Oscar nominated.
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