Wrong Number (1959)

This cops and robbers melodrama from Merton Park Studios concerns prim spinster Miss Crystal (Olive Sloane), who imposes her will on Scotland Yard and helps to put the skids under mailbag thieves.

The gang of thieves have robbed a mail van of £80,000, leaving one guard dead. Meanwhile, the delightfully dotty Miss Crystal accidentally misdials on her telephone and is connected to one of the gang’s accomplices.

It now falls to the police to work out which number she phoned on her rotary telephone before the thieves slip the net.

The cast and director competently handle the workmanlike script, and the upshot is intriguing and realistically staged.

The picture moves at a steady pace, and the down-to-earth humour, created by Miss Crystal’s stubborn snooping, neatly balances the rough stuff, culminating in a traditional “crime does not pay” ending.

Lisa Gastoni, Peter Reynolds and Peter Elliott are more than adequate as Maria, Angelo and the sinister criminal mastermind Dr Pole, but none has anything on Olive Sloane as the sagacious Miss Crystal.

Angelo
Peter Reynolds
Maria
Lisa Gastoni
Dr Pole
Peter Elliott
Miss Crystal
Olive Sloane
Cyril
Paul Whitsun-Jones
Max
Barry Keegan
Supt. Blake
John Horsley
Bates
Harold Goodwin
Sergeant Jones
David Davenport
Mrs Landi
Catharina Ferraz
Albin
John Grima
Saunders
Arthur Lovegrove
Detective
Christopher Trace

Director
Vernon Sewell