Themes: Miscarriage of Justice, Clearing One's Name, Social Injustice
Main Cast: Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Anthony Quayle, Harold J. Stone, Charles Cooper
Release Year: 1956
Country: US
Run Time: 126 minutes
Plot
Director Alfred Hitchcock lets us know from the outset that The Wrong Man is a painfully true story and not one of his customary fabricated suspense yarns, through the simple expedient of walking before the camera and telling us as much (this introductory appearance replaced his planned cameo role as a nightclub patron). The real-life protagonist, musican Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero, is played by Henry Fonda. Happily married and gainfully employed at the Stork Club, Balestrero's life takes a disastrous turn when he goes to an insurance office, hoping to borrow on his wife's (Vera Miles) life insurance policy in order to pay her dental bills. One of the girls in the office spots Balestrero, identifying him as the man who robbed the office a day or so earlier. This, and a few scattered bits of circumstantial evidence, lead to Balestrero's arrest. Though he's absolutely innocent, he can offer no proof of his whereabouts the day of the crime. Lawyer Frank O'Connor (Anthony Quayle) does his best to help his client, but he's up against an indifferent judicial system that isn't set up to benefit the "little man". Meanwhile, Balestrero's wife becomes emotionally unhinged, leading to a complete nervous breakdown. As Balestrero prays in his cell, his image is juxtaposed onto the face of the actual criminal-who looks nothing like the accused man! Utilizing one of his favorite themes-the helplessness of the innocent individual when confronted by the faceless bureaucracy of the Law-Hitchcock weaves a nightmarish tale, all the more frightening because it really happened (the film's best moment: Fonda looking around the nearly empty courtroom during his arraignment, realizing that the rest of the world cares precisely nothing about his inner torment). Hitch enhances the film's versimilitude by shooting in the actual locations where the real story occured. His only concession to Hollywood formula was the half-hearted coda, assuring us that Mrs. Balestrero eventually recovered from her mental collapse (she sure doesn't look any too healthy the last time we see her!) Watch for uncredited appearances by Harry Dean Stanton, Bonnie Franklin, Tuesday Weld and Charles Aidman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Alfred Hitchcock's effort to remain true to fact-based source material is the only thing that prevents this gritty picture from rising above his middle-tier thrillers. Based on a story Hitchcock found in Life magazine, The Wrong Man is a pseudo-documentary version of the director's favorite theme: an innocent man blamed for a crime. Henry Fonda stars as the poor guy who finds himself the prime suspect in a series of robberies. The actor is solid in the role, but co-star Vera Miles (who later appeared in Hitchcock's Psycho) steals the show in the tragic role of Fonda's wife, who cracks under the stress of the false accusation and must be committed. The Wrong Man was a critical hit, but a commercial failure, and it would have benefited significantly if Hitchcock had taken some dramatic license to fire up the film's final act. Instead, the director went strictly for authenticity, going so far as to cast lesser-known actors and even people who were actually involved in the real-life case. He also shot many scenes on-location in Queens and Manhattan. The mental institution scenes were lensed in the actual building with the real doctors playing themselves. Bernard Herrmann's biting score adds a terrific additional dimension to the suspense -- as it does in every picture he collaborated on with Hitchcock. The director's cameo comes in the form of an introduction to the story that is reminiscent of his appearances at the opening of his TV show, Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He shot a more discreet cameo that would have been placed in the film's opening reel, but it was cut to avoid detracting from the film's documentary feel. ~ Patrick Legare, All Movie Guide
Cast
Henry Fonda - Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero (Manny)
John Heldabrand - Tomasini; Richard Robbins - Daniel, the guilty man; Esther Minciotti - Manny's Mother; Doreen Lang - Ann James; Laurinda Barrett - Constance Willis; Norma Connolly - Betty Todd; Nehemiah Persoff - Gene Conforti; Lola D'Annunzio - Olga Conforti; Kippy Campbell - Robert Balestrero; Robert Essen - Gregory Balestrero; Dayton Lummis - Judge Groat; Frances Reid - Mrs. O'Connor; Peggy Webber - Miss Dennerly; Charles Aidman - Jail Medical Attendant; Barry Atwater - Mr. Bishop; John C. Becher - Liquor Store Proprietor; Henry Beckman - Prisoner; Ray Bennett - Policeman; Mary Boylan - Curious Customer; Paul Bryar - Interrogation Officer; Paul Carr - Young Man; Gordon B. Clark - Police Attendant; Olga Fabian - Mrs. Mank; Bonnie Franklin - Giggly Girl; Chris Gampel - Department of Correction Guard; Will Hare - McKaba; William Hudson - Police Lieutenant from the 110th precinct; Werner Klemperer - Dr. Banay; Walter Kohler - Manny's Felony Court Attorney; William Le Massena - Sang; Alexander Lockwood - Emmerton; Maurice Manson - District Attorney; Donald May - Arresting Patrolman; Silvio Minciotti - Mr. Balestrero; Pat Morrow - Young Girl; Daniel Ocko - Felony Court Judge; Penny Santon - Spanish Woman; Otto Simanek, Sr. - Mr. Mank; Clarence Straight - Policeman; Dan Terranova - Mr. Ferraro; Emerson Treacy - Mr. Wendon; John Truax - Suspect; Don Turner - Detective; John Vivyan - Detective Holman; Tuesday Weld - Giggly Girl; David Kelly - Policeman; Don McGovern - Waving Man; John Stephen - Stork Club Customer; Allan Ray - Suspect; John Caler - Soldier; Anna Karen - Miss Duffield; Mike Keene; Maurice Wells - Department of Correction Officer; John R. McKee - Police Attendant; Harry Stanton - Correction Officer
The Wrong Man is a 1956 film by Alfred Hitchcock which stars Henry Fonda and Vera Miles. The film is based on a true story of an innocent man charged for a crime he did not commit, even though witnesses swear he is guilty. The story was based on the book The True Story of Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero by Maxwell Anderson and the article "A Case of Identity" (Life magazine, June 29, 1953) by Herbert Brean.
The Wrong Man has had a significant influence on many directors. The Wrong Man provoked the longest piece of criticism written by Jean-Luc Godard and was an influence on Taxi Driver.[1]
The film examines the experience of Manny Balestrero (Fonda) who works as a musician in the Stork Club, a nightclub in New York City. Manny and Rose (Miles), his wife, have very little money. When Rose needs some dental work, Manny attempts to borrow on her insurance policy at the insurance office. Unfortunately, he bears a resemblance to an armed robber who had held up the office twice before, so the police are called. Manny is identified by several witnesses and, when providing a handwriting sample, he nervously misspells a word that was also misspelled on the robbery note. He is arrested and charged with the crime.
His defense attorney, Frank O'Connor, builds a case based on mistaken identity. At the time of the first hold-up, Manny had a swollen jaw - a fact which the insurance-office employee would have noticed if Manny had been the robber. At the time of the second hold-up Manny was away on vacation with his family. Manny and Rose look for the three people who could have testified that he was present at the vacation hotel on the day of the hold-up, but two had died in the intervening months and the third could not be found. The stress of all this has a devastating effect on Rose who slowly descends into depression to the point where she is institutionalized.
During the trial a juror, bored with the minutia of one witness's testimony, makes a remark which prompts the judge to grant a mistrial. While Manny is awaiting re-trial the real robber is arrested in the act of robbing a grocery store and Manny is exonerated. He visits Rose at the sanatorium to tell her the good news but she remains in an apathic state. The film closes with a textual epilogue that reveals that two years later Rose had fully recovered and the family moved to Florida.
Hitchcock's cameo is a signature occurrence in most of his films. In The Wrong Man he can be seen (at the beginning of the film before the movie actually starts) in silhouette standing in a darkened street as he tells the audience the film is a true story.
The prison scenes were filmed in a real prison (City Prison in Queens, NY). When Manny (Henry Fonda) is taken to his cell, one of the actual inmates shouts "What'd they get ya for, Henry?".
The film was scored by Bernard Herrmann who wrote the music for all of Hitchcock's films from The Trouble with Harry (1955) through Marnie (1964) with the exception of The Birds (1963) (in which Herrmann used only electronic sounds). It is one of the most-subdued scores Herrmann ever wrote and one of the few he composed with some jazz elements, primarily to represent Fonda's appearance as a musician in the nightclub scenes.
^Godard on Godard, translated by Tom Milne, Da Capo Press) in his years as a critic; and in Scorsese on Scorsese(edited by Ian Christie and David Thompson), it is cited as an influence on Taxi Driver.
