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 by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
is neutral about it.
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