The Wrong Man (1956)

Very good character study

Once again Hitchcock surprises us by making a movie that is completely different from the other better known films he made in this era. Theres no Hollywood action and very little of his trademark suspense in this movie. Its almost a procedural Police movie with a bit of court room drama thrown in for good measure. Above all this though is how the relationship between a man and wife is stretched beyond the limit by a simple misidentification.

Henry Fonda looks suitably haunted and Vera Miles as his wife Rose perhaps even more so. What Hitchcock portrays so well in this movie is the reality of an innocent person being prosecuted for a crime he did not commit.

This is also part of an excellent boxed set which I strongly recommend. Sure this isn't a classic Hitchcock but even an average Hitchcock is much better than most other filmmakers attempts. November 15, 2008

Good

Alfred Hitchcock was the consummate Hollywood director, in that his films had high production values, big name stars, were immaculately composed and scored- usually by Bernard Herrmann, as in this film, yet they also tended to lack heart, or real human emotion. They were all basically plot-driven vehicles that usually had twist endings, that stretched the bounds of the reasonable. In a way he was the M. Night Shyamalan of his day, except that he was a far superior filmmaker in every way. Every so often, however, he would try his hand at a different style of film, like Mr. And Mrs. Smith, Jamaica Inn, and Under Capricorn.
Perhaps his most successful such `oddball' film was 1956's black and white social realism film The Wrong Man, starring Henry Fonda, which was manifestly influenced by the spate of European films that indulged in the Neo-Realistic style of such masters as Vittorio De Sica, Federico Fellini, and Roberto Rossellini, and based upon a real life case of mistaken identity in 1953 which nearly put an innocent man in prison. This film's veracity was so important to Hitchcock that he did not dare make one of his comic cameo appearances within the film, rather we only see him opening the film on a dark soundstage, and in shadow, as he intones the setup. Yet, in a sense, the film is more of a classic film noir, based in reality, than a Neo-Realistic film, based in Hollywood, even as it is shorn of the usual Hitchcockian plot twists and MacGuffins. The film was penned by Angus MacPhail and playwright Maxwell Anderson, and was based upon Anderson's non-fiction novel called The True Story Of Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero, which preceded Truman Capote's non-fiction novel In Cold Blood by a decade. It is a very good film, yet it never quite soars into greatness, for a number of manifest reasons.
For a film that has been called Hitchcock's stab at Neo-Realism, a bit less artifice would have been more suited. The Wrong Man, however, is a very good film, even if it is clearly a flawed and second tier film of Hitchcock's, despite its noble attempts at more. It's not a thriller, but a character study- of Manny, Rose, and even the mores of mid-Twentieth Century New York City, with images that do not rhapsodize the city as in Woody Allen's Manhattan does, but show the city as a sort of indifferent beast. Despite its flaws, The Wrong Man has good performances, technical kudos, and great touches that stick in the viewer's mind long after it ends; such as the rote and unwavering way the female witnesses identify the real robber, then are ashamed to look at Manny as they leave, an early shot of Manny leaving The Stork Club, bracketed between two cops as he walks away, or his recalling the cop car in front of his house when he is let out on bail and sees an empty spot in the street. These are the things that show that a great artist, even when not at his best, is still better than most non-great artists at their best. And that's the sort of claim for which no twist ending is needed.
September 21, 2008

Art Imitating Life

The Wrong Man is a brilliant film. This film was my first introduction to Alfred Hitchcock. I remember being about 10 and staying up "late" one night and watching this film. It terrified me. I remembered this film until seven years later when I saw a movie called "Psycho" and began to investigate the director--since then I have been hooked.

The film follows the innocent and seemingly normal life of a man mistaken for a crime. As we continue on our journey through the justice system with Manny, we see how his entire life and family are affected by this accident. His wife, played by Vera Miles, slowly descends into madness (and she does so beautifully). This film is so well done and perfectly acted that you truly feel for the characters (and then you realized this is based on true events and the terror really begins!).

It is still one of my favorites, and it still terrifies me even now. What could be scarier than being innocent and having so little to prove so; especially when there are witnesses against you! (I bet Henry Fonda wished that jury from 12 Angry Men were presiding over Manny's case!). A true masterpiece that pulls at your heart and mind! Highly recommend May 27, 2008

Fascinating but not entirely successful "realist" film from "The Master"

"The Wrong Man", set in (then contemporary) 1950s New York, tells the story of a family man played by Henry Fonda who is mistakenly identified as the perpetrator behind a series of robberies.

"The Wrong Man" is strange mixture of gritty realism and Hitchcockian sensibilities that doesn't entirely gel, particulary during the second half of the film.

Hitchcock had a traumatic childhood experience of being imprisoned that left him with a life long phobia of police and authority figures in general. His father had the local police chief lock him in a cell for 5 minutes as a warning. This experience certainly resonates in this film.

"The Wrong Man" along with "I Confess" contains Hitchcock's most blatant use of religious, particulary Catholic symbols.

Hitchcock's visual inventiveness is in full gear throughout the film. There are many close ups and high angle shots to give us the feeling of being trapped as well as several other bravura efforts - the "dissolve" on the entrance of the real perpetrator, the shot where we move throught the eyehole of the cell, and the whirling camera when Fonda is in his cell.

"The Master" makes his cameo in a short prologue to the film - he didn't want it to distract viewers during the film given the "serious" subject matter.

There is a tacked on coda, obviously imposed by the studio, which attempts to provide a "happy ending" after the depressing nature of the rest of the film.

On its own level this film is not entirely successful but it is certainly fascinating for Hitchcock buffs.
July 12, 2007

"THE WRONG MAN"- starring Henry Fonda

This is a scary story of what can happen to anyone who falls victim to mistaken identity and a lesson to those who somehow believe that police or law enforcement and even witnesses or accusers are never or seldom wrong. "The Wrong Man" is also an eye opener to the fact that somewhere we all have a double or someone who resembles us very much and the trouble that sometimes this can cause anyone.
Coincidentally filmed and released right around the same time another Fonda great, "Twelve Angry Men", was, "The Wrong Man" is in my opinion, equal, in pointing out that the legal system can go wrong, but both films in their endings, send messages of hope on how wrongs are sometimes corrected. February 7, 2007

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