The Wrong Man (1956)

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

Maxwell Anderson (novel)
Angus MacPhail (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

23 December 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Film-Noir

Tagline:

The police were convinced... The witnesses were positive ...Yet he was... THE WRONG MAN

Plot:

True story of an innocent man mistaken for a criminal.

Plot Keywords:

Father Son Relationship | Brother Sister Relationship | Inn | Mother Son Relationship | Marriage

Cast

Henry Fonda	...	Christopher Emmanuel 'Manny' Balestrero
Vera Miles	...	Rose Balestrero
Anthony Quayle	...	Frank D. O'Connor
Harold J. Stone	...	Det. Lt. Bowers
John Heldabrand	...	Tomasini
Doreen Lang	...	Ann James
Norma Connolly	...	Betty Todd
Lola D'Annunzio	...	Olga Conforti, Manny's Sister
Robert Essen	...	Gregory Balestrero
Dayton Lummis	...	Judge Groat
Charles Cooper	...	Det. Matthews
Esther Minciotti	...	Mama Balestrero
Laurinda Barrett	...	Constance Willis
Nehemiah Persoff	...	Eugene 'Gene' Conforti
Kippy Campbell	...	Robert Balestrero

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Italian | Spanish

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

UK:PG (1988) | UK:A (1957) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | France:U (re-release) | Peru:14 | USA:Approved (PCA #18117) | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

5th Avenue subway station, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Director Cameo: [Alfred Hitchcock]narrating the film's prologue. The only time he actually spoke in any of his films.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: As Rose is being led up the stairs of the mental treatment facility, the shadow of someone's head appears in the bottom left corner behind the lamp. It seems as though someone walked past a bulb.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Prologue narrator: This is Alfred Hitchcock speaking. In the past, I have given you many kinds of suspense pictures. But this time, I would like you to see a different one. The difference lies in the fact that this is a true story, every word of it. And yet it contains elements that are stranger than all the fiction that has gone into many of the thrillers that I've made before.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Zodiac (2007/I)

Unexpected jewel from the Master

This is a terrific, dark, taut thriller from Hitchcock, based on a true story. Not his usual ostentatious style, but it plays on the theme of a wrong man caught up in extraordinary events beyond his control (REAR WINDOW, NORTH BY NORTHWEST, PSYCHO).

It may be Hitchcock's most cynical film. Henry Fonda plays a man falsely accused of armed robbery. He is a quiet man, whose life gets turned upside down as a result.

Hitchcock spares us nothing of the horror of the predicament of Fonda's situation. He shows many of the details of how Fonda is accused, arrested, and tried in real time, so we are as fully worn down as the protagonist.

The plot was quite unbelievable by 1950s standards that Hitch needed all the realism he could muster. For example, Hitchcock himself introduces the film in a prologue, to verify that it is indeed based on a true story. Also, don't look for his trademark cameo - he did shoot a scene where he was a customer in a store, but that scene ended up getting cut. Hitchcock personally interviewed all of the participants in the real live drama. And the doctor at the sanitarium is played not by an actor, but by a real doctor.