SYNOPSICS
The Wrong Man (1956) is a English,Italian,Spanish movie. Alfred Hitchcock has directed this movie. Henry Fonda,Vera Miles,Anthony Quayle,Harold J. Stone are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1956. The Wrong Man (1956) is considered one of the best Drama,Film-Noir movie in India and around the world.
Christopher Emanuel Balestrero, "Manny" to his friends, is a string bassist, a devoted husband and father, and a practicing Catholic. His eighty-five dollar a week gig playing in the jazz combo at the Stork Club is barely enough to make ends meet. The Balestreros' lives will become a little more difficult with the major dental bills his wife Rose will be incurring. As such, Manny decides to see if he can borrow off of Rose's life insurance policy. But when he enters the insurance office, he is identified by some of the clerks as the man that held up the office twice a few months earlier. Manny cooperates with the police, as he has nothing to hide. Manny learns that he is a suspect in not only those hold-ups, but a series of other hold-ups in the same Jackson Heights neighborhood in New York City where they live. The more that Manny cooperates, the more guilty he appears to the police. With the help of Frank O'Connor, the attorney that they hire, they try to prove Manny's innocence. ...
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The Wrong Man (1956) Reviews
Hitchcock is the right man for suspense!
This is a very underrated Hitchcock film that features amazing performances from it's two stars, Henry Fonda and (especially) Vera Miles. It is a sad, cynical offering from the Master Of Suspense that has a familiar theme (the title says it all), yet it also is perhaps one of Hitch's most unusual works. The films runs more like a documentary in it's approach, and it feels inherently 'real'. The casting of 'everyman' Fonda in the role of Manny Balestero, a man accused of crimes he did not commit, works very well as we can feel empathy for Fonda and place ourselves in his position. Ditto with Miles. She is so convincing in her role as the mentally fragile wife Rose that her scenes are almost uncomfortable to witness. Portraying a person self-destructing is one of the hardest tasks an actor can face, but Miles does it subtly and movingly. It is a brilliant performance that ranks alongside Bergman's role in 'Notorious' and Wright's 'Charlie' in 'Shadow Of A Doubt' for best female acting honors in a Hitchcock film. 'The Wrong Man' has a sentimental, tender yet dark atmosphere. The sentimentality is perhaps due to the fact that the central action revolves around a family grouping in this film.There are no elaborate scenes of courtship and romance as in 'Vertigo' or sexy double entendres seen in 'Notorious'- Instead, we get the feeling that this is a real, normal family we are watching unravel at the seams due to the crimes of another. Appropriately slow-moving to keep in check with Hitch's low-key approach for this one. New York in the 1950's was possibly never photographed so darkly real as it is here. Boasting great performances from the two leads, this is a must-see Hitchcock.
True story-authentic locations
Based pretty much on the actual events & people of a miscarriage of justice that took place in Queens County, New York in the early 50's. The names of most of the people who took part in the event are unchanged in the movie and the location shots where the actual events took place add a touch of dark realism to the movie. The basic plot revolves around a musician who worked at the world famous Stork Club who was mis-identified by witnesses and arrested because he resembled an armed robber. Hitchcock dwells on the slow descent into helplessness and powerlessness that a citizen endures as he wends his way through the NYC (or any other) criminal justice meat grinder. There are chilling shots of his transport , by paddy wagon, into the Ridgewood Felony court and the Long Island City House of Detention. The lawyer he hired, Frank O'Connor, (his real name) went on to become District Attorney of Queens county and was later heavily involved in the infamous Kitty Genovese case. Not your typical Hitchcock film but one well worth seeing if for no other reason than to see one of Henry Fonda's better performances as the quietly stunned Christopher Emmanuel (Manny) Balestrero who sees his life, career and family endangered by forces he has little control over.
Disquieting, a steely Fonda, and amazing Hitchcock. But it might make you edgy.
The Wrong Man (1956) There's no question Alfred Hitchcock has pulled off something amazing here, a kind of experiment. Entirely based on true events, and without any sense of chase, romance, or high intrigue, and without special effects or even witty dialog, he makes you feel for the main character, Henry Fonda, a man accused of a crime he did not commit. It's often pointed out that Hitchcock had an enormous fear of the police, and of being accused when innocent. This shows up in many of his films, but never more clearly or more painfully than here. To watch is an adventure in frustration, almost to the point you have to turn it off. But of course, you can't just get up and leave. You have to know what happens. And the turns of events are so reasonable and yet so unbearable, you just want to get up there and say, do this, do that! It's weird to say, this is not an enjoyable movie. But it's a very good one, maybe flawless in its attempt to trap you as much as the main character was trapped. The surrounding cast is terribly believable, the cops, the wife, the kids. And it unfolds with such dramatic relentlessness. The camera angles (thanks to Robert Burks) are psychologically intense (and edited for discomfort). And the music (Bernard Herrmann, soon to score Psycho) only adds more tension. Beautifully. As an exercise in precision, and in sticking to the facts, this is as good as a dramatic (non-documentary) film can get. Wikipedia has a small amount of helpful information, and tcm.com has a lot (click on articles or reviews on the left for a range of texts). But of course, watch it straight. See some period New York City scenes (from streets to jails to what looks like the amazing 57th St. bridge at dusk). A wonderful, if not uplifting, movie.
A Very Sad Drama Based on a True Story
In New York, the Catholic Italian musician of the Stork Club Christopher Emanuel "Manny" Balestrero (Henry Fonda) is a simple man, married with his beloved wife Rose (Vera Miles) and having two sons. On 14 January 1953, his wife needs an expensive teeth treatment, and Manny goes to the insurance company, trying to raise a loan. However, he is wrongly identified by a clerk as the man who robbed the place twice, being arrested and sent to jail. His friends pay the bail and he tries to prove his innocence. Meanwhile, Rose has a nervous breakdown, caused by her mistrust on his innocence, and is sent to an institution for treatment. "The Wrong Man" is a very sad and touching story of the injustice against an innocent man, affecting the health of his family. Henry Fonda is amazing in the role of an ordinary man, who accepts passively the situations, believing on God and praying for strength and justice. Vera Miles is fantastic in the role of a wife who believe she has part of the guilty for the action of her beloved husband. This movie was filmed in many authentic locations, and is a very different work of Alfred Hitchcock. Maybe due to the theme be so serious, Hitchcock appears only introducing of the story, and does not have any other small participations as he usually does in his movies. The black and white photography, with shadows, and the score of Bernard Herrmann, complete the magnificence of this great underrated movie. My vote is nine. Title (Brazil): "O Homem Errado" ("The Wrong Man")
And Justice for All?
The theme of an innocent man wrongly accused of a crime was a frequent one in Alfred Hitchcock's work, but "The Wrong Man" is very different from most of his other treatments of this theme. It is based upon a true story, and is told in a sober, semi-documentary style rather than the director's more normal thriller style. There are no cliffhangers or chase sequences and no directorial set pieces like the scene with the crop-dusting plane in "North by Northwest" or the shower scene in "Psycho", and the ending is far more downbeat than the normal triumphant finale with the villain dead or in police custody and the hero vindicated and free to marry the beautiful young heroine. (One thing the film does have in common with a more traditional thriller is a suitably eerie musical score from Bernard Herrman who also provided the music for several other Hitchcock films). The central character is Emmanuel Balestrero, a musician employed in a New York nightclub, a devoted husband and the father of two young sons. After visiting an insurance company to borrow some money against his wife's policy, Balestrero is arrested and told that he has been identified as the man who carried out two robberies at the company's offices. He protests his innocence but further witnesses come forward to allege that he was involved in other robberies. He is released on bail, and manages to find a lawyer to take on the case, but has difficulty in establishing an alibi that will clear his name. The action culminates in a trial scene, something of a rarity in Hitchcock's work. Although he was fascinated by the law and the criminal justice system, he preferred to create an atmosphere of physical menace rather than rely on the verbal duels of the traditional courtroom drama. Parallel to the story of Balestrero's fight to establish his innocence is the story of his wife, Rose. Another of Hitchcock's interests, one often reflected in his work, was psychology, often but not always the psychology of the criminal mind. This interest is explored most deeply in "Spellbound", but it also appears in films such as "Strangers on a Train" and "Psycho"; both Bruno Anthony and Norman Bates can be seen as psychological case studies. In "The Wrong Man" the stress of her husband's ordeal affects Rose's mind, and she suffers first from depression, then from paranoia. She suffers a breakdown and is committed to a mental hospital. Vera Miles gives a particularly fine performance as Rose, contrasting with Henry Fonda's baffled but stoical Balestrero. The film is not "scary" in the way that a normal Hitchcock thriller is scary, but is nevertheless frightening. In the average thriller, we feel anxiety on behalf of the hero; here we feel anxiety not only on behalf of Balestrero, who runs the risk of being imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, but also on behalf of society as a whole. This is one Hitchcock film with a serious message, intended to show that miscarriages of justice can occur all too easily. The director emphasised this message in the opening spoken prologue in which he addresses the camera directly, a prologue that replaces his normal cameo appearance. The possibility of an innocent man going to jail is all the more chilling for the fact that no-one has given perjured evidence or deliberately attempted to frame Balestrero. The witnesses genuinely believe that he is the guilty man, and the police remain dispassionate throughout. Certainly, some of the elements of criminal procedure shown would not be permissible today (suspects being arrested without being informed of their rights or of the crime of which they are suspected, interviews being conducted without a written or taped record being kept, two witnesses allowed to be present together during an identification parade), but this does not lessen the film's impact; anyone with any knowledge of the law will be aware that innocent people can still be convicted in the twenty-first century. Apart from "Psycho" this was Hitchcock's last film made in black and white, and he makes good use of the medium, with some striking photography. Particularly notable is his use of close-ups, such as of the witnesses when they think they recognise Balestrero as the robber, or of Vera Miles's face to illustrate Rose's emotional turmoil. This is a stark, sombre film, a memorable departure from the normal Hitchcock style. 7/10