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Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Anthony Quayle, Harold J. Stone, Charles Cooper ... see more see more... , Richard Robbins , John Heldabrand , Esther Minciotti , Doreen Lang , Laurinda Barrett , Norma Connolly , Nehemiah Persoff , Lola D'Annunzio , Kippy Campbell , Robert Essen , Dayton Lummis , Frances Reid , Peggy Webber , Charles Aidman , Barry Atwater , John C. Becher , Henry Beckman , Ray Bennett , Mary Boylan , Paul Bryar , Paul Carr , Gordon B. Clark , Olga Fabian , Bonnie Franklin , Chris Gampel , Will Hare , William Hudson , Werner Klemperer , Walter Köhler , William Le Massena , Alexander Lockwood , Maurice Manson , Donald May , Silvio Minciotti , Pat Morrow , Daniel Ocko , Penny Santon , Otto Simanek Sr. , Clarence Straight , Dan Terranova , Emerson Treacy , John Truax , Don Turner , John Vivyan , Tuesday Weld , David Kelly , Don Charles McGovern , John Stephen , Allan Ray , John Caler , Anna Karen , Mike Keene , Maurice Wells , John R. McKee , Harry Stanton

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 befo... read more read more...re 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, Rovi

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73% liked it

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89% liked it

18 critics

Unrated, 2 hr. 6 min.

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock

Release Date: January 1, 1957

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DVD Release Date: September 7, 2004

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Flixster Reviews (392)

  • moonrivers
    February 27, 2012
    moonrivers
    In this very somber Hitchcock offering Henry Fonda is a everyman musician for an exclusive nightclub accused of a series of petty crimes. The effect on him and his family is the focus, as their lives, just above poverty to begin with, begin to unravel. Several scenes are notewo... read morerthy, like the booking in the police station and the courtroom scene, the sense of entrapment very palpable. Not a popular film, still worth your time.
  • fb1664868775
    November 13, 2011
    fb1664868775
    A minor work for Hitchcock during his greatest period is far better than most films made today.
  • SirPant
    March 9, 2011
    SirPant
    I think The Wrong Man is overlooked among Hitchcock's great films. First of all, Fonda's performance is brilliant, in that it is perfectly subtle with just that right balance of sinister, fear and bewilderment. The story itself is a fairly accurate account of the true story, with... read more even a few real witnesses cast as themselves. For me though, it's the masterful direction that I love the most about this film, there are some beautiful shots of New York and the scenes where Fonda is taken to jail are brilliantly handled, close up shots used to enhance the feeling of claustrophobia. One of my many favourites of Hitch's, wouldn't it be nice if every film had an introduction from its director!
  • imrealgod
    January 2, 2011
    imrealgod
    (It) May have been extra-ordinary in its time or/and for Hitchcock fans, but if you ask me.........
  • ajv2688
    November 15, 2010
    ajv2688
    Yet another brilliant film of Hitchcock's from the fifties, I highly recommend this one.
  • mjgildea
    August 31, 2010
    mjgildea
    At the beginning of The Wrong Man, Alfred Hitchcock informs (more like warns) his audience this movie is a departure from his other movies. What follows is a beautifully photographed and incredibly dull story about a case of mistaken identity. Hitchcock spends most of the first h... read moreour introducing Henry Fonda and Vera Miles as a struggling family thrown into a tedious nightmare based almost entirely on circumstantial evidence. While Fonda and Miles' performances are great, their characters are boring despite the fact that Hitchcock gets you to sympathize with them. And speaking of Hitchcock, his direction is fantastic (that nervous courtroom scene and the shot of Fonda in the holding cell were brilliant) even if the story is far from. The Wrong Man is definitely worth the watch for fans of Hitchcock but there's definitely a reason you don't hear this title thrown around in the same breath with his name too often.
  • ythelastman89
    April 29, 2010
    ythelastman89
    Itâ??s a really simple movie, but I love it anyway. How can you lose with Henry Fonda, heâ??s the ultimate do-gooder. The person you can always count on to be the best natured human being since Jesus (well, until he met Sergio Leone). Itâ??s ultimately a story about a nice guy ge... read moretting tortured by the judicial system. If anything, you just feel really bad for the family in the film because of what it does to them. Itâ??s extremely powerful and certainly the most overtly political Hitchcock ever got. Itâ??s a great examination of the American family and value system of the 50s. Then to add to its effectiveness, itâ??s brilliantly shot and directed.
  • jjnxn
    March 30, 2010
    jjnxn
    Any Hitchcock is worth a view but this one shot in an almost documentary fashion is not among his best. Good acting though.
  • sanjurosamurai
    February 17, 2009
    sanjurosamurai
    one of hitchcocks more average films. it certainly wasnt bad, vera miles was beautiful in the film and fonda turned in a typically serviceable performance, but the story was slow and unengaging. this film would have been a full star better with better pacing and about 20 minute... read mores knocked off. hitchcocks stab at the telling of a true story.
  • matertenebraum
    December 14, 2008
    matertenebraum
    After sitting through The Wrong Man, it puzzles me greatly why this film isn't seen by more, or rated as highly as some of Alfred Hitchcock's masterpieces. True, he does seem to be subverting his style slightly for the story, which is at the core a tragedy of a man falsely accuse... read mored (and maybe not with the same tension we'd expect like in Strangers on a Train or Psycho). But to me it shows him really with an experimental edge that just seemed to really strike me. This is Hitchcock going for something Kafkaesque ala the Trial, and on that level the film is downright scary at times. Though Henry Fonda's Manny Balestero is told of his charge after being arrested, the whole 'procedural' nature of the film's story, of how the system can be the damnedest thing, makes it downright gripping. Like with the Master's other films, one can see the suspense at times almost sweating through the frame, and the kind of Cold-War era paranoia that works magnificently (like when Manny is at the insurance office, where the plot thickens), along with the sort of Joseph K. quality to the lead of being presumed guilty more than being presumed innocent.

    But there is also something very powerful, and challenging, about the casting of the lead. In a sense Hitchcock was one step ahead of Sergio Leone, who would do something similar with Once Upon a Time in the West (though Leone was going for a lot more twisting the genre screws). It's a filmmaker saying, 'look, I'm giving you Henry Fonda, maybe the most, if not one of the most, good-hearted movie stars from the 40's- Grapes of Wrath, My Darling Clementine, The Lady Eve, etc- but I'm putting him in a situation where he's in this strange scenario of not playing himself, or rather being in a society that is brutal and unflinching'. Fonda was the perfect choice considering the material, and while it is based on a true story and Fonda is terrific at his role, that Hitchcock leaves out certain details of his innocence adds a certain level to the subject matter. Maybe he is guilty and we just are too gullible to think it? How long can all this doomed atmosphere continue? On an existential level almost Hitchcock delivers a kind of very recognizable world with the terror on a different but just as engaging level as his 'popular' films.

    If Fonda is our fatefully unlucky protagonist, Vera Miles is equally compelling as his wife, who can't seem to take what has been going on with her husband. If there is some sense of pitch black satire amid the "true-story" drama of the story, she is the representation of paranoia affecting a seemingly good person. Why this happens exactly to Rose Ballestero, her descent into a kind of closed-off madness, isn't made entirely clear (again, Kafka), and the conclusion to the film brings something that I was hoping would happen, and did, and makes for something far more challenging than if a standard Hollywood director would've tackled the material. Using real locations in NYC, the great many character actors that make up the police and everyday people (there is some very good casting in the insurance office scene), and a musical score that is decidedly vintage Herrmann, Hitchcock uses this sort of documentary realism to heighten his own subjective approach (all the images of prison bars, the film-noir type lighting and staging, the use of space in the rooms). It all works to help the story, which goes against the grain of the 50's era thriller, and it works extremely well.

    In fact, for my money, I would rank this among my top five or so favourites in Hitchcock's whole oeuvre. It's a bold statement to be sure, but for the particular cinema fan, this brings on entertainment on a truly dramatic scale and, until a certain point I won't mention, is unrelenting.

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Critic Reviews

A.H. Weiler
March 25, 2006
A.H. Weiler, New York Times

Frighteningly authentic, the story generates only a modicum of drama. Full Review

Matthew Sorrento
June 27, 2010
Matthew Sorrento, PopMatters

Confined spaces highlight Hitchcock's inversion of his usual fugitive-on-the-run films. (From Hitchcock 101) Full Review

Emanuel Levy
July 27, 2009
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

Boasting an iconic performance from Henry Fonda in the titular role, this is Hitchcock's most somber film and one of of the bleakest works in film history, which may account for its commercial failure... Full Review

Urban Cinefile Critics
November 10, 2006
Urban Cinefile Critics, Urban Cinefile

Essentially a crime noir thriller with a twist, Paul McGuigan's film is showy and sharp, whose witty dialogue is delivered with a shrug Full Review

Pablo Villaca
March 5, 2006
Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena

Em um de seus trabalhos mais subestimados, Hitchcock cria uma atmosfera angustiante e claustrofóbica a partir de incidentes nada espetaculares, sendo auxiliado pela atuação precisa de Fonda.

Dennis Schwartz
January 31, 2006
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

One of Hitchcock's underrated great films that never got its proper due, put aside by some critics as merely a minor work. Full Review

Steve Crum
June 11, 2005
Steve Crum, Video-Reviewmaster.com

Fine if lower keyed Hitchcock with Fonda as wrongly accused man whose life is wrecked.

Doug Cummings
November 8, 2004
Doug Cummings, Filmjourney

A standout piece in Hitchcock's oeuvre and a film that richly deserves its place among the filmmaker's greatest works. Full Review

Jeffrey M. Anderson
September 20, 2004
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid

Perhaps the most underrated and least known of Hitchcock's great films. Full Review

Christopher Null
September 17, 2004
Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com

In Hitchcock's litany, it ranks as one of the most forgettable works from his mature era. Full Review

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