| The Wrong Man | |
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 Original film poster |
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| Directed by | Alfred Hitchcock |
| Produced by | Uncredited: Alfred Hitchcock |
| Written by | Story: Maxwell Anderson The True Story of Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero Screenplay: Maxwell Anderson Angus MacPhail |
| Starring | Henry Fonda Vera Miles Anthony Quayle Harold Stone |
| Music by | Bernard Herrmann |
| Cinematography | Robert Burks |
| Editing by | George Tomasini |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) |  December 22, 1956 |
| Running time | 105 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$ 1,200,000 |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Wrong Man is a 1956 film by Alfred Hitchcock which stars Henry Fonda and Vera Miles. The film is based on a true story of an innocent man charged for a crime he didn't commit, even though witnesses swear he's guilty. Based on the book The True Story of Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero by Maxwell Anderson and the article "A Case of Identity" (Life Magazine, June 29, 1953) by Herbert Brean.
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Plot
Manny Balestrero is an honest hardworking musician at New York's Stork Club. When his wife needs money for dental treatment, Manny goes to the local insurance office to borrow on her policy. Employees at the office mistake him for a hold-up man who robbed them twice before and the police are called. The film tells the true story of what happened to Manny and his family.
Production Notes
Alfred Hitchcock's cameo is a signature occurrence in most of his films. In The Wrong Man he can be seen (at the beginning of the film) in silhouette standing in a darkened street as he advises the audience the film is a true story. The prison scenes were filmed in a real prison. When Manny (Henry Fonda) is taken to his cell, one of the actual inmates shouts 'What'd they get ya for, Henry?'. The film was scored by Bernard Herrmann, who wrote the music for all of Hitchcock's films from The Trouble with Harry (1955) through Marnie (1964) with the exception of The Birds, in which Herrmann used only electronic sounds. It is one of the most subdued scores Herrmann ever wrote and one of the few he composed with some jazz elements, primarily to represent Fonda's appearance as a musician in the nightclub scenes. It was the final film that Hitchcock made for Warner Brothers, completing a contract commitment that had begun with two films produced for Transatlantic Pictures and released by Warners in the late 1940s, Rope and Under Capricorn (his first two films in Technicolor). After The Wrong Man, Hitchcock's resumed his work at Paramount Pictures until he moved to Universal Pictures for the remainder of his career. He also made a single film for MGM: North by Northwest (1959).
Homage
A poster of the film can be seen tacked on a wall inside the home of Robert Graysmith, played by Jake Gyllenhaal in David Fincher's 2007 film Zodiac (co-produced by WB and Paramount Pictures).
Main cast
- Henry Fonda as Christopher Emmanuel "Manny" Balestrero
- Vera Miles as Rose Balestrero
- Anthony Quayle as Frank O'Connor
- Harold Stone as Jack Lee
