Musician Manny Balestrero (Henry Fonda) is a man full of visible but unspoken rage at his wrongful arrest.  His distraught wife Rose (Vera Miles) is driven to madness by the ordeal.  Based on the true experiences of a man tried for crimes committed by a look-alike robber.

CRITIQUE

When Alfred Hitchcock was five years old, his father gave him a letter and sent him down to the police station.  Young Alfred was to give the letter the chief of police, a friend of Hitchcock’s father.  Hitchcock went down to the police station, presented the chief with the letter, the chief read the letter… and promptly locked the boy in one of the cells.  Young Hitchcock was not locked up for long, maybe five or ten minutes, before he was let out, the chief making sure to tell him, “this is what happens to bad little boys.”  That incident was one of the most formative of Hitchcock’s life, engendering a lifelong fear of the police, and it is perhaps the single biggest influence on his work.  The idea of “the wrong man,” of mistaken identity and transferred guilt dominates his art, perhaps in no other film more strongly than The Wrong Man.

The Wrong Man is one of Hitchcock’s most serious pictures, so serious, in fact, that Hitchcock does not even make his usual cameo, though he does introduce the film (in silhouette) before the opening credits start.  The comic relief that punctuated some of Hitchcock’s more suspenseful scenes is absent here.  The film is also not particularly suspenseful, Hitchcock opting for a more straightforward, documentary approach to telling the story.  It should not be forgotten that this film is based on a true story, and that Hitchcock used actual names in the script and filmed in the actual New York City locations where the story played out, including the famous Stork Club, and the actual jail cell where Balestrero was held.  This air of authenticity adds a layer of realistic fright that could not have otherwise been achieved.  The straightforward style of this film stands out because all of Hitchcock’s previous films were much more formalistic in style, with more expressionistic lighting styles and virtuoso camerawork.  To Hitchcock, perhaps, the real events themselves were scary enough that he did not need to embellish them.

Henry Fonda is great as working musician everyman Manny Balestrero.  Fonda is the perfect for the role because he plays a convincing everyday person, and his star presence does not overwhelm the story.  Balestrero is the quintessential Hitchcock protagonist.  He is pulled into this waking nightmare totally by circumstance.  In terms of Hitchcock’s work, The Wrong Man calls to mind a film he made a few years earlier, I Confess.  In that film the character comes to be the main suspect purely through circumstance.  In both films, the characters are drawn into the events of the story through a totally random series of events, and they are propelled to their certain doom, reprieved in the end only when the real criminal outs himself.  The characters are totally at the whim of circumstance; they don’t get themselves into anything, and they don’t get themselves out.  Vera Miles is also good as Balestrero’s suffering wife.  She is the one who really feels the weight of their crushing financial situation (they can’t afford the bail, they can’t afford the lawyer, etc.), and in the end she feels that she is responsible for the predicament in which Manny finds himself.  She suffers for it, driven to a nervous breakdown.  She is just as much a casualty of what happens to Manny as Manny is.  Her condition shows the damage that can be done by one false accusation.

The reveal of the real criminal is one of the best moments in any of Hitchcock’s films, and we really see the fine line between that can send an innocent man to jail and keep a guilty man on the street.  The Wrong Man puts an intense focus on the one theme that propelled Hitchcock’s work more than any other.  This is one of his best films, and now that it is on DVD, it is ripe for rediscovery.  Seeing The Wrong Man is crucial to any real understanding of Hitchcock’s work.

THE VIDEO

The Wrong Man is presented in the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio.  The picture is crisp, capturing the documentary look.  There are a few scenes where some grain is present, but that is minimal, and seems to have more to do with the original negative than the transfer itself.

THE AUDIO

This DVD is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono.  The presentation is sharp, particularly in the jail and courtroom scenes.  Being mono, the sound is all front heavy, but the presentation is crisp and neat.

THE EXTRAS

Guilt Trip: Hitchcock and The Wrong Man: a look at the making of the film and the real life story that inspired it.  The casting is discussed, as is Hitchcock’s personal interest in the story.

Theatrical trailer: the original trailer.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Wrong Man is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most personal films, echoing the very fear that dominated his life.  The direction and performances are amazing all around, and the special features are insightful.  This is a must for Hitchcock fans.