It was the only film Alfred Hitchcock made based on a true story. A most incredible tale that had everyone talking in the summer of 1953 when Life Magazine featured it in Herbert Brean’s “A Case of Identity”
Three years later, Hitch had turned it into The Wrong Man (1956) – an overlooked gem, his other sizzling thrillers like Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963) getting more notice. Yet this innocent-suspected-of-a-crime story — a genre he loved, starting with The Lodger (1927), whom the landlady falsely believed was Jack the Ripper— deserves a close look.
This time, Hitch forgoes his usual cameo, instead narrating a prologue in silhouette before the credits roll in which he states “every word is true.”
The true story he is about to tell is that of Christopher Emmanuel “Manny” Balestrero (Henry Fonda), a quiet, hardworking Queens musician, whose emotionally secure life with his wife, Rose (Vera Miles), and two sons, Gregory and Robert, is suddenly upended when, incredibly, he is falsely accused of armed robbery.
SPOILER ALERT:
It all unfolds on January 14, 1953 when Manny shows up at Prudential Insurance Company of America on Roosevelt Avenue off 74th Street, not far from their Jackson Heights home. He needs to borrow money against his wife’s life insurance policy to pay for her upcoming dental work. Pretty ordinary stuff. But the teller is immediately circumspect, believing he is the crook who robbed them at gunpoint twice in the last year. Other staff agree. He’s the one.
No sooner does Manny arrive outside his home, poised to bound up the stairs, anticipating another relaxing evening with his family than he is detained by police for questioning.
This straight-as-an-arrow musician who plays double bass at the popular Stork Club in Manhattan does not even drink; nor can he afford to bring his wife to the ritzy night club. But they have each other, and theirs is a marriage bathed in warmth and love, which we are lavishly treated to at the outset. Then, in typical Hitchcock fashion, the audience is soon on the edge of their seats as the tale’s torturous twists and turns ratchet up.
First, he is run through a gauntlet, paraded in and out of shops that were robbed, and once the proprietors feel certain he is the one, he is booked at the 110th police precinct station.
They empty his pockets and take everything but his rosary. That he can keep.
Prayers answered, his family gets him out on $7500 bail and he finally secures a defense attorney, Frank O’Connor (Anthony Quayle), who meticulously works with them to develop his alibis as to why he could not have done the crimes.
The stress of it all, however, sends Rose’s mental health crashing.
Manny, though, stays strong and, seeing him fingering his rosary beads during the trial, the message is clear. He is enduring this heavy cross by petitioning Mary for help.
After the judge declares a mistrial due to juror misconduct, the tide shifts: The real robber is finally caught and Manny is cleared. But, not before his wife suffers irreparable harm. Another cross endured, no doubt, by many more Rosaries.
