The Wrong Man is a 1956 American docudrama film noir directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Henry Fonda and Vera Miles. The film was drawn from the true story of an innocent man charged with a crime, as described in the book The True Story of Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero by Maxwell Anderson and in the magazine article "A Case of Identity", which was published in Life magazine in June 1953 by Herbert Brean.
It is recognized as the only Hitchcock film based on a true story and whose plot closely follows the real-life events.
The Wrong Man had a notable effect on two significant directors: it prompted Jean-Luc Godard's longest piece of written criticism in his years as a critic, and it has been cited as an influence on Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver.
Plot
Alfred Hitchcock (or a double--he is in silhouette) appears on screen to tell the audience that the film's "every word is true."
Christopher Emmanuel "Manny" Balestrero, a down-on-his-luck musician at New York City's Stork Club, needs $300 for dental work for his wife Rose. When he visits the office of a life insurance company to borrow money against Rose's policy, he is mistaken by the staff there for a man who had twice held them up.
He is questioned by the police, who call him "Chris" rather than Manny, and tell him that they are looking for a man who had robbed the insurance company and other businesses and that he might be their man. Manny is instructed to walk in and out of a liquor store and a delicatessen which had also been robbed by the same man. He is then asked to write the words from a stick-up note used by the robber in the insurance company robbery; he misspells the word "drawer" as "draw"the same mistake made in the robber's note. After being picked out of a police lineup by an employee of the insurance company who had witnessed the robberies he is arrested on charges of armed robbery.
Attorney Frank O'Connor sets out to prove that Manny cannot possibly be the right man: at the time of the first hold-up he was on vacation with his family, and at the time of the second his jaw was so swollen that witnesses would certainly have noticed. Of three people who saw the boy fall at the vacation hotel, two have died and the third cannot be found. All this devastates Rose, whose resulting depression forces her to be hospitalized.
During Manny's trial he prays the rosary after his mother urges him to pray for strength. A juror's remark forces a mistrial. While awaiting a second trial Manny is exonerated when the true robber is arrested holding up a grocery store. Manny visits Rose at the hospital to share the good news, but, as the film ends, she remains severely depressed; a textual epilogue explains that she recovered two years later.
Cast
Henry Fonda as Christopher Emmanuel "Manny" Balestrero
Vera Miles as Rose Balestrero
Anthony Quayle as Frank O'Connor
Harold J. Stone as Det. Lt. Bowers
Charles Cooper as Det. Matthews
John Hildebrand as Tomasini
Esther Minciotti as Mama Balestrero
Doreen Lang as Ann James
Laurinda Barrett as Constance Willis
Norma Connolly as Betty Todd
Nehemiah Persoff as Gene Conforti
Lola D'Annunzio as Olga Conforti
Werner Klemperer as Dr. Bannay
Kippy Campbell as Robert Balestrero
Robert Essen as Gregory Balestrero
Richard Robbins as Daniel, the guilty man
Cast notes
Actors appearing in the film, but not listed in the credits, include Harry Dean Stanton, David Kelly, Tuesday Weld, Patricia Morrow, Bonnie Franklin, and Barney Martin. Weld and Franklin made their film debuts as two adolescent giggly girls answering the door when the Balestreros are seeking witnesses to prove his innocence.
Historical notes
Balestrero's attorney, the real Frank O'Connor (1909–1992) was a former New York State Senator at the time of the trial, and later became the district attorney of Queens County (New York City, New York), the president of the New York City Council and an appellate-court judge.
Rose Balestrero (1910–1982) died in Florida at the age of 72. Despite the claim in the film's epilogue, Rose never fully recovered after her nervous breakdown. She blamed herself for her husband's arrest. Manny Balestrero (1909–1998) outlived his wife by sixteen years, dying in North Carolina aged 88. He did love the Hitchcock film, based on his life.
Chris and Rose's son, Gregory, went on to earn a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and has become the CEO of the Project Management Institute.