The Wrong Man (1956)

The Wrong Man is an Alfred Hitchcock film starring Henry Fonda. The film opens in a rather odd way with Alfred Hitchcock introducing himself and telling the viewers that the film is based on a true story. That is Hitchcock's only cameo in this film and probably the most obvious cameo he makes in any of his film.

The Wrong Man shows a guy (Fonda) who is married with two sons. He's an honest, hard-working guy who barely makes enough money to get buy. He is accused of armed robbery but insists it's all a case of mistaken identity.The plot isn't bad and while the end result is predictable, the road it takes to get there is not. I didn't really care about the side story about his wife (Vera Miles) going crazy, but as it's based on a true story you can't really fault the film for that.

Henry Fonda plays a rather ordinary guy in The Wrong Man which is what Fonda does best. While playing someone who isn't the least bit interesting sounds rather simple, nobody does it as well as Henry Fonda and he is superb in this film is well. Vera Miles, who is more famous for her work in Psycho, gives a performance that is quite good as well. While I did not care about her character the latter part of the film, it's no fault of her. The supporting cast is rather minimal but I would like to mention the two children playing Fonda's sons. While their roles weren't all that significant, the scene after Fonda returns from jail early in the film and is greeted by his sons is one of the more emotional scenes I've seen Hitchcock put together. This is also the first Hitchcock film I can remember where children have any significant role.

As I do not know exactly what happened in the actual case, I cannot say how accurate this film is. This fact makes criticism of the film's weakest elements rather difficult. The police in this film do a terrible questioning Fonda and are even worse at questioning would-be eye-witnesses. While it is possible, perhaps likely, that the actual police were this incompetent, it still felt like somewhat sloppy film making.

On a more artistic level, this film has several shots that are rather impressive. The shot of Fonda in his jail cell through a slot in the door is very well-done. The on-location shots in New York along with the studio shots made to look like New York are rather effective as well.

While this is not a great film, it's still good. The film has some flaws, but they're relatively minor.

83/100
B-

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