We have an Alfred Hitchcock Noirvember film! At the beginning of all those entries I mentioned who directed each movie and what other works of theirs I have seen before. But I think this time there’s no need for that.
Alfred Hitchcock himself shows up as the film starts, or rather, we hear his voice which announces that the plot is based on a true story. Christopher Balestrero, played by Henry Fonda, is identified by an insurance company worker (he goes to the company to try to get the money for a dentist visit for his wife) as a robber who stole from them not long ago. Sounds familiar? He is subsequently arrested for assault and robbery.
All the previous Noirvember films I watched this year have been very low budget, often literally Poverty Row pictures so the first very obvious thing I noticed in The Wrong Man was how expensive it looked. There were actual elaborate sets and tons of extras and locations. It is a great film to look at.
The film goes beyond a noir-ish story of a crime and the dark underbelly of a city, with a nightclub involved, of course (Fonda is a musician). It explores family problems caused by Balestrero’s situation, and in the second half of the film it becomes a court drama. And it is truly suspenseful: Hitchcock apparently omitted elements from the true case that could make the question of whether Fonda’s character is guilty or not less obvious. And it makes us wonder if we are safe ourselves, or if one day, even if we do not do anything wrong, something will happen. Fonda is great in the film, I always appreciate his melancholic approach to his roles. Overall, The Wrong Man is so much better than Whispering Footsteps.
Fun fact: Harry Dean Stanton (RIP) appears in the film
Swingin' at the Seance 