The Wrong Man is the true story of Manny Balestrero, a musician falsely accused of armed robbery. The film, shot on location in New York City, is strikingly authentic. In this story, Hitchcock has found the epitome of everything he has searched for during his entire career. Bernard Herrmann's score is absolutely wonderful and a perfect fit for this piece. The acting by Fonda and Miles is phenomenal and unforgettable. Hitchcock makes you feel for the characters, and then twists your heart again and again with every turn his life-changing predicament takes. Hitchcock has almost outdone himself in terms of cinematography and shot composition. The framing is beautiful and the camera movement is natural. He knows what we want to look at and he shows us exactly that in the exact manner we expect to see it in.
Four scenes stand out in my memory. The first is when Manny goes to the insurance agency. The tellers' suspicion is evoked almost too perfectly through flawlessly tense editing and simple, silent shots. The second shows Manny being taken to prison in a paddy wagon, the shame he experiences from being with criminals forces his head down and his eyes on everyone's shoes. The third, though, is my favorite in the entire film. As Manny is taken to his jail cell, the camera follows him until it gets stopped by the cell door, then it peeks in through the peephole and continues through the peephole to see him investigate his new home before backing back out. It is an unbearably haunting moment. The fourth I don't want to reveal, but suffice it to say that it reminded me of the end scene in Kurosawa's High and Low.
I'm conflicted about the ending. I know it's limited by the facts, but it almost seems as if everything the movie was building up to was flipped over and turned on its head with the final words. As Hitchcock was a part of the Hollywood studio system, it may have been forced on him by his producers. And the human side of me does appreciate those last words, but my artistic sensibilities remain irked by the about-face at the end. Either way, this is definitely one of Hitchcock's best, both technically and thematically. I was enthralled the entire time and loved it immensely.IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0051207/