The Wrong Man

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 appears on screen in silhouette to introduce the film as a true story, whose "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 for a man who had previously robbed them twice.

Manny is questioned by police detectives, who tell him that they are looking for a man who had robbed the insurance company and other businesses, and that Manny matches the witnessess' descriptions of the subject. Manny is asked to visit businessess that had previously been robbed for identification. Later, he is 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.