The Wrong Man
Cristopher Emmanuel Balestrero, called "Manny" by his family, is a musician who plays in the New York's Stork Club. Due to his wife's teeth problems, which have caused the whole family to be in serious economic problems, "Manny" decides to solicit a credit against his wife's life insurance.As Manny goes the next day to the insurance company, he is held for a thief who visited those oficines some weeks ago, and therefore arrested by the police. Manny gets submitted to identification by some witnesses, and though they are unsure of Manny being the true thief, the police's need to make someone guilty for the robberies makes them accuse him.
Because of this, "Manny" rests that night in a jail, being freed the next day due to his sister paying the imposed fee. Although, "Manny" is obliged to search a lawyer to prove his innocence.
Rose, feeling guilty of her husband's situation, begins to show evidencies of mental illness, so that finally she is obliged to enter a mental institution in order to take care of her. Fortunately, "Manny" is proved to be innocent during the court. Some time later, his wife is totally restablished and they start a new life.
As happens with 'Rope' and 'Under Capricorn', this movie can be defined as a psychological drama, though its realization quality lies far ahead from both quoted films.
However, the fact that this film's argument was based on a real story provoked the absence of one of the most important "Hitchockian" elements: humour. Therefore, as this movie was presented, most of Hitchcock's fans found it too serious, thus being held for a strange exception in Alfred's filmgraphy.
Although, everybody will recognize that this movie causes the viewer to get really desperate, thus sharing Balestrero's feelings, as he is held for a thief and accused of numerous robberies he isn't responsible for. In the real story, the Balestrero family never returned to a normal life and presented serious psychological sequels due to the tension the whole family suffered when the case happened. In spite of this, the producers didn't allow Hitchcock to end the motion picture in the way it had been designed, because of the public's general tendencies to refuse sadly ending movies.
The desperation feeling induced in the viewer is achieved combining the creation of a really shocking injustice with a terrorific B&W photography: planes are always located in rather high or low angles, so that the viewer's physical and psychological point of view is conditioned as necessary, from Manny's desperation to the policemen's indiference.
