The wrong man
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The wrong man |
| Original title | The Wrong Man |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1956 |
| length | 101 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Alfred Hitchcock |
| script |
Maxwell Anderson Angus MacPhail |
| production |
Herbert Coleman Alfred Hitchcock for Warner Bros. |
| music | Bernard Herrmann |
| camera | Robert Burks |
| cut | George Tomasini |
| occupation | |
| |
The wrong man (original title: The Wrong Man ) is a 1956 by Alfred Hitchcock directed crime film based on the novel The True Story of Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero by the author Maxwell Anderson .
action
The innocent Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero, known as "Manny", works as a bar musician in New York's Stork Club and tries hard to get his wife Rose and their two sons through life despite a tight income. One evening the police arrested him out of the blue in front of his house and charged him with robbing and robbing an insurance company's cash register twice. Several of the women who work in the insurance company swear they can clearly identify him. According to the police officers, Balestrero's handwriting corresponds to that of the perpetrator, especially since he made a spelling mistake that the perpetrator had already made on a note. Only with the support of his family, who are paying the high bail for him, can he escape the oppressive pre- trial detention .
At the urging of his attorney O'Connor, he and his wife try to find witnesses for his alibi in order to prove his innocence before the trial begins. On the day of the first attack, he was on vacation with his family. His name can be found in the hotel's guest book and the host family remembers him, but because of the large number of guests they cannot give him the alibi that he was present all day. However, two of the men with whom he was playing cards on the day of the first robbery and can certainly remember him, have died in the meantime, the third is nowhere to be found. On the date of the second robbery, Manny's cheek was swollen, but the insurance agents have not reported this to the police - this is a detail that O'Connor and Balestrero are hoping for. More and more, Christopher's wife Rose begins to believe in a conspiracy against her husband, finally she doubts his innocence and attacks him with a brush. Rose sinks into a paranoid depression and finally has to be admitted to a clinic.
If one of the jurors misconduct during the trial, the process is postponed and has to start all over again. Shortly thereafter, police arrest a man who was caught red-handed in a robbery and Manny was cut off the face. Manny is exempt from the accusation, but his wife remains in a depression.
In the closing credits it is stated that his wife was healed after two years and that they are now happily living in Florida.
backgrounds
Hitchcock directed four films for Warner Bros. between 1949 and 1953. After his contract expired, he promised, as he was very satisfied with the working conditions, to direct another film for Warner without any fee. With The Wrong Man , he kept this promise.
Warner owned the rights to the authentic story of Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero (1909-1998), who was on trial in 1953 for a robbery he did not commit. The real perpetrator, who looked confusingly similar to Balestrero, was caught red-handed as in the film during the trial. The story appeared in Life Magazine that same year and was made into a film for television. Balestrero later received $ 7,000 in damages from the City of New York and $ 22,000 for the filming rights to his story, but most of that money had to be spent on the psychiatric placement of his wife Rose. While the film closely follows the truth about Balestrero's arrest and trial, the end-text assertion that Rose was released completely cured is partially false. She was released but did not fully recover until her death in 1984.
Hitchcock was fascinated by this story in two ways. On the one hand, he saw the possibility of showing the nightmarish experiences of arrest and imprisonment in as much detail as possible (as he did in 1929, a bit more sensationally, at the beginning of blackmail ). On the other hand, he was interested in the fact that Balestrero's wife Rose was not able to cope with the stress at the time, suffered a nervous breakdown and had to spend a considerable amount of time in a mental hospital. Hitchcock had the idea to bring this trauma and the mental breakdown of a woman as ruthlessly as possible onto the canvas. To do this, he needed an actress who could credibly embody this transition from strong to unstable and ultimately maddened woman, and he found her in Vera Miles .
Vera Miles was chosen by Hitchcock to succeed Grace Kelly as the Hitchcock actress. He saw in her everything that only Kelly and Ingrid Bergman expressed before her : an enigmatic, profound screen presence. Hitchcock signed Vera Miles exclusively and personally took care of her image, wardrobe and appearance. However, her later pregnancies should prevent her from pursuing a career similar to Kelly or Bergman.
The first drafts of the script were written by the playwright Maxwell Anderson . Hitchcock had seen some of his plays, but soon discovered that Anderson's drafts of the script had a poetic touch that did not do justice to the tough, realistic basic scenario required. Hitchcock wanted to shoot the real story without glossing over or embellishing it. Therefore he fell back on his old colleague Angus MacPhail , with whom he had worked several times since 1944 and who revised Maxwell's designs accordingly.
Hitchcock tried to be as realistic as possible. For example, he met for talks with the judge at the time and with the defense attorney. Vera Miles, Henry Fonda and Hitchcock even hooked up with the real Balestreros before filming began. The film was shot largely on location and in black and white. Some supporting actors are laypeople who play themselves. Only the scene shortly before the end, when Manny Balestrero prays in his room and at the same time the real perpetrator is caught in the act, deviates from the real events for dramatic reasons. (The perpetrator had previously been seen twice in the film: outside the Stork Club and near the liquor store where the police are arresting Manny.)
Reviews
The film was not a box office hit and received various reviews from critics. Above all, the lack of humor and the fact that in the middle of the film the focus changes to the mental decline of the woman, which overwhelms the viewer, who is mainly interested in the solution of the case, were criticized. However, the Kafkaesque , nightmarish element was also recognized in The Wrong Man .
- The New York Times wrote: “Alfred Hitchcock is replacing fiction with fact here as he rolls into clinical detail the true case of a New York musician identified as a thief (by a witness) but innocent. He becomes a martyr of the judiciary until he finally gets right. The Maxwell-Anderson / Angus-McPhail screenplay seeks out the sad stoicism of Henry Fonda. Vera Miles conveys very intensely the agony suffered by the wife, who is gradually becoming insane. Anthony Quayle is recognized as a Fonda's attorney. Hitchcock shows himself here as a master of lucid objectivity, almost untouched by what his characters suffer. "
- The German Catholic film critics also praised the film: "Director Hitchcock describes this incident with oppressive objectivity, without neglecting the tension he is used to. First-class actors, masterly exploitation of the milieu, unobtrusive religious note. ( 6000 films. Critical notes from the cinema years 1945 to 1958. Handbook V of the Catholic film criticism, 3rd edition, Verlag Haus Altenberg, Düsseldorf 1963, p. 108)
- The Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: “Hardly any other Hitchcock film is told in such a serious and cautious manner. The subject of the innocent suspect, which has always interested Hitchcock, becomes an oppressive example of the impotence of the individual who suddenly sees himself threatened by an overpowering machine. Henry Fonda and Vera Miles fit perfectly into the strict, sober style of the film. "
- The Protestant film observer drew the following conclusion: “Demanding Hitchcock film from a musician who is mistaken for a criminal and cannot prove his innocence. Human touching factual report with a brilliant acting performance by Henry Fonda. Worth seeing from 16. " (Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 497/1957)
Cameo
Hitchcock first filmed one of his usual appearances . In the editing room, however, he came to the opinion that this would run counter to the documentary character of the film, and cut out the scene. Instead, he speaks the prologue of the film. It is the only time that Hitchcock can be heard in one of his feature films.
literature
- Robert A. Harris, Michael S. Lasky, eds. Joe Hembus : Alfred Hitchcock and his films (OT: The Films of Alfred Hitchcock ). Citadel film book from Goldmann, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-442-10201-4
- John Russel Taylor: The Hitchcock Biography , Fischer Cinema 1982, ISBN 3-596-23680-0
- Donald Spoto : Alfred Hitchcock The dark side of genius . Heyne, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-453-55146-X (German translation by Bodo Fründt)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Christopher Balestrero at Find A Grave