The Wrong Man (1956)

A musician (Henry Fonda) at New York's swanky Stork Club is having financial difficulties. When he attempts to borrow on his wife's (Vera Miles) insurance policy, the clerk (Peggy Webber) is sure he is the same man who robbed them several months earlier. Thus begins a Kafkaesque nightmare as he protests his innocence and is put through Hell by the legal system. The theme of an innocent man accused of something he did not do is a recurring motif in Alfred Hitchcock's films including THE 39 STEPS, NORTH BY NORTHWEST, FRENZY among others. But this film is based on an actual case history and Hitchcock adopts a documentary approach to the film. It's in B&W, shot on the actual locations where the story happened and there are no thrilling set pieces. It's a dark and unsettling film and Hitchcock would never attempt anything like it again. Perhaps because it's an atypical Hitchcock film, it doesn't get the attention it deserves but it's an intense and compelling piece of cinema. The two central performances are first rate. Henry Fonda (possibly my least favorite actor) is excellent here, his placid exterior displaying a bewilderment of confusion as his world collapses around him and the film contains Vera Miles' best performance too as she slowly unravels and descends into a dark abyss. The score is by Bernard Herrmann. With Anthony Quayle, Harold J. Stone, Doreen Lang, Nehemiah Persoff and Esther Minciotti (MARTY).