Vintage Movie Review: The Wrong Man

1956
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Starring Henry Fonda and Vera Mills

You couldn't imagine this film being made today - or if it was it would likely be a TV movie, rather than a big screen offering.  - then again I suppose if it was a made today for cinema then the Fonda character would likely get hold of an AK47 and go on a CGI gun rampage across the city - As it is Hitchcocks Docudrama is heavy on the melodrama and light on action....and it's all the better for it.

It is based on the true tory of Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero ( Manny) who suffered a case of mistaken identity, when several witnesses claimed that he was the man who held up their store, and as a consequence of this his life falls apart. In January 1953, Balestrero went to borrow money from his wife’s life insurance plan. He was taken into custody after two employees at the insurance office identified him as the man who robbed the office of a total of $271 during two robberies the previous year.

As painstakingly recounted in the film, shot on manyof the actual locations, Balestrero was awaiting his second trial (the first had resulted in a miss-trial  after a juror made a remark presuming his guilt in open court) when the actual culprit was apprehended during an attempted deli robbery.

What made the case especially poignant  is what happened to Balestrero’s wife, Rose (played in “The Wrong Man” by Vera Miles). Blaming herself for Manny’s arrest, she suffered a nervous breakdown. The mother of two young sons, she remained institutionalised until September 1955.

'My life did not start over again when I was cleared,” said Balestrero, who moved his family to Florida after his wife’s release. “I figured if we’re going to really get a fresh start, everything’s got to be different. We left our friends, our relatives, our home, our furniture — everything.' Balestero speaking to the New York Post in a 1956 interview.

Hitchcock's movie sticks to the actual events like glue and Henry Fonda gives an amazing performance as the ordinary man caught up in a nightmare - it is hard to think of any other A- list actor, with the possible exception of James Stewart, who could have pulled off a performance such as this. Vera Mills is also exceptional as the wife who slowly spirals towards madness.

I'd seen this movie before, though I'm not sure how long ago but watching the pristine Blu-Ray print I was immediately sucked into the movie. It certainly a somber movie with a downbeat ending, which is likely the reason that it didn't do great Box Office upon its original release. The print itself is a vibrant high-def rendition, in a 1.77 aspect ratio very close to its theatrical presentation. There’s a show of noticeable grain in certain scenes but for the most part the texture is extremely solid; the visuals are striking, compelling.

Whilst the movie may not be as much fun as many of Hitchcock's other movies, and likely the slowest paced narrative he ever tackled it is still a masterpiece, and resonates with the viewer long after the final frame. And thanks to its docu-drama style we get to see what New York looked like in the 1950's

Excellent stuff.

Top Ten Western Actors No 4 - Henry Fonda

It just had to be - Henry Fonda would make the top five of any one's list of western greats.Technically he was superb and if you look at acting as a craft then arguably Fonda was a greater master than anyone else on this list, but this list isn't about degrees of acting ability, this list is about lasting contributions to the western genre. And lists by their very nature are subjective and there are many western greats I have left off the list, but the challenge was a top ten and so I have narrowed it down to the ten actors I feel best defined the western during its various stages of development.

Fonda was indeed a rare actor - it is difficult to think of any other mainstream actor who could have played his part in Once Upon a Time in the West (generally considered Sergio Leone's best western, though in my humble opinion it comes second to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly). That character is just dripping with evil and even kills a child.

Fonda had a quiet authority that allowed him to play Presidents, simpletons and killers with equal conviction. His first western was 1939's Jesse James in which he played Jesse's brother, Frank. A role he later reprised in Fritz Lang's The Return of Frank James, but it wasn't until 1943's The Ox-Bow Incident that he made his first truly exceptional western - there were many more to follow.

Fonda was  teamed  with John Ford (probably the best western director there ever was) for My Darling Clementine and Drums along the Mohawk. Fonda once again, directed by Ford, starred alongside John Wayne in Fort Apache but his role, although sizable, was not as well realised. It was another John Ford movie, My Darling Clementine that gave Fonda another exceptional role as that of Wyatt Earp. Whilst this movie maybe the most unfaithful to what  historically happened during the Earp/Clanton fued, it is without  any doubt one of the best ever made on the subject.

After this Fonda took a break from westerns and didn't return until the 1950's and appeared in a string of genre classics - he was excellent in the exceptional, Warlock and just as good in The Tin Star. He also gave good value in two comedy westerns - The Rounders and Big Hand For The Little Lady. He then played the bad guy up against James Stewart in Firecreek and then went onto create his best bad guy role of all in Once Upon a Time in the West. And there were more westerns to come but none could match the quality of his earlier work. And maybe only My Name is Nobody shines out amongst the post Once Upon a Time in the West genre work.

Fonda was never typecast in the way other western icons like John Wayne were and as such he could more convincingly portray differing characters from the good to the downright sadistic and everything else in between.

Henry Fonda - another legend.

FORT APACHE (1948)

Billed as the John Wayne Cavalry Collection, this box set should have been titled the John Ford Cavalry Collection, since each movie is very much Ford's vision. The three films in the trilogy are Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande and each are excellent.

Rather than look at the box set as a whole I thought it better to split the article up into three posts, one for each movie. But before I look at Fort Apache I would like to make it clear that although the three films form a trilogy and indeed, they are known as the cavalry trilogy, they only represent a trilogy in the loosest sense. They share themes, that of why men have the need for civilisation, rather than characters and were never designed as a series of films, indeed the first two titles were made for RKO and the third, Rio Grande was a Universal Picture and Ford only made it because the studio insisted on a western before they would finance The Quiet Man.

Fort Apache is set during the American Apache Wars - Henry Fonda is Colonel Thursday, a stubborn text-book soldier who is at odds with the men below him. He is not happy to be posted to the remote outpost, feeling that as a Civil War hero he deserves more than to be fighting a bunch of mindless savages and not only great Indians like The Sioux but Apaches. However he soon learns that the Apache are a formidable enemy, indeed the greatest guerilla fighters the world has ever known. His second in command is Captain Kirby York (The Duke) and the two men couldn't be more different. Where Thursday disregards the Apache as savages, Captain York has a deep respect and sympathy for the native people.

"They were here long before us."


The character of Thursday seems to be based heavily on George Armstrong Custer - he is arrogant and brash. He foolishly and fatally underestimates his enemy. His death is pointless and brought on by his own arrogancence but Captain York covers up for the man allowing him, in death to be remembered as a hero.

The film wasn't made anywhere near the real Fort Apache but instead Ford used a sleight of hand and built his fort in his beloved Monument Valley. The film is very much Ford's and contains all his trademarks - gentle humour, romance and a brooding suspense leading to an all action climax. Much time is spent examining the wives as they struggle to make a comfortable home for their husbands. In Ford's westerns the battle the women fought were every bit as heroic as anything the men faced.

Fort Apache is a serious and intelligent western that deserves its place in genre history. Both Wayne and Fonda are superb and Ford visual flair was never better. An excellent film - a western classic that doesn't commit the sin of so many early westerns of being all one sided - here the serious issues surrounding the Indian wars are examined, nothing is set in stone and shades of grey run through the crisp black and white photography.

The DVD is a great remastered print with a booming 5.1 soundtrack - the battle scenes really shake those speakers and send the sound of gunshots to every corner of the room. In fact so crisp are the visuals that when viewed on a decent home cinema set up you're probably getting a better experience than movie fans had back in the day.

WESTERN ICONS - HENRY FONDA

Fonda's authority made him perfect for playing Presidents and solid men but his westerns prove his range was far wider than he is often given credit for. In My Darling Clementine his Wyatt Earp is a shy gunslinger, in Warlock he is both hero and villain and in Once Upon a Time in the West he shoots a child in one of western cinemas' most shocking sequences.

His first western was 1939's Jessie James in which he played the outlaw's down to earth brother. He reprised the role in the Fritz Lang directed sequel, The Return of Jessie James in 1940.

He then made three films with John Ford - Young Mr Lincoln, Drums along the Mohawk and Grapes of Wrath and then in 1943 he starred in William Wellman's classic, The Ox-bow Incident which was brave choice given that it was a brooding melodrama that questioned the lynch mob mentality. Although the film was not fashionable at the time it is these days considered a classic of the genre.

In his on - off career in Westerns which stretched for 40 years he worked with such great directors s John Ford, Sergio Leone, Anthony Mann - however after being blacklisted for his liberal views in the 1940's Fonda's roles dried up but he was rediscovered for westerns in the 1950's and made some stunning classics of the genre. He was great as a bounty hunter in The Tin Star (1957) and multi layered in the brilliant Warlock (1959). He played an aging cowboy in The Rounders (1964) and showed good comedy timing as a stricken gambler in 1966's A Big Hand for the Little lady.

In 1968 he played the bad guy twice. First in Firecreek opposite James Stewart and then in Once Upon a Time in the West which to many people qualifies as his best western role. His later appearance in My Name is Nobody was a fitting postscript to Fonda's westerns.