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Hitchcock Chronology: The Wrong Man (1956)

Entries in the Hitchcock Chronology relating to The Wrong Man (1956)...

1952

February

  • 3rd - Pleased with the terms of his new contact with Warner Brothers, Hitchcock offers to direct, without salary, one extra film at the end of the contract — this will turn out to be The Wrong Man.[1]

1953

January

  • 14th - New York musician Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero is arrested and charged with a robbery he didn't commit. His story will later be told in the Hitchcock film The Wrong Man.[2]

June

  • Herbert Brean's "A Case of Identity", detailing the arrest and subsequent release of Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero, is published in the June edition of LIFE magazine. Brean also sells a screen treatment of the story to Warner Brothers. Eventually, this will be filmed as The Wrong Man.[3]

1955

August

  • Hitchcock meets with Angus MacPhail in late August to discuss the The Wrong Man script.[4]

October

1956

January

  • Hitchcock meets with Maxwell Anderson to discuss The Wrong Man screenplay. Hitchcock is increasinly unhappy with the dialogue and hires Angus MacPhail to work on the script.[6]
  • Angus MacPhail and Herbert Coleman travel to New York to research locations for The Wrong Man. [7]
  • Hitchcock, Henry Fonda and Vera Miles travel to Florida to meet the Balestrero family, to help prepare the actors for The Wrong Man. [8]

February

  • Hitchcock travels to New York, to scout locations for The Wrong Man and to talk to those involved with the Balestrero trial.[9]

March

  • 7th - Prior to filming on The Wrong Man commencing, Hitchcock hosts a "Ghost-Haunted House Party" on East 80th Street. The menu contains such delights as "corpse croquettes, barbecued banshee, ghoulish goulash and formaldehyde frappe."[10]
  • 26th - Filming commences on The Wrong Man, starring Henry Fonda and Vera Miles.[11]

April

  • 15th - Filming on The Wrong Man is halted to allow Vera Miles to marry Tarzan actor Gordon Scott.[12]

June

  • The filming of The Wrong Man is completed by the start of June.[13]

December

  • 22nd - The Wrong Man premiers in New York. On the 27th, a pipe bomb planted by the "Mad Bomber" explodes during a presentation of the film. Asked for a comment, Hitchcock replies that the bomber must be "a man with a diabolical sense of humor."[14][15]

1959

February

  • 28th - Writer Maxwell Anderson, who wrote The Wrong Man and worked on an initial draught of the Vertigo screenplay, dies of a stroke aged 70.

1962

April

1964

November

1982

August

  • 12th - Actor Henry Fonda, who starred in The Wrong Man, dies aged 77.

2004

November

  • 22nd - Assistant director Daniel McCauley, who worked To Catch a Thief, The Wrong Man and Vertigo, dies aged 88.

References

  1. The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, page 334
  2. The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, page 368
  3. The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, page 368
  4. The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, page 368
  5. The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, page 375
  6. The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, pages 376-7
  7. The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, page 377
  8. The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, page 377
  9. The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, page 377
  10. The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, page 378
  11. The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, page 378
  12. The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, page 379
  13. The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, page 380
  14. The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, page 384
  15. Wikipedia: George Metesky