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.

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.

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.

1955

August

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

October

• Maxwell Anderson submits his first draft of The Wrong Man.

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.
• Angus MacPhail and Herbert Coleman travel to New York to research locations for The Wrong Man.
• Hitchcock, Henry Fonda and Vera Miles travel to Florida to meet the Balestrero family, to help prepare the actors for The Wrong Man.

February

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

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."
• 26th - Filming commences on The Wrong Man, starring Henry Fonda and Vera Miles.

April

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

June

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

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."

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

• 22nd - Screenwriter Angus MacPhail, who worked with Hitchcock on Bon Voyage, Aventure Malgache, Spellbound, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Wrong Man and briefly on Vertigo, dies aged 59.

1964

November

• 22nd - Film editor George Tomasini, who worked with Hitchcock on Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Wrong Man, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, The Birds and Marnie, dies aged 55.

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.