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Dayton Daily News (08/Mar/1995) - Hitchcock made right choices in filming 'Wrong Man'

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Hitchcock made right choices in filming 'Wrong Man'

This is the second in a series of the films in the Hitchcock FLICKS classic series now appearing at the New Neon Movies, 130 E. Fifth St. "Andy Nonymous" is a film buff at the Dayton & Montgomery Public Library and offers these insights into the making of the film.

The Wrong Man is this week's presentation in the FLICKS Alfred Hitchcock series. It will be shown at 1 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday and 7:30 p.m. Monday.

This is the only Alfred Hitchcock film based on fact. It details the experience of Emmanuel Balestrero, a musician in New York city's Stark Club who almost went to prison for a series of armed robberies he did not commit. Many of Hitchcock's films were about innocent men wrongly accused of crime. Hitchcock was attracted to this story after reading about it in Life magazine.

The film was shot in March and April of 1956. Most of the filming was done in actual places where real events did occur. We see the Stark Club, the inside of the accused man's apartment in Queens and the Prudential office a a block away where Balestrero was mistakenly identified as the holdup man.

We also see the actual jail cell and courtroom and the sanatorium where his mentally disturbed wife was taken.

Hitchcock took no artistic license. Everything you see is exactly what happened. The movie was an authentic re-enactment. Hitchcock resented the film being labeled a "documentary" because he meant it to be something more.

The film is totally subjective. Everything is seen from the viewpoint of the accused man played by Henry Fonda.

Hitchcock was inspired by the German Expressionism of the 1920s, which was the dominant force in filmmaking. He was trying to see if he could convey a story atmospherically even in real life location.

It is the closest Hitchcock came to making a political statement.

The district's attorney's office of Queen's County, New York, attempted to assist in making the film.

Their real purpose was to prevent criticism of New York City's impersonal "cattletruck" witnesses. Police detectives assumed Balestreros was probably the robber. A sample of handwriting somewhat approximated that of the robber. Hitchcock accurately depicted the pressure of the district attorney's office on the police to make an arrest and close the case.

The film also shows what it was like to be arrested prior to the Supreme Court's Miranda decision. The accused man is subjected to grueling police interrogation without being told he has the right remain silent or have a lawyer present.

In the 1950s these rights were viewed as coddling criminals, and only left-wingers were in favor of having such rights.