The Wrong Man

The bleakest of Hitchcock's films, this stark, deliberate probing of a man wrongfully accused is almost wholly based on fact, creating its drama from a celebrated New York City case. Fonda plays Manny Balestrero, a family man who plays stand-up bass at a Queens nightspot called the Stork Club. Although he doesn't have much money, he manages to keep his life together with the help of his devoted wife, Rose (Miles). When she complains of dental pains, Manny decides to borrow on her life insurance policy (the last place they can borrow money since their debts have already piled too high) to pay for medical attention. Although he makes a practice of picking horses in t...