I have to say, usually in this country it's an African-American man who gets arrested as the 'Wrong Man', but this Hitchcock film is indeed based closely on a true story. It's interesting to ponder why Hitch announces that fact at the outset, and I suppose it's because therein lies the true horror: that at any time, while minding our own business, we might be arrested and accused of crimes we haven't committed. We might be have our freedom taken, get locked up in a cage, and find ourselves at the mercy of the judicial system. The scenes where Henry Fonda is imprisoned are absolutely brilliant, as are the ones of him on trial, looking around the courtroom, and noticing the trivial little behaviors of those around him, while his own life hangs in the balance. The pace of this movie is a little slow at times, but a part of that is intentional, and heightens the realism. The police procedures may have you shaking your head, as will the notoriously unreliable eyewitness testimony. There is a bit of a twist in the story concerning Fonda's wife, played by Vera Miles, which I didn't expect. It's not Hitchcock's best work, but it is the most direct statement of his concerning this motif which appeared in so many of his films, and certainly worth watching.
Review of The Wrong Man
