On the second episode of All the Film Things, I talked with my friend and fellow film aficionado Cole Echevarria about Alfred Hitchcock’s 1956 film The Wrong Man starring Henry Fonda. This episode is spoiler-filled.
Alfred Hitchcock’s The Wrong Man is a docudrama/ noir based on a true events that Hitchcock describes as "stranger than all the fiction that has gone into many of the thrillers" he had previously made. This is his only collaboration with Henry Fonda who stars as Christopher "Manny" Balestrero, a poor family man who becomes accused and then incarcerated for crimes he did not commit.
Cole has been the most frequent ATFT guest appearing in 12 episodes to date. This is the second episode we did which we recorded back in December 2022. In the first episode he appeared on, which may be released in the coming weeks, he mentioned he is a big fan of Henry Fonda- just as I am. I recommended this film to him in hopes he would enjoy the film. Early on, it is clear he, unfortunately, did not enjoy the film as much as I did.
In this episode, Cole and I discuss our differing opinions on the film, Henry Fonda's brilliant emotionally subtle performance, the excellent camera work, dissecting Hitchcock's comment on the criminal justice system in America, and much more. Towards the end of the episode, we discussed the dark parallels this film has to Henry Fonda's real life. It is a brutal subject to discuss but we hoped to do so without any controversy since we are both very much fans of the Fonda family.
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