THE FIRST HITCHCOCK FILM BASED ON A TRUE STORY

The Wrong Man is like and unlike any other Alfred Hitchcock movie. The story packs tension, the images are spellbinding and the dilemma genuinely frightening. But this time, the master of suspense dramatizes the harrowing true experiences of a man tried for crimes committed by a look-alike robber.

Henry Fonda plays musician Manny Balestrero, a man full of visible but unspoken rage at his wrongful arrest. Vera Miles is his distraught wife, Rose, driven to madness by the ordeal. And the right man to bring the unsettling facts of the case to vivid screen life with documentary precision is Hitchcock. He made New York City a star of the film and cast real-life Balestrero case witnesses in small roles. He shot in many actual locations, among them the Stork Club, Manny’s jail cell and Rose’s sanitarium.

Sue Ann (Oscar® winner Octavia Spencer) is a loner who keeps to herself in her quiet Ohio town. When she is asked by a teenager to buy some booze for her group of friends, Sue Ann offers the basement of her home for the kids to hang out and party. But there are some house rules: Someone has to stay sober. Don’t curse. Never go upstairs. And call her “Ma.” As her hospitality starts to curdle into obsession, what began as a teenage dream turns into a terrorizing nightmare, and Ma’s place goes from the best place in town to the worst place on earth.