The Wrong Man

Jackie Mason: “It was ok.”

I caught this movie on a lazy afternoon intermission while on vacation recently. Alfred Hitchcock directs and Henry Fonda stars in this drama about a New York musician who happens to get mistaken for a man who has been performing a string of recent robberies. Maybe I was expecting too much from a classic award winning director and actor but I found this movie entertaining to watch, but anti-climactic and dull to digest in the end. I cared about the character's situation and even the mystery he was trying to uncover to free himself. But I was expecting that at any moment, a really intriguing "NO WAY!" kind of plot twist was going to come at me or at least a really gripping discovery involving the men he was trying to find as alibi witnesses. But at the end of the film I found myself going "meh", as in yeah, I can see that happening in real life so it's not all that interesting. And the side story about the wife going crazy and being temporarily put in the mental home was completely unnecessary to the plot. But perhaps, I suspect it was added because the "going mad" theme was a popular type of side story to put in a movie given the era in which it was made. So I might be a little biased in my confusion given the time period I'm viewing it in.

− August 10, 2009 • more by Jackie • log in or create an account to reply