Henry Fonda, Vera Miles and Anthony Quayle in the Alfred Hitchcock movie ‘The Wrong Man’

A theme running through many Alfred Hitchcock movies has been an innocent party being suspected of a crime. With the movie The Wrong Man (1956), we in the audience enter a clear example of film noir mixed with true crime, drawn as this movie is from the book The True Story of Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero by Maxwell Anderson as well as a magazine article titled A Case of Identity by Herbert Brean as published in Life magazine in June 1953.

(From left, Henry Fonda as Christopher Emmanuel ‘Manny’ Balestrero and Vera Miles as Rose Balestrero in the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Wrong Man).

Henry Fonda portrayed Christopher Emmanuel ‘Manny’ Balestrero, the New York City musician who seeks to borrow money from a life insurance policy for his wife, Rose. Rose Balestrero, who needs dental work in the sum of $300, is portrayed by Vera Miles. It is in the attempt to meet this need that Manny Balestrero is accused of robbery.

(From left, Harold J. Stone as Detective Lieutenant Bowers and Charles Cooper as Detective Matthews in the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Wrong Man).

Detective Lieutenant Bowers and Detective Matthews, as portrayed by Harold J. Stone and Charles Cooper, respectively, are the law enforcement officer of a mind to prove Manny Balestrero guilty. Their heavy-handed procedures offer tension to Balestrero’s case, as we in the audience know him to be clearly innocent of the deeds the detectives have a mind to pin on him.

(From left, Henry Fonda as Christopher Emmanuel ‘Manny’ Balestrero and Anthony Quayle as attorney Frank O’Connor in the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Wrong Man).

Anthony Quayle portrayed Frank O’Connor, the attorney seeking to aid Manny Balestrero in his defense. With today’s eyes, I struggle with the notion of Balestrero cooperating with many of the activities that police detectives Bowers and Matthews put Manny through in the course of making their case. That these activities were those of a man aiming to cooperate with police make sense, though the notion of presumed guilty until enough baited hooks are fished proved difficult.

(From left, Esther Minciotti as Mama Balestrero and Vera Miles as Rose Balestrero in the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Wrong Man).

While the case against Manny Balestrero was being made and further put to a jury, the emotional well-being of Rose Balestrero deteriorated. The stress of the proceedings coupled with a sense of guilt for needing the dental work that cast suspicion upon her husband initially lands Rose in the hospital. The storytelling of this demise is told rather factually and dispassionately. I would have liked to see more development of the onset of Rose’s depression in this movie, though I can appreciate the understated presence of it nonetheless.

(From left, Henry Fonda as Christopher Emmanuel ‘Manny’ Balestrero and director Alfred Hitchcock in cameo in the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Wrong Man).

The mistaken identity at the center of The Wrong Man is based in fact. The larger underlying story points for Manny Balestrero, concerning his being investigated as well as taken to trial, also are based in reality. The understated qualities of the film noir storytelling, with the subtext of a string of robberies rather than the murder, make for an interesting combination for this film. While the end result isn’t among my favorite efforts by Alfred Hitchcock, the sum total did work. I grant The Wrong Man as directed by Alfred Hitchcock 3.75-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Saturday, December 4, 2021

Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason in the Alfred Hitchcock film ‘North by Northwest’

We’ve started the month of June at Matt Lynn Digital in dramatic style from the year 1959. Earlier this week, we shared our review of the Otto Preminger‘s Anatomy of a Murder, featuring James Stewart, Lee Remick and George C. Scott in starring roles. Today we turn our look at an Alfred Hitchock mystery of mistaken identity of an innocent man portrayed by Cary Grant pursued across the United States. Join us in this look into North by Northwest (1959).

(From left, Adam Williams as Valerian, Cary Grant as Roger Thornhill, Martin Landau as Leonard (standing) and Robert Ellenstein as Licht in the Alfred Hitchcock movie North by Northwest).

Intrigue takes us from the United Nations Headquarters in New York City to the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in Black Hills, South Dakota with North by Northwest. Before any of this intrigue, advertising executive Roger Thornhill, as portrayed by Carey Grant, is whisked away to the estate of Lester Townsend of Long Island, New York.

(Jessie Royce Landis as Clara Thornhill in the Alfred Hitchcock movie North by Northwest).

Spy Phillip Vandamm, as portrayed by James Mason, interrogates Thornhill, disbelieving everything Thornhill says. Using the coercion of Valerian, Licht and Leonard, Vandamm forces Roger Thornhill to consume a bottle of liquor and take a drive that Vandamm hopes will settle the matter. Adam Williams, Robert Ellenstein and Martin Landau portray Valerian, Licht and Leonard. Clara Thornhill, mother to Roger as portrayed by Jessie Royce Landis, aids her son in seeking to address the mystery she too disbelieves.

(From left, Cary Grant as Roger Thornhill and Philip Ober as Lester Townsend in the Alfred Hitchcock movie North by Northwest).

It is when Roger Thornhill gets to visit Lester Townsend, as portrayed by Philip Ober, that the mystery of the movie North by Northwest really captures multiple levels of depth. Intrigue including Eve Kendall, as portrayed by Eva Marie Saint, gains its feet with travel across country in pursuit of affection, truth, and the nature of what drives a conspiracy with foreign antagonists catches its feet.

(From left, Eva Marie Saint as Eve Kendall, James Mason as Phillip Vandamm and Martin Landau as Leonard in the Alfred Hitchcock movie North by Northwest).

There are echoes of the 1942 Alfred Hitchcock movie Saboteur in North by Northwest, with the interpersonal dynamics of the love interest taking a noticeably different and arguably more complex tone with North by Northwest. The relationship between Roger Thornhill and Eve Kendall are resonated better for me here than that of Barry Kane and Patricia (Pat) Martin in Saboteur. The service of this relationship in getting the story to outcome, too, was executed better here than in the film 17-years previous.

(From left, actor Cary Grant, actress Eva Marie Saint, director Alfred Hitchcock and actor James Mason of the Alfred Hitchcock movie North by Northwest).

My overall enjoyment of North by Northwest was not diminished by the use of a MacGuffin. Landing on a satisfying mystery with a romantic turn integral to the storyline really made the movie, especially given what felt like sudden yet legitimate feeling appropriate for the entertainment offered. I give North by Northwest as presented by Alfred Hitchcock 4.25-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Saturday, June 5, 2021

Alfred Hitchcock’s film ‘The Birds’

The United States Library of Congress chose to preserve the film The Birds (1963) for preservation in 2016. As quoted by the Internet Movie Database, the Alfred Hitchcock film follows a “wealthy San Francisco socialite [who] pursues a potential boyfriend to a small Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of all kinds suddenly begin to attack people.” This PG-rated examination of fear is worth your view.

(Alfred Hitchcock directed the film The Birds).

Melanie Daniels, as played by Tippi Hedren, wealthy San Francisco socialite. We first meet Melanie as she looks to retrieve birds she was looking to care for at a pet store in San Francisco, California. While she is waiting on the party due to deliver said birds at the pet store, Melanie becomes intrigued by a suitor named Mitch Brenner who comes calling upon her.

(Tippi Hedren as Melanie Daniels in The Birds).

Rod Taylor stars in The Birds as Mitch Brenner, who frequents San Francisco as well the small town north of San Francisco named Bodega Bay.  Writer Daphne du Maurier, who wrote the short story that became the feature film, had set the story in the English countryside. We come to experience Mitch as a charming ladies man and father who shares a Bodega Bay household with his mother and daughter. Melanie Daniels brings a pair of love birds to Mitch, creating the fiction that the birds are for Mitch’s daughter Cathy.

(Rod Taylor as Mitch Brenner in The Birds).

Before meeting Mitch Brenner or his family in Bodega Bay, the story Alfred Hitchcock shares in The Birds introduces some characters and local color surrounding Bodega Bay. The subterfuge of a story that Melanie Daniels makes in offering the love birds to Mitch’s daughter Cathy first requires that Melanie visits the school teacher of the Bodega Bay School, Annie Hayworth. Suzanne Pleshette portrays Annie Hayworth, who came to Bodega Bay as a love interest of Mitch Brenner. Annie still has feelings for Mitch, yet is willing to help Melanie as she suffers the first bird attack on the island while Melanie also pursues a relationship with Mitch.

(Suzanne Pleshette as Annie Hayworth in The Birds).

Jessica Tandy stars as Lydia Brenner, the domineering mother of Mitch Brenner. After multiple odd experiences with birds randomly attacking, it is Lydia who experiences the first large emotional shock of the film when she visits a neighboring farm when seeking help with the erratic behavior of chickens on the Brenner farm. Lydia finds the farmer’s eyeless corpse in his bedroom, who was the victim of a clear bird attack.

(Jessica Tandy as Lydia Brenner in The Birds).

When this information is shared with the family, Melanie aims to care for an emotionally vulnerable Lydia by offering tea and comfort. The notion of a relationship between Mitch and Melanie is broached in this, and a thawing in the relationship between the two ladies begins. Shortly thereafter, the notion for where Cathy Brenner, Mitch’s daughter, is raised. Melanie heads to Bodega Bay School in an attempt to assuage the Lydia’s concerns.

(Veronica Cartwright as Cathy Brenner in The Birds).

Melanie Daniels heads to the school to find Annie Cartwright teaching a one-room school house full of kids fully engaged in a lesson full of singing. Cathy Brenner, as portrayed by Veronica Cartwright, is engaged in the lesson. It is only after Melanie assesses the situation as normal, and then sits down to a smoke, that crows begin to assemble atop the playground equipment in anticipation of another attack. Melanie and Annie work together to have the school kids flea the birds, which in turn prompts another bird attack.

(Ethel Griffies as Mrs. Bundy in The Birds).

In the aftermath of the school attack, Melanie lands in a diner where she aims to get word of the event to Mitch Brenner and others who can help to address the situation. The folks in the diner overhear the conversation, aiming to offer various thoughts and opinions surrounding whether birds are likely to attack. A voice that is given much credibility in the opinion sharing, yet is largely rejected as not being born out by the facts of the occasion of several attacks, is ornithologist Mrs. Bundy. It was Mrs. Bundy, as portrayed by Ethel Griffies, the Drunken Doomsayer in the Diner as portrayed by Karl Swenson, and others who served to raise the tension that ultimately helps raise the tension towards the closing climax of the movie.

(Karl Swenson as Drunken Doomsayer in the Diner in The Birds).

The major drive of The Birds brings the tension of at least three more attacks following the diner scene. At least one more major character in the film meets an untimely end to the birds. The resolution of the film comes with the attempted departure of some main characters from Bodega Bay. The fact that the reason behind for the bird attacks is not resolved, and if the remaining major characters experience a satisfying end to the tension raised, are two points I will withhold. I will admit that I appreciate the manner in which the film comes to a conclusion. I rate The Birds at 3.75-stars on a scale of one-to-five stars.

Matt – Wednesday, May 1, 2019