As the detectives tell wrongly accused bass player Manny Balestero (Henry Fonda) (picked up for holding up an insurance office at gunpoint) that if he's innocent he has nothing to fear, you realize that once placed in the criminal justice system, he has everything to fear, especially the prospect of losing his wife and family who adore him. Unlike Marnie (Tippie Hedrin) or Marian Crane (Janet Leigh's part in Psycho), who actually did take the money, Fonda is so completely innocent that that aspect is what provides this film with its most compelling force. How could such a decent guy be thrown into such an impersonal and seemingly coldhearted system, as he's arrested, fingerprinted, jailed, transported in a paddy wagon with other felons to his arraignment, and a lot more, all done during a bleak looking New York winter in vintage 1950s black and white, set to a Bernard Hermann score that fits perfectly the mood. Not your typical Hitchcock film, but an excellent role for Henry Fonda.

If you've read any of the biographies about Alfred Hitchcock at all, you know of his fear of being locked up and his distrust of the police. This film is the perfect manifestation of those fears and, ironically, it's based on a true story. In fact, the movie opens with the director's shadowed figure speaking "what you are about to hear is absolutely true", or words to that effect, in lieu of his typical cameo.Based on the novel by Maxwell Anderson, this last effort by screenwriter Angus MacPhail, whose other feature length adaptation for the director was Spellbound (1945), tells the story of Manny Balestrero, a musician and family man who was incorrectly identified by witnesses as an armed robber.Sandwiched between his last two (of four) collaborations with James Stewart, Hitchcock uses Henry Fonda, for the first and only time, to tell this real-life noir drama. The film also marks the first of the two Hitchcock films with Vera Miles, who would go on to play Janet Leigh's concerned sister in Psycho (1960).Harold Stone and Charles Cooper play the police lieutenant and detective who, based on identifications from several women robbery victims, arrest and then process Balestrero (Fonda) through to jail - the film's most memorable scenes. Nehemiah Persoff plays Manny's brother-in-law, who comes up with the bail.The story then shifts somewhat to a focus on Manny's wife Rose (Miles), who begins to suffer a mental breakdown and she blames herself for what's happened to her husband. Anthony Quayle, who plays the inexperienced, yet competent defense council that the Balestreros hire, advises Manny to have his wife see a doctor (Werner Klemperer), and eventually she's institutionalized.A thirteen year old Tuesday Weld appears, uncredited in her first film, as a giggling girl that the Balestreros come across while trying to find witnesses for his defense.The subplot of Rose's collapse notwithstanding, the film is still pretty good even with its hokey ending, then again it's based on a true story.

A Kafkaesque narrative, based on a story that actually happened, starring the highly expressive and excellent Henry Fonda along with a very good, and particularly beautiful Vera Miles alongside him. The classic theme: a man wrongfully accused, his trial and tribulations, and the lingering question, seemingly forever - is he even really innocent at all ? What a man can lose when he is being convicted, often far more than just material loss. His perseverance in this personal battle against what seems to be the entire world. The glimmers of hope, the devastating news, and Fonda's character's world that seems to come apart bit by bit, something almost of a Job's parallel from the Bible.Very well made, constantly compelling and suspenseful in its own way. And an ending worthwhile.

Excellent (true) crime-drama.Based on a true story. In a case of mistaken identity, a musician is arrested for armed robbery. All the evidence is circumstantial but his prospects look grim. Pretty soon the trial starts to affect his family too...Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, a great story of injustice and its consequences. More a drama than a thriller, for once, as we see the affects on family life and relationships. More character depth, subtlety and human drama than most Hitchcock movies. However, Hitchcock still uses his skills as a master director of thrillers to create a great feeling of claustrophobia and helplessness. Henry Fonda puts in a solid performance in the lead role. However, he is miscast, being far too old for the character. Good support from Vera Miles and Anthony Quayle.Proof that fact is often stranger than fiction...